Dodge fans will love Jeremy Dierks' 1998.5 24-valve Cummins,
and Ford and Chevy guys will take notice, too. Dierks' truck is the epitome of
what a second-generation Dodge 4x4 should be. Big, loud, powerful and always
followed by black smoke.
Originally from Missouri,
Dierks relocated to the Indianapolis, Ind., area where he is currently stationed at Camp Atterbury
as a mechanic in the US Army. He has served in the military for over ten years
now, including five tours overseas.
After his last tour ended in 2008, Dierks purchased a Dodge Ram
2500 and this was something he'd been looking forward to for a long time.
"My dad is retired from Chrysler in the truck plant and
since 1990 he has owned Dodge diesels," says Dierks. "I just fell in love with
them and I wanted a truck to be my daily driver."
Working with Meyer Performance and creating a modified
performance beast wasn't part of his original plans, but after one problem
escalated into others he began to see his truck's true potential.
"I figured if I was going to upgrade that I needed to do it
right," says Dierks. "I heard from a friend of mine that Tyler had a shop and I knew he would take
good care of me."
Dierks hooked up with Tyler Meyer of Meyer Performance and
Fabrication at the end of 2009 and started researching Cummins performance
options for the early 24-valves.
His truck already had the Rancho 4-inch suspension and 2-inch
body lift combination and an Edge comp setup and he was running 33-inch tires
on 16.5-inch Weld wheels at the time.
"All the performance work, I honestly don't know much about,"
admits Dierks. "But Tyler
guided me in the right direction and it really paid off."
"When he came to me he was mostly interested in getting more
power and he wasn't aware of all the support that is available for diesel
performance," adds Meyer. "He thought, exhaust, intake and that's it."
Meyer and Dierks started out by installing a 4-inch MBRP
turbo-back exhaust with a 6-inch Aussie stack coming up through the front of
the bed. A 24-valve needs a reliable lift pump to feed the VP pump, so they
also added an AirDog 150 fuel preparator that not only pushed fuel to the VP
pump, but cleans up the fuel and pulls any air out of it.
"Adding the turbo made him the most happy," says Meyer. "It
was a huge gain in performance, the way it handled on the road, plus the way it
sounded."
Along with the AirDog 150, Meyer installed a set of 150hp injectors
from Dynomite Diesel Performance, bumping up the engine's power output
considerably. A set of Ultra Lite gauges from AutoMeter help monitor the heat
and boost levels.
"Jeremy was very excited about what I could offer him and
his truck," says Meyer. "He was used to gas performance so he didn't believe
all that could be done-like add a tuner, add a 100 horsepower-so he was really
receptive to my ideas and suggestions."
BD Diesel Performance is unique among its peers in that it
designs, manufactures and distributes a wide range of products specifically
engineered for performance diesel applications. On this Dodge, Dierks went with
the BD Super B Special turbo kit and the BD three-piece exhaust manifold. For
the intake he went with the K&N High Performance Air Intake Kit that is guaranteed
to add horsepower.
Other key upgrades include the South Bend Con FE clutch and HX40
down pipe, plus the truck now rides on 35xR.50R20 Super Swampers on Pro Comp
1059 20 by 10 wheels.
Age wasn't a challenge overall for Meyers, but it did cause
some maintenance issues.
"The biggest issues arose because of effect," says Meyers.
"We'd do one thing and then we'd decide to do other upgrades while we were
doing it."
Back in January the Industrial Injection Hot Rod VP44 was
installed after the injection pump died, which led to more upgrades.
"We added the .03 injector lines to increase the injector
size because the pump needs large lines to maximize the pump," explains Meyer.
The truck is still a work in progress, but Dierks is
extremely happy with the results so far and continues to dream despite having
the kind of truck that most would love to have as-is today.
"In the near future I'd like to upgrade to head studs, fuel
lines, open up the wategate, possibly add twin turbos and a double stack with
another programmer," says Dierks. "I wish I would have gone with a twin turbo
instead of a single turbo originally, but that's in the future plans."
Since the photo shoot, super heavy-duty traction bars,
custom with Cummins plate has been added. As planned, the truck continues to be
a daily driver for Dierks, it just now has more power as well as "the look"
that gets noticed on the highway. Every other weekend he heads from Indianapolis to St.
Louis, Mo., which is
over 300 miles one way and he boasts that he's getting around 21 miles per
gallon on the highway.
On each of the five tours overseas he served as mechanic and
recovery of heavy vehicles, 10 ton and above, so it's easy to see where his
drive for power comes from.
"Being a heavy mechanic, I love diesels," says Dierks. "I
love the raw power and what they can pull. Just the way they run and operate is
amazing."
Like most projects this Dodge will continue to get bigger
and better and never be considered officially complete at any time. Plans are
set to dyno the truck this summer, but the best estimates have this truck
coming in around 550 to 600hp. It kind of makes you wonder what Meyer Performance
and Dierks have in mind for the near future doesn't it?