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This past weekend I drove up 7 hours to Total Performance Diesel's dyno day in Santa Rosa, CA, while Jeremy Torgersen drove down from the tip of California so we could settle once in for all who had the baddest VE truck on the planet on the same dyno, on the same day.
While there was a whole event going on, in both of our minds we were only competing against each other. Nobody had sprayed down a VE truck before with a bunch of nitrous before I hit 854rwhp a couple months ago. Heck, 599rwhp seems like it just happened to me, and it's ridiculous that I'm now at almost 300hp more than that with just a change to enormous injectors. Jeremy came to the shootout packing more nitrous than ever, as his little purge solenoid kit was replaced with an NX Diesel kit. He still didn't have a wastegate on his HX40 turbo, so we were afraid that would pop with the extra nitrous, and I was especially afraid of blowing a head gasket or something else since I drove my truck up rather than trailer it. But hey, can't be scared if you're going to make power, right? I was first up on the dyno, and put down a respectable 487 on fuel, respectable to me considering I have no intercooler, and had the fuel screw backed off 2 full turns to my "daily driver" setting. After that I grabbed my nitrous bottle out of a 5 gallon bucket of hot water to keep the bottle pressure up (thanks Ken and Harvey!) I switched the boost line to open both wastegates, and threw down an incredible 972 rwhp! Dmitri, Jeremy, Ron Allen, and a bunch of other people ran over to congratulate me, and as I looked up it was smiles all around, as my wastegate flame was a popular attraction. Drake (the owner of Total Diesel Performance) looked over and asked me if I wanted to try for 1,000, and after thinking about my 7 hour drive home for a second, I said nope, I'm good. Jeremy pulled up to the dyno expecting to hit maybe 800, as he thought his small compounds and lack of wastegates would be hurting him. His 644 hp number on fuel confirmed that twins (HX40 over BHT3B) and intercooling does indeed help, but when he made 868 rwhp on his first nitrous pull, it looked like I had it in the bag. A second pull with the water meth on netted a rattling 899 rwhp, and he was close enough where I was a little nervous. I still wanted to see him give it everything, so I convinced him to turn up the fuel another half turn. I expected over 900, but nope, the engine died when the nitrous and w/m came on at the same time. Then it did it again. They triggered the w/m later, and then Jeremy hit 890 rwhp, probably due to lower bottle pressure. After another 890 run, a final attempt (probably the 9th pull in a row) we heard some popping and white smoke, as the truck had blown a head gasket. Jeremy (aka STOMP) gave it all he had and broke his truck in the process of trying to beat me, and I couldn't have asked for a better competitor. We both had an absolute blast, and joked around before, after, and during our dyno runs. It's amazing what one can accomplish with a little friendly competition, as most people expected VE pumps to peter out at about 700 to the wheels. For now I'm on top, and it feels great, but the whole experience and shootout scenario between the two trucks was the most fun of all. I'd like to thank Jeremy for taking the time to drive down and enjoy a few drinks, and few laughs, and most of all make some big power with VE trucks! I'd also like to thank Brad Ponci for being our "board man" to block off the turbos in case either one of our trucks ran away on the dyno. I'd like to thank Drake at Total Performance Diesel for putting on a great dyno day and then giving back 95% of the profits. I'd also like to thank my truck for not breaking, and making the 7 hour drive back at 75mph and 22mpg.....And lastly, Long live the First Gens! Thanks to STOMP for the videos....
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