Work Truck Workout

Today, we'll show you one of the easiest ways to boost power in your work truck. It's plug and play power and we'll put our truck on the dyno

to prove it.

Then we'll visit Bobby Hamilton racing to show you the inner workings of a championship winning NASCAR truck racing team.

And we'll join the crew to find out what it takes to make quick pit stops. That's all today here on trucks.

Hey, welcome to the shop.

Well, hot rodding or enhancing the performance of one's vehicle has gone through a lot of changes over the last couple of decades. It used to be that with a basic set of tools and a solid understanding of the basic vehicle systems where you could tune in your driveway. But today with modern electronically controlled vehicles, well, it's just not that simple anymore, but that's not bad news. And the upside of vehicles becoming more sophisticated is that the after market has become equally if not more sophisticated.

And the engineers tapping into and improving the OEM systems are working real hard for you and me to squeeze as much power and economy out of these trucks as possible. And that's what we're gonna do today with this 2007 dodge.

Now, this isn't some chromed out show truck that's never seen an honest day's work. This thing's got about 10,000 miles on it. Just about bone stock.

No fancy wheels or tires, no new intake or exhaust. It's just a truck. Not a very clean one either,

but it does have the new 6.7 L cummins turbo diesel and what you see is what you get a real world work truck

now, a huge gratuitous burnout with lots of billowing tire smoke. Well, that's big fun. We can all admit to that, but all it really proves is that we lost traction at the rear axle, but the ability to custom

your vehicle for things like performance, towing and fuel economy as well as change, that custom tune as your driving needs change. Well, that can save you money.

We're not just talking about the cost of fuel here, a device that can monitor things like egts, exhaust gas, temperatures, engine and tranny temps and give you a warning when those systems are in a danger zone. Well, that can save you the cost of a transmission

and in something like this, we're not just talking about a couple 100 bucks anymore. So today we're installing edge products, juice module in combination with their attitude monitor so we can see what's happening inside the transmission engine and instead of a road test where we get to go out and ruin a set of rear tires. We're gonna take this big dodge over to Mike and Joe's shop. So you guys can see on the dyno reading what's happening to horsepower and torque because the proof's in the pudding

and the dyno does not lie.

Now, the control module mounts right here on top of the fuse box with Velcro, but don't lock it down just yet. Wait till all your harness connections are made.

And that's gonna start with these injector connectors right here on the side of the block.

The juice module gets plugged in between the factory harness and the injector connections.

This allows the module to intercept vehicle information and reinterpret it depending on what you preset on the attitude controller.

All right, with our injector connections made, we'll route the rest of the harness here in front of the master cylinder,

make our map sensor connection and get the chassis ground right here on the fender.

Now, you can put the attitude monitor just about anywhere you want to. We're gonna route our cable up here behind this access panel. Make it nice and neat. Put our monitor right about there.

Just remember not to stretch the cable while you're routing it and give yourself a little slack at the top.

Now, one of the cool things about the juice with attitude combination is the turbo timer which hooks in here at your ignition circuit. Now, what this does is it keeps your truck running while the turbo cools down, even when you have the key shut off. And this eliminates oil cooking in the turbo. So the next time you start it up, you've got good oil in there and it's going to prolong the life of your turbo.

Once you plug the datalink cable into the OBD two port, you are ready to go.

The turbo timer, datalink and attitude cables are fed through one of the factory grommets in the firewall. So they can be connected to the edge hardware under the hood.

The edge strongly recommends that you install EGT and boost gauges with the juice module. But with the juice and attitude combination, you get both of those gauges along with the ability to monitor other things like air intake, tamp, trans tamp throttle position, et cetera.

But they also provide you with this thermo

coupler that mounts in the exhaust manifold to give you accurate egt readings.

The correct EGT or exhaust gas temperature is crucial to the life of your diesel. Think of your diesel engine like a goldfish, the more you feed it, the more it'll eat. So you can keep throwing air and fuel at it until it pops. But with this system, you can preset your optimum egt and the module will take care of refueling if your temps get too high. So you never have to worry about

it. Once your

petter is drilled, tapped and connected, connect the wiring sensors to the monitor and secure the harness away from anything moving or hot.

The supplied heat shrink tubing will keep short circuits from occurring.

You've got to tap into the fuse panel for the module's power.

So we're going to use this spare 15 amp fuse down here in the box.

He's a fused tapper

slide. Our fuse back in

the power wire gets connected

right to the corner

and we are powered up ready to go.

Now with the harnesses run,

you can use the Velcro that comes with the kit to fasten the module to the fuse panel lid.

Well, that's about all there is to it. Now, give everything a quick once over, make sure your connections are tight and everything's routed properly. Then you're ready to rock.

Yeah, ready for the

dyno

up next. We'll find out just how much more power we can make by going next door to horsepower's

dyno.

And later

we'll join in on pit crew practice at Bobby Hamilton racing. Stay tuned.

We're gonna pick it up.

Damn

screwed up already.

Hey, welcome back to trucks. We're over here in the horsepower shop where Mike Galley is gonna give us a hand, finding out what kind of numbers this big diesel will put down and what kind of gains we'll get when we fire up our edge products, juice with attitude combination. But first we gotta get a baseline

with the truck up to temperature. We set the attitude to zero or stock power levels just to see what kind of power this truck is capable of from the factory?

Oh,

all right. What's up starting point?

Power is 297 torque is 530.

Go.

How bad

the modern setting. A level one is designed for the best fuel of time

and edge claims an increase in fuel efficiency. But that doesn't mean you're sacrificing power.

Would the mileage setting give us

3 21 5 92.

It's good.

The towing or second level is probably what we'd use this for most low end torque has improved as well as firmer shifts and gear selection program for hauling a heavy trailer.

Why would level two give us

level two towing 327 on power 616 on Ford Jessi. That was, that was 592 wasn't it?

Yeah, cool.

Good job

in the driving level. The cummins turbo really starts to wake up.

That was level three. The drive setting what they give us

driving would be fun. 3 48 6 41 J

still moving up

quick.

The race setting gets us up in muscle truck territory at the rear wheels. But keep in mind that this is a 6000 pound truck. So don't go trying to bust any Vipers quite yet.

That was level four on the race setting.

This, they ready for the strip or what it would lay some rubber down on the strip. 364 horsepower, 665 ft pounds of horse. Jeez.

That's a lot of,

to hook a trailer to it and drag it down the strip and still get their quick.

Next is the extreme setting, which is really just for bragging rights, but you're still completely safe because you're in control of your engine parameters and the audible alerts will keep you out of trouble.

Wow. 3 76 702,

376 horsepower and 702 ft pounds of torque on the extreme setting.

And if that's not enough for you and you're willing to sign a liability waiver where you call edge with your unit serial number and they'll give you a four digit code to unlock the hot setting and that will give you 100 extra horsepower and over 250 ft pounds of torque over stock.

Now, for our

dyno Jet to give us horsepower and torque readings, it's got to have an accurate tax signal and on a gas engine. Well, it's easy enough. You can pick up the tax signal from a spark plug wire on a diesel engine without spark plugs. Well, it's not so easy. So dyno Jet offers an optical trigger kit that uses a piece of reflective tape mounted on the harmonic bouncer and this optical sensor to measure crankshaft revolutions. That way we can get accurate horsepower and torque figures as in a 702 ft pounds of torque

after the break. We'll visit Bobby Hamilton racing.

Hey,

welcome back

when we told you we're gonna take you somewhere else where there's cool trucks. Well, how about two NASCAR Craftsman truck series Dodge Rams? Welcome to Bobby Hamilton racing.

The late Bobby Hamilton was a force to be reckoned with on and off the track even driving his way to a NASCAR Craftsman truck series championship in 2004

and to fans, his team and his competitors, his personality almost seemed larger than life. You know what, behind that big bear sense of himself. He was a kind hearted, very generous man.

Bobby Hamilton's hands on leadership approach was respected throughout NASCAR.

Sadly, he passed A

in January 2007, but B hr is continuing the dream in his honor. We're actually looking for um, sponsors right now. We're working on some things for a third team. We're gonna try to keep the operation going and try to grow it. Hey, we wanna be successful and grow as much as we can.

Laurie Hamilton was kind enough to give us access to their amazing facility and then turned us loose so we could give you an inside look at the inner workings of a NASCAR craftsman truck team.

If you've ever wanted to wear things like braided stainless line bill of aluminum and carbon fiber. Well, how they end up in the aftermarket and on our cars and trucks, what is all are indeed here at places like this.

They find out what works, test the heck out of it and then we get to put it on our trucks,

believe it or not, there's nothing broken here. This is how they set this thing up for race trim. In fact, this truck just came back from Saint Louis. Now you set your street truck up like this with this much positive camber, you're gonna shred a set of tires

and Trader

Good

B hr does everything in house except their engines which come from Arrington manufacturing in Martinsville, Virginia. And right now I'm sitting amongst about 8000 horse power and each of these engines cost just shy of 50,000 bucks each.

And I'm getting out of here. I'm scared I'm going to break something.

Each workstation is meticulous and it has to be to maintain the level of perfection that's demanded of these technicians.

That's just a nice looking piece. It's almost artwork.

Very nice.

I'd hate to see the street price on one of these bad boys.

There's as many as 15 trucks under repair or construction here at any given time and if it looks like these guys are busy. Well, you're right.

This was a brand new truck and on its first outing had a minor fender bender and got back into the wall. So these guys are thrashing, working hard, getting a new rear frame clip put on it so they can get it under paint and back to the track

when we come back. If you think pit stops look easy,

you're right. Actually doing them is another story. Stick around.

Hey, welcome back to trucks and Bobby Hamilton racing. These guys, it's all about details and this is something they do every single day. Pick through practice

if you've ever watched NASCAR, you know, that races can be won and lost in the pits. So daily drills and rehearsals are mandatory.

Yeah,

I was

starting with the grueling four tire hang

and the even rougher two minute lug nut drill.

30 seconds.

You know, you have to admire them because they've been working all day on trucks and they come out here and do this. So

you have to appreciate what they do.

Six

up, go by in a hurry on TV. And they almost make it look easy.

The two

of

you guys have

extended an invitation for me to find out how difficult this really is. So, let's find out.

Brian started out with some basic drills starting as a tire carrier.

Get you a tire.

H

you're gonna pick it up. Damn.

Screwed up already.

Not getting any later

with the index mark.

Yeah.

Break,

Jess.

It's a little cardio work out there

next. They handed in the impact wrench and screw him into the mix.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Come,

I blew it.

Another thing you gotta keep in mind is you gotta make sure this tire gets across the front of the

truck because

it rolled back across this way right here. And it,

that happens in the race. It puts the lap down

a

hands.

Now, that was hard enough with the truck standing still. But these things are coming in at 45 miles an hour. You got to change

tires on the

side.

These guys have a pit stop down to under 13 seconds. So it was time to see if Ryan made the grade.

Is that

ok?

A joke?

Well, he wasn't there for the first time. We could,

we could use him for another six weeks or so. We'll get him 10 days

di

they're the guys,

they make it look easy on TV. But trust me, it takes a lot of skill stamina and agility to get this job done right. There's no doubt about it. These guys, they're athletes.

Well, we made it back to the shop and check out what the guys from the team gave us. I'm sure we can find an appropriate place to put this in the shop.

Now, everybody's concerned over the rising cost of fuel. And I know you've seen the over the counter additives that can actually improve the quality of the fuel that you're burning. But what if you could get the benefit of an octane boost? The longevity of a fuel stabilizer and increased fuel economy permanently without pouring anything into your gas tank. Well, this is the Fitch fuel catalyst. The Fitch catalyst literally re refines the fuel in your tank as it runs through the canister, adding octane to gasoline and CT to diesel. And because of the increase in fuel efficiency, it creates a cleaner burn with less emissions.

The Fitch line of fuel catalyst for cars and trucks is available through summit racing and starts at about 100 and 20 bucks

a hot spark signal to your combustion chamber is more important than ever with today's finely tuned electronically controlled vehicles. Now, Denso claims the iridium spark plugs with their hotter flash points have shown gains as high as 20 horsepower with just a plug change. They feature a U groove design with an

a medium electrode that's six times harder than platinum

and with today's cab forward designs and ef I systems burying your plugs and wires. Well, a longer spark plug life means less spark plug changes. Denso iridium plugs start at about 10 bucks each and are available at most auto parts stores. Thanks for watching trucks. See you guys next week.