Popping the hood on Tim Barber's '04 Dodge reveals the twin turbos and twin CP3s that add up more than 900 rear wheel horsepower.
In the last year or so, third-gen Dodges ('03-'07) have really come on strong. We're starting to see more and more of them produce big power numbers, and also run speedily down the dragstrip. At the recent OBX Outlaw race that was cancelled due to rain, we ran into a couple unbelievably strong common rails. The owners were nice enough to share their combinations with us so that our readers can see what it takes to make some huge power numbers with a CP3-fueled Cummins.
750 Horsepower
Jess Spruill isn't very easy on engines. Between sled pulling, drag racing, some super high EGTs, and some scary timing, he is now on his fourth motor. This motor came with a burnt piston, so the first thing Spruill did was have it "gone through."
Jess Spruill uses twin Industrial Injection pumps mounted with an ATS kit to produce more than 700 horsepower.
The piston was replaced, and all the tolerances were increased over factory specs to give the engine more room to expand as it heats up. While they were in there, a Maxspool 2 camshaft was added, and the pistons were coated before they went back into the motor. The head was also lightly ported on the exhaust side, and given a five-angle valve job. The cylinder head was resurfaced, and the "thickest gasket we could find" was used for sealing. A set of ARP studs do the clamping, but no O-ringing or fire-ringing was performed.
Power-producing parts include a set of Stage 3 CP3 pumps from Industrial Injection and a set of "BFI" injectors. Airflow is handled by an ATS Aurora 5000 Turbo that spins up to 65 psi of boost and blows through a stock '06 intercooler.
Programming is handled by a Smarty TNT Race tune, which has some timing pulled out of it because (gulp) Spruill also plans on injecting nitrous sometime in the near future. While the truck hasn't been on a dyno as of yet, 750 horsepower is approximately what it takes to propel a Dodge Ram like this into the 11-second range on the dragstrip. In fact, Spruill would not tell us how fast his little blue sleeper was, but he hinted that high 11s was being conservative.