Breaking Some Eggs
Travis explains, “With the amount of fuel that we have the potential of, it’s hard to stay out of the throttle. We chewed up one turbo pretty quick because we pushed it past its limits. That was of our own doing!” So as a replacement, he installed a Fleece 472 turbo with a 72mm compressor wheel, 87mm turbine wheel, and a .90 housing. He made sure to get it with their coolant tank addition, which gives more clearance between the charger and the coolant reservoir. [Note: in the last issue, we mistakenly included pictures of the wrong turbo. That turbo is what’s currently on the truck, but at the time, it wasn’t properly set up to be installed on the truck. We regret the error.] He also put in some Exergy 250 percent over injectors, as well as a Fleece dual pump kit, which is a stock Cummins pump on bottom with a Fleece CP3K pump on top.
Because of the turbo swap, he had to remove the Pacbrake load leash and replace it with their inline exhaust brake, which should approximate the same result. Travis adds, “We also did a Pacbrake oil filter relocate which makes life way easier with the second-gen turbo kit.” One thing we didn’t get into very much detail on last time is the Banks intercooler and high-ram intake. Travis says, “It’s their Techni-cooler, which they just released. The specs are pretty crazy. The intake ram on most other people’s stuff has the number one injector line in the way, so everybody else forms around it. That restricts airflow by quite a bit. Banks, instead of doing that, made their intake horn how they wanted and they supply it with a new number one injector line to get it out of the way. It increased flow dramatically, and the injector line is OEM quality. It’s not some cheap junk injector line. It’s a nice kit.”
You can’t do heavy towing without a good lift pump, and Travis knew that AirDog would get the job done. As soon as AirDog came out with the 4G 200 GPH pump, he knew that was what he needed. “Looking at that design, with it being separated and with the fuel on demand, that pump gives you what you need versus returning everything you don’t. That made sense to me. They were no-questions-asked, awesome guys to deal with. We were super happy to deal with them and have used their product more and more in the shop and have had very good luck with them.”
To really put the finishing touches on the engine, Travis decided to go with a Freedom Racing stage 1 ported head. It’s fire ringed with larger intake and exhaust valve seats. In addition the freeze plugs, which commonly blow out, got pulled out, then drilled and tapped and fitted with pipe plugs. “They were super accommodating and helped us out, since we were kind of in a bind for the head. Most people are 6-8 weeks out on heads. John (at Freedom Racing) helped us out and pulled one out of production and hooked us up with it.”
For tires and wheels we went with Fuel. Travis is a Fuel dealer, so we went with their Mud Gripper AT 35x12.5x22 tires, which they just released, and D587 Flow 22x10 wheels with a -24 offset, which have a replaceable old-school center cap. “You can run it without a center cap and it doesn’t look goofy with that hub sticking out for the lockable hubs in the front,” Travis says. He decided to get the hubs powder-coated to match some of the Fleece components elsewhere on the truck. He needed it done locally (no easy feat for them in their location), so he went with DeWitt Machine and Fabrication in Sangerville, ME. Travis couldn’t have been happier with how it turned out. “We were on a tight deadline to get stuff in and done. They got it right in and got it done and it came out awesome.”
One big addition to the truck was the ring and pinion kit from Yukon Gear and Axle. Travis says, “I wanted to re-gear the truck because we’ll tow with it a lot and the truck came through with 342s. We had 35-inch tires on it, so it was pretty horrible towing with it. We got ring and pinions, front and rear, to go to 410s, plus they sent us a free-spin kit for the front end with a limited-slip differential for the front. Yukon, like everybody knows, is the crème de la crème as far as that goes. Everything is set up really nicely, no loud noises or howling, nothing like that. Everything went really smooth.”