Went to a little drag racing event and car show on Friday, and saw some AWESOME trucks!! They even had a Diesel Truck class on the drag racing strip which was also fun to see. But it brought about a couple of questions:

1. First I got to thank the members here who talked me out of a BullyDog, I saw a 6.0 in the show with a Bullydog emblem on the side of the truck. I asked him about has he had problems, he immediately said "why did you have to come and ask me that?"....I explained to him some of the horror stories and advice I was given on here regarding BullyDog, then finally told me that as soon as he put it on he got some "problem codes" but for the most part its doing alright....interesting...

2. Either way, my question: I saw a few diesels riding around making smoke stacks like a big rig. I was wondering how do they do this, as my diesel and most others I see do not produce any smoke? Any ideas on how to do this? I got the exhaust, some smoke would complete the package, haha!

3. Also when the diesels were dragging, and they were "building the turbo up"...is that a process where you are in drive, and hitting the throttle while holding the brake? I figured this because hitting the throttle while in neutral doesn't do anything but increase RPMs....

Thanks,

Cheers,

 

I enjoy watching these big trucks flying down the track myself, let me shed some light on things for ya.

1.) The Bully Dog system will never outrun a equally built truck on the strip with a Factory tune in the BD, versing a truck with Custom tunes and a SCT tuner with the 6.0L. The Bully Dog doesn't tune the transmission, and doesn't adapt tuning with modifications and truck strategy.

2.) Stacks look good on some trucks, and crappy on others. You'll need to look into the noise laws in your area as well. The stack kits on the market are pretty straight forward to install. As for the smoke, the Cummins boys smoking out very intersection when the light goes green, is part of the reason the laws are getting stricter against diesel modifications. That smoke is unburt diesel fuel, wasted raw fuel as a result of over injecting the engine and not having enough air in the mix to burn clean.

I do not advocate smoke in a daily driver, it gives another excuse for the EPA and local laws to hammer diesel owners. On the track is another matter.

3.) Its called a boosted launch. The truck is in drive, and the T-case is in 4HI. You put the brake to the floor and slowly push the throttle till you build enough boost to launch clean. Most trucks this is 12-15psi of boost without alot of wheel hop and spin at launch. The truck leaves the line and remains in 4x4 the whole length of the track. As long as you don't turn with 4x4 engaged you won't break anything even with trap speeds around 100mph.

 

Most of the trucks you saw probably had larger injectors and all were probably tuned in some way. Tunes will give you smoke.
They were doing boosted launches, it is when you have the truck in gear and hold the brake while pushing the accelerator, it's a way to get around turbo lag.

 

i have a tuner, SCT with custom tunes by matt at gearhead perfprmance.
my truck smokes but only when i want it too. if i drive it nice and easy theres no smoke at all. if i take off with about half pedel then it starts smoking. some do the boosted launch lower than the 12-15psi stated above. i have tryed around 5psi and it gets around the lag as well as to keep a grip on the ground. i have not done this on the track just playing around on the empty stright roadsout here. i would like to go to the friday night drags and make a run or two one day just to see what my time would be.

 

I forget you are a resident Georgian. Yea Fri Night Drags down at Atlanta Motor Speedway was an awesome experience! Friday was my first time going, and it has a great turn out. I entered my car in the car show (my Cadillac not the truck) and we got to take about three laps around the track! You def should bring your truck out...you may take home a trophy!

 

Thanks for the info!! I had never planned on getting stacks, at least right now, as I like to have full use of my bed, I was trying to smoke it out through my current pipe. But it sounds like its a colossal waste of Diesel fuel...and with gas prices the way they are, I need every drop of fuel burned!

Since you mentioned it, all the trucks I saw out there were Cummins diesels, lol...they must be more prone to it?

I am going to try that boosted launch one day...

 

It's just easier with a p-pump cranked up to get that smoke.

The Powerstrokes burn pretty clean, untill you add injectors and a fuel pump.

 

yes sir. i just have not had the time to go yet. i cant ever manage to leave work on time in the afternoons and then i have 2 kids as well so finding a babysitter when the wifes working. one day i will make it out there.