Breaking point: How much power can your diesel handle?

Me Again wrote:

Now for articles on how to make a tranny that can handle the additional power. Ford TorqueShift may have a leg up there. Alison 1000 needs a lot of help.

And I would note that this is the tow vehicle section, not the hot rod truck section. Anyone that wants to modify one of these newest gen trucks has a heck of a lot more money to throw around than I do.

There are people here, myself included, that do modify their tow vehicles. I have modified just about everyone of my tow vehicles from my old 94' 12 valve to my current 14' 6.7L, and it wasn't necessarily done for hot roding. It was done to make the vehicle customized to my preferences and a better all around tow vehicle. I had to up the power in my old 94' just so that I wouldn't loose speed going up some of the mountain roads when towing my 10k trailer. Since then, what I tow has increased in weight and mass so the power needed to tow to preferences has increased as well. Some are fine with towing 14k up an 8 mile mountain road only being able to do 40 mph, I am not one of them. To each their own.

For those that do not prefer to modify their vehicles (due to monetary or warranty reasons) then articles or threads like this are not for them and a simple click of the "back" button will get them out of wasting anymore of their (and other people's) time.

I have seen many many cummins engine with 1,200hp and 0ver 2,000lb ft with stock bottom end.

Transmission is typically the first thing to go on a tuned diesel. Motors themselves are fairly de-tuned in factory form and can handle a lot more.

Good articles. Thanks for the link. Efi live for the win! The reason there isn't a Cummins article is they can't find the breaking point. Too strong.

ShinerBock wrote:
Although most diesel owners on this site are of the mindset that any added power will damage an engine and they will probably never push their engine to these power levels, there might be a few here that will. Here are some pretty interesting articles on just how much the stock internals of each generation of the different brands can handle along with their weak points. If anything, they are good read when sitting in the out house.

Note that the article on the Cummins isn't out yet and I will post it when it is available. Also note that good custom tuning with tools like EFI Live can make a huge difference on how much an engine can handle versus "canned" tuners like Bully Dog and Edge . Getting the fuel map settings and cylinder pressures right from a reputable tuner can allow a 500+ rwhp diesel last for hundreds of thousands of miles.

BREAKING POINT: HOW MUCH HP CAN YOUR POWER STROKE’S STOCK HARDWARE HANDLE?

BREAKING POINT: HOW MUCH CAN YOUR DURAMAX HANDLE?

Now for articles on how to make a tranny that can handle the additional power. Ford TorqueShift may have a leg up there. Alison 1000 needs a lot of help.

And I would note that this is the tow vehicle section, not the hot rod truck section. Anyone that wants to modify one of these newest gen trucks has a heck of a lot more money to throw around than I do.