Upward Spiral
As you might guess, Davis didn’t initially have his sights set on anything particular when he got the truck; he just wanted something he could count on. He says, “I just wanted to keep it reliable, nothing too crazy and street driveable. You see a lot of these trucks that have high horsepower but the driveability is crazy and they just smoke everywhere you go, and you can’t tow with them. When I originally got it, I didn’t plan on putting anything on it; I just wanted the tuner and for it to be reliable on the hottest setting.” With a laugh, he finishes, “It just kind of spiraled into something that I never planned on!”
“Spiral” might be putting it mildly. The centerpiece of everything is his triple-turbo setup, which features three Precision 6466 gen 2 ball bearing turbos (with a 316ss on the cold side and a 304ss on the hot side), all custom-made by Nick Kasten. “He tig-welded everything and put the whole kit together,” Davis says. “It’s all custom-fabricated and he just did a beautiful job with it.”
His rest of his setup is pretty extensive, as you can see in the various sidebars throughout the article. It’s a hell of a rig, and one he should absolutely be proud of. Davis says, “I’m pretty happy with the way it is now. The motor’s all built and the transmission is all built. It’s still got the 68RFE in there and I know a lot of people switch out to the 48 just because of reliability and the strength of it, but the 68 seems to be holding up pretty well.”
Believe it or not, this is actually the second triple-turbo setup he’s had on the truck. The first one was a pair of Aurora 3000s over the stock turbo; it created too much drive pressure and kept blowing the head gasket. He wanted to keep turning things up, though, so he did some retooling and ended up with the setup you see now.
Weekend Warrior
With as much work as he’s done to it, he’s kind of started to be more particular about when he drives it. “It’s mostly just a weekend driver now. I have an ‘07 that I’ve kind of built up that has 12-valve rods and a compound kit that I drive to and from work. The 2011 I just drive on the weekends and enjoy as my toy. It’s kind of my baby now. I just wanted to have it driveable and reliable. The driveablity was the biggest thing, to have it run 1,000hp and still have it drive like a stock truck. It doesn’t drive like a big single or a big twin, it just drives perfect, like a stock truck.”
Davis is quick to point out that he owes a lot to his friend Tyler Baker, who did most of the work on the truck at PRT Diesel in La Salle, CO. It’s a great truck and it makes insane power, so I’d say the two of them did something right. Next time you’re in Colorado, watch out for Davis and Black Betty. They just might blow your mind.