1995 Dodge Ram - Diesel Racing Disease

Bill Fletcher has officially been diagnosed with a case of diesel racing disease. It all started back in 2001 when he had problems with a silver, 24-valve, Cummins-powered Dodge Ram 2500. Shortly after he bought the truck, it began running roughly and lacked power, so Bill took it to a local mechanic who tore into the engine and claimed that many of the components were faulty. To make a long story short, Bill ended up getting stuck with a huge repair bill and couldn't tell for sure if he had been ripped off because he didn't understand half of the things the mechanic talked about. From that day forward, Bill made a pledge that he would learn to work on engines himself and never again trust others to do the work for him.

It's a full-frame, 3/4-ton truck, not a gas 1/2-ton with a diesel conversion. In race trim, the Dodge weighs 5,200 pounds.

Then He Bought The 12-Valve
With his silver Dodge back on the road again, Bill caught wind of the diesel performance craze and ended up buying some hot rod parts from PDR. With just a chip installed, he took the truck out to Pacific Raceways dragstrip in Seattle. After a few quarter-mile passes, Bill was hooked, but his extended-cab Dodge 4x4 just wasn't the ideal drag truck-it was too big, and the six-speed transmission was too hard to shift. Bill needed something a little smaller with an automatic transmission. After scouring the local classifieds, he found the ideal truck: a white, '95, regular-cab, two-wheel-drive, automatic-transmission truck with a 12-valve Cummins. The previous owner had babied it, and it came complete with all service receipts and the original dealer window sticker, which Bill proudly displays on the passenger-side window.

Bill had one goal while building his new Dodge: Create the fastest street-legal diesel truck in the country. The 12-valve Cummins was pulled out of the truck and rebuilt with upgraded components. When asked about specific internal modifications, Bill just smiles and says, "Custom." Unfortunately, most of the details of what has been done to this 5.9L are still a secret Bill keeps to himself. We were only able to get a few tidbits out of him about the enhanced oil-flow ports, lower compression pistons, extensive cooling modifications, and a custom camshaft. The majority of the engine was built by Bill and his son, Will, but they have admitted to consulting with and purchasing parts from PDR.

No pretty boy treatment here. The 12-valve engine undergoes an extensive preventive maintenance routine between races, so cosmetics are of little concern. Bill says, "We focus on what's inside the engine, not on the outside."

The rollcage installation required removing the door panels so the tubing could be fully welded. The clips holding the panels broke, and Bill has never gotten around to mounting them back on. The power windows and door locks are still fully functional.

Cool, clean air is pulled in through a filter extension that pokes through the passenger-side headlight. The highway patrol loves it when Bill drives the truck on the street with no headlight.

Building a 9-Second Cummins
The incredible thing about Bill's truck is that the engine bay looks pretty much stock except for the turbos. The intake manifold, intake elbow, and intercooler are all the original factory components. This is pretty remarkable considering the power output of the engine. The compound-turbo setup consists of a PDR G1 hybrid that sits on top of a larger Big Brother turbo. Exhaust gases are expelled through an MBRP single 5-inch stack that exits through the bed. An Industrial Injection Dragon Fly P7100 fuel pump feeds custom Industrial Injection injectors to provide gobs of fuel to match the boost coming from the twins.

When it comes to the transmission in this truck, Bill becomes a little emotional because it was built by Joe Webb, the "transmission god" from Suncoast, who recently passed away. "The transmission is the crucial link that allows us to transfer the power to the ground," Bill says.

The truck runs street-legal Mickey Thompson ET Street and ET Sportsman tires mounted on Centerline race wheels. Upgraded brake rotors from Applied Technology reside behind the wheels. To reduce weight, the original Dana 70 rear axle was converted to use semifloating bearing ends and was fitted with 35-spline Moser axles, 3.54:1 gears, and a Detroit Locker.

Bill is still very tightlipped about his Cummins power secrets. We suspect it's not just the parts; it's his attention to the pesky little details that make the difference. Our guess is that you'll find significant work to limit drag in the piston rings, bearings, and camshaft inside the 5.9L. We suspect the camshaft has more lift than stock because it sounds like Bill had to machine the tops of the pistons for valve clearance. That would also suggest the compression ratio is lower than stock.

For the truck to run quarter-mile times in the 9-second range, Bill had to make several modifications for it to remain drag-race legal. Some of the modifications included removing the interior and welding in a full rollcage, installing racing seats with harnesses, and installing a fuel shutoff and an emergency electrical shutoff switch in the bed.

The turbo package on this 12-valve has evolved over the years from a single turbo that put out 41 pounds to dual turbos that made around 60 psi. Bill's current setup pumps out approximately 100 psi.

Aerodynamics play a huge part at this level, so the truck was lowered with a set of Belltech spindles with tubular lower A-arms and reworked leaf springs on the rear. A fiberglass hood from Air Bulldog helps shave some weight while still maintaining the factory look that Bill wanted to keep.

The truck was originally going to use nitrous, but Bill abandoned it early on after his mentors talked him out of it. The original nitrous control panel now houses his line-lock controller, manual fuel shutoff, and secondary lift-pump switches.

This Truck Is Just The Beginning
As an employee of Boeing in Everett, Washington, Bill is careful not to let his hobby consume his life and keeps the racing for fun. During the race season, he spends most weekends at Pacific Raceways running the truck down the strip and having fun with fellow racers Rottin' Rhonda Kelly and Mark Harris. Not to say that Bill doesn't like winning-the truck's best time is 9.92 seconds at 139.8 mph in the quarter-mile-but he's had to be very careful with the speeds he runs because of NHRA licensing issues when driving a vehicle in the sub-10-second category.

Unbelievably, a 9-second truck isn't enough for Bill. It turns out it was just the beginning. When you're done digesting this 9-second street truck, check out Bill's drag-only diesel truck on page 94.