10-4 Magazine - For Today's Trucker

April 2005 - Performance Zone

EFFICIENCY & SPEED
And Other Performance Tid-Bits, By Bruce C. Mallinson

I love speed. I could never get enough of it when I was younger! Now, most of the time when I’m going somewhere, I’m towing a trailer with motorcycles, snowmobiles or an RV. My tow vehicles are a T600 Kenworth or a Cummins-powered Dodge pickup, both of which have the fuel turned up in them. They also have turbo boost gauges, and I know that to obtain decent fuel mileage, I have to use around 10 psi of boost or less on level highways. On the rolling hills, I use a lot of power and a fair amount of speed, generally running a bit over the speed limit. In the big mountains, I use a moderate amount of power and usually run well under the speed limit. After all, if you’re pulling for eight miles up the side of a mountain, why abuse the engine for that long of a time period?

Now let’s talk about going across the flats, because that is where you get the chance to save some fuel. The other day I was speaking to a trucker named Jarrod as he was driving his Pete with a 550 Cat, pulling a bull rack across Iowa, heading west. The subject we were discussing was fuel mileage. At the time, Jarrod was driving 73 mph and using between 18 and 20 psi of turbo boost. I asked him to slow down to 65 mph and tell me his turbo boost, which he said dropped down to about 12 psi. Now think about this: it took 8 psi of boost to go 8 mph faster, which translates to an additional 157 horsepower to pull the bull rack at 73 mph versus 65 mph. So what I’m saying here, if you can leave an hour or two earlier to make your trip, relax and enjoy the ride and try to keep the turbo boost as low as possible on the level terrain. Save your power for the hills but make up for it on the flats and you just might get the fuel mileage you want. Now in Jarrod’s case, he overslept half of an hour and was running late for his delivery, so forget the fuel mileage for that trip. But consider this: do you think the bulls really cared about being on-time for their destination!

Did you ever think that a Cummins 5.9 B engine with 35,000 miles on it could run 7.98 seconds at 167 mph in the quarter mile? Well, it has, at the 40th annual NHRA World Finals in Pomona, California. The 24-valve 1999 used pickup truck engine was retrofitted with a Bosch P7100 mechanical pump, the same pump used on the 1994 through mid-1998 12-valve B engines in the Dodge. Also, a set of twin Holset turbochargers were installed which produce 80 psi of turbo boost to burn the Biodiesel fuel that has been treated with Lucas Fuel Conditioner. Nitrous Oxide injection is used to cool down the intake air temperature, along with water injection for additional cooling because there is no charge air cooler on this car. Now keep in mind that this fuel system has been highly modified because the engine produces 950 horsepower and 1,800 ft. lbs. of torque. Can you believe the automatic transmission in this dragster is a Chevrolet Powerglide modified by Clint at ATS Transmissions in Denver! The transmission fluid is Lucas Semi-Synthetic Automatic Transmission Racing Fluid. To obtain the top speed of 167 mph, a Gear Vendors Overdrive unit is mounted to the rear of the Powerglide unit. This transmission has a 13% loss due to slippage, so a Dodge 47RE Automatic with an ATS TripleLok Torque Converter is being built to propel this dragster into the 6-second bracket. The strength of the Cummins engine is evident in the fact that not only is this a used engine, but the original pistons, camshaft, rod and main bearings are still being used. There have been over 200 quarter-mile runs at 2,400 degrees exhaust temperature, and no burned pistons. That’s pretty impressive!

This dragster is engineered, built, and tuned by Scott Bentz and his son Dustin, who is 23 years old and has been racing junior dragsters since he was twelve. He is currently a student at the University of Northern Colorado. Les Culliton makes up the rest of the crew on this unique vehicle. Scott Bentz is the Vice President of On-Highway Engine, Business and Emissions Solutions for Rocky Mountain Cummins located in Henderson, Colorado, which is a suburb of Denver. I consider Scott to be the sharpest employee of any Cummins Distributorship in the entire USA. If you are unhappy with your ISX Cummins engine, give Scott a call at 303-927-2233, discuss your problems, set up an appointment and take your truck to Denver, Colorado. You’ll be glad you did.

The next time you’re in the market for a pickup truck, think about the strength of the B Series Cummins. The dragster proves that this engine is strong and capable. I recommend that you buy yourself a Dodge and install some performance parts from Diesel Injection of Pittsburgh. You’ll have a new mistress with an engine that roars (that won’t get you in too much trouble with the wife)!

Diesel Injection of Pittsburgh now has the straight-through muffler and pipe system available for the W900-L Kenworth and International trucks. The system will give you an additional .25 mpg, which will save 1,000 gallons of fuel every 100,000 miles. Not bad. You’ll also love the deep, mellow sound that the system provides. For more details, call Diesel Injection of Pittsburgh in Cheswick, PA at (724) 274-4080 or visit www.dieselinjection.net today.