The Classic Diesel Designs' Race Truck

A few weeks back I purchased this factory diesel 1983 f250, with a 1988 7.3 na swapped in with a the factory t19.

I cleaned up the cherry apple paint

And pulled out the driveline as a builder to be used in the shop truck


I picked up a diesel C6 for use in this truck, I had a thread awhile back to see if the community would like to see a dedicated race setup or more of street/strip setup. Seems the race setup won the pole so I will be going that route. What I have in mind is to use the idit from the shop truck, bored 40 over for a 7.4L (452ci) displacement, solid block with no coolant passages, R&D cam, 3M injectors, custom 10mm Db2, NCC 1k water to air, CDD intake manifold, off the shelf s300 SXE, fed with meth and nitrous. Ive decided Im going to keep leafs in the rear just to get some more experience tuning a heavy leaf spring setup, so I'm likely just going to bolt a sterling 10.5 into place since I know it will handle the power. Ive got some old school hot rodding tricks I want to try and implement with this engine build, I think I can drop a good 1500 grams from the rotating assembly which would be making an extra 35 hp at 4000 rpms, but more on that once we get to the engine building.

Id like to hear some thoughts on trans options, Im really considering a simple combo with the c6, with a Broader Performance manual valve body & trans brake with a 2200 rpm stall converter. I know I would be losing a lot of power with this setup if I ever wanted to put the truck on a dyno, and without lockup I'm losing load on the engine which is going to pull less fuel from the pump, which fuel will be my limiting factor for this build, but I could build this trans setup for around $1000. Which leaves more funds to be spent other places, like the engine, safety and suspension.

The other option I'm considering is using an e40d that I already have and is built to the updated spec. I would need a triple disc converter $700-950, a USShift controller with the options I want $775 and a billet input shaft for $250. The benefit would be for $2000-2500 I would have a much stouter trans with lockup and overdrive. I would lose the transbrake option, but it sounds like they are working on that as a feature for the quick 4 pro update.

For the next few months, I plan to mostly be working on the chassis, stripping out the interior for a roll cage install, moving things around in the engine bay, building the turbo kit and seeing how much weight I can pull out of this chassis.

 

Hydro
Clutchless 5
Lenco
C-6 w clutchverter

 

I don't know, I really think that those "dedicated race trucks" with no coolant, which have to be towed everywhere... just doesn't seem right to me.
Seems like you ought to be able to at least drive your truck *to* the race, more or less...

 

Sure I agree there, but building something to be both street driven and race costs a lot more than building something just to race, and when making something purpose built, it’s designed to do one job really well. I put a poll up and this is what most people voted for over the street/strip setup so that’s where the project will go. I’ve got other projects that race and street drive all the time, and do a good job gapping modern diesels, this project will be in a different league.

 

Just finished up the first of our intakes this morning:

 

I can’t afford a lenco or a clutchless setup, as fun as those things are! The c6 would be just like how the hypermax drag truck was setup in the 90s which would add some cool factor...

 

Yea man....
in areas where you need licence,insurance,and registration....
building a trailer queen keeps the towpig happy and in the world of off road, lets you build stuff that gives d.o.t. Officer's nightmares...
That said both my rockcrawling yotas have plates so I can drive to the trailhead and thru (limitations of a trailer queen) a 9 sec. Car is a pita to drive, Just dont ask Larry Larson hot rod fastest streetcar in America..

 

Larry’s an animal, his new caddy is ridiculous. Jeff lutz is a great guy as well

 

So I voted for street/strip but the more I read about with this thread the more I like it...

How do you make the block solid? I didnt even know that was a thing!

 

Pretty sure it is a pour in compound that then solidifies. Popular with the 3.0 sled pullers


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Yep the morroso compounds are similar to a fine concrete. There’s also iron filling which fills the coolant passages with molten iron. Very popular in the old days with porting stock cylinder heads, even dealer supplied parts like “Direct Connection” for the mopars used this. Likely what I’ll do is concrete fill all the coolant passages in the block, and iron fill some of the coolant passages in the head, that way I will have more room to widen ports without running into coolant jackets.

 

You say that you'd lose a lot of power with a C6 (I'm assuming from trans slip), but wouldn't you still have some slip with the E4OD? Or would you be able to lock up the convertor completely and all but eliminate the slip? If not, I don't see much of an advantage to the E4OD. Do you really need the overdrive at 1/4 mile at a time? You won't have any coolant in it, so it's not like you could drive it very far to use the overdrive. The E4OD is a bigger, heavier transmission than the C6 is, and I know that one of the main goals is to lighten the vehicle as much as possible. I'm no drag race expert or even much of a fan, so I could be way off, but thought that I'd throw these out anyway. This is in the same category as what I told a friend about his 7.3PSD earlier today. I'm not really interested in PSDs anymore (I just prefer the IDIs), but I still like learning new things about them, even if I can only remember them for a couple of days before I forget about them.

 

Re: transmission.

You are on the right track with Jay at Broader Performance. He is THE C4/C6 expert and kinda local to boot. Give him a call and tell him your goals and he will give you the perfect recipe for your trans. He has all kinds of neat tricks to minimize HP loss, and extend longevity. Very cool dude to talk to over the phone, and even cooler in person.

He has my rock crawler C4 right now to work his magic on, and I have to run up and pick it up at some point. Can drop off your core if you need it.


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Thanks Matt, I’ll be giving him a call. I spoke with “T-Bucket Tom” a local bbf guru in San Antonio spoke highly of them, even cooler they are a Texas business.

 

He has my rock crawler C4 right now to work his magic on, and I have to run up and pick it up at some point. Can drop off your core if you need it.


So can I ask how and why an automatitic crawls better than a manual???
Posed this question elsewhere and all I get is "I am a we3nie and cannot drive 3 pedals"
Or
"It doubles the tourque"

I run 23 odd gears with a clutch, and do not get the new "build it with an auto" trend so far.