Face it, the Cummins-powered Dodge Ram is the king of hot rod diesel trucks. The Cummins engine has more performance parts available for it than any other diesel. The trucks are simple and easy to work on, and if you go to the dragstrip or sled pulls, the winner's circle is packed with these pickups.
So when Diesel Power wanted to build its own hot rod diesel truck, there was no question what we were going to start with or who we were going to enlist to help us. We teamed up with Kirk Manuel of Manuel Auto Group in Ft. Worth, Texas, to build the truck and Greg Hogue, driver of the world's quickest diesel pickup, to turn a 200,000-mile Dodge Ram 2500 Quad Cab into an 11-second drag truck that will get driven every day.The complete conversion took place in less than three weeks in a bay at Manuel Auto Group's service department. Working with Hogue, we spec'd out the components we'd need and had them shipped to Texas to be installed. Our initial testing (in the parking lot behind Manuel Auto Group's Lincoln dealership) told us we had a winner.
 It all starts with the engine....  It all starts with the engine. Greg Hogue's build of the '03 Cummins began with removing the cylinder head and swapping in a custom-ground Bullet camshaft. According to Hogue, his proprietary cam grind will "pulse" the healthy-sized turbocharger to help it build boost. |  The original Cummins cylinder...  The original Cummins cylinder head was reworked by RayMac Racing Engines. Over 20 hours of machine work goes into its Phase 2 Cummins head to increase the airflow. The integrated cast-iron intake manifold gets machined off so that the intake ports can be opened up. Extensive port work was also done on the exhaust side to improve the exhaust energy available to the turbocharger. |  RayMac drilled and tapped...  RayMac drilled and tapped the Cummins head to accept the ZZ Fabrications aluminum intake manifold with Nitrous Express spray bars. |
 No twins here. Feeding Project...  No twins here. Feeding Project X is an Industrial Injection Silver Bullet turbo mounted on an ATS Diesel exhaust manifold. With so much more air moving in and out of the engine, we also swapped in a set of Industrial Injection injectors and a CP3 injection pump to meet the new fuel demands. |  Knowing that Project X would...  Knowing that Project X would see just as many street miles as track miles, we wanted the biggest air filter we could find to protect our Silver Bullet turbo without choking it. On went an off-the-shelf aFe intake like the one we tested in the October issue of Diesel Power. To everyone's surprise, our engine made more power on the chassis dyno with the air filter on than with no filter at all. |  At the power levels we were...  At the power levels we were targeting, running the factory exhaust would have meant huge EGT numbers and restricted flow. For the least amount of restriction possible we went with a 5-inch aluminized mandrel-bent turbo-back exhaust from MBRP. |