I'm finally getting to do the body swap I have been planning for many years. I picked up the body 4+ years ago and just haven't had the time or place to do it, but I started the conversion last week.
I know the purists will be rolling over in the graves at what I'm doing, but oh well.
The truck I race started out as a 96 2500 Quad Cab long bed 5 years ago, we shortened it to a Regular cab/short bed by cutting 1 1/2 feet out of the bed part of the frame and another 1 1/2 feet out of the cab area.
The engine is a 12 valve cummins, it was the original engine in the truck with 350k miles on it and was missing the injection pump. I bought the truck for 750.00 and then spend another 500.00 on a 215hp injection pump. The first season, we did the swap to the cab and bed, added injectors, valve springs, lockers to the front diff and a Lincoln locker to the rear dif. We also dropped in a variable geometry turbo and a rear stack. I ran the first race of the season, and the first class I raced in I placed 4th, the second class I raced in, we had problems. I bent a rod, melted a piston and blew the head gasket on 4 of 6 cylinders, basically ending my season for the year at the first race.
Anyway, I went all out, with the help of PureDieselPower up in Wisconsin, and built of a 700+hp/1400ft/lbs of torque fire breather. I switched to a race built th400 transmission, bigger turbo, lightened the truck up some more and raced the next season. Finished 2nd overall in my class.
The next year, added more go fast parts, lightened the truck some more, switched to a water to air intercooler and moved stuff from the engine compartment to the rear of the truck and added good shocks and caltraks. Finished season 2nd in Class 2 and 1st in Class 3
Last year, I made some minor changes to the truck, changed radiators to an aluminum radiator, bigger ice box for the intercooler. 2nd race of the season, my turbo went and caught my new carbon fiber stack on fire. I bought an even bigger turbo and went from a s366 based turbo to an s475 based turbo, switched back to my steel stack and dialed the truck in the rest of the season with the new turbo combo and finished 2nd in class 2 and 3rd in class 3.
We are in the offseason now and that Powerwagon body that's been sitting out by the fence has been calling my name to be put on the race truck.
So after the last race of the season, I pulled the truck into my new shop and started stripping it down to the frame.
I built body mounts for it over this last weekend for the cab and started figuring out the mountings for the front grill, I've got to pick up some more steel to build the mounting brackets for it. I've got a few parts to track down, like the firewall to grill rods (or I'll make my own), need to find floor pans/trans tunnel or build them, etc.... I have the bed frame as well, but the bottoms are rusted pretty good, so I've got to figure that out as well.
Here was the truck last season:
![](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7426/11183432074_eeb6925e38_b.jpg)
A video of my 2013 season I put together:
http://youtu.be/S3OW7XQmGuI
The work in progress
![](http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2808/11161811625_0e911a2782_b.jpg)
I know the purists will be rolling over in the graves at what I'm doing, but oh well.
The truck I race started out as a 96 2500 Quad Cab long bed 5 years ago, we shortened it to a Regular cab/short bed by cutting 1 1/2 feet out of the bed part of the frame and another 1 1/2 feet out of the cab area.
The engine is a 12 valve cummins, it was the original engine in the truck with 350k miles on it and was missing the injection pump. I bought the truck for 750.00 and then spend another 500.00 on a 215hp injection pump. The first season, we did the swap to the cab and bed, added injectors, valve springs, lockers to the front diff and a Lincoln locker to the rear dif. We also dropped in a variable geometry turbo and a rear stack. I ran the first race of the season, and the first class I raced in I placed 4th, the second class I raced in, we had problems. I bent a rod, melted a piston and blew the head gasket on 4 of 6 cylinders, basically ending my season for the year at the first race.
Anyway, I went all out, with the help of PureDieselPower up in Wisconsin, and built of a 700+hp/1400ft/lbs of torque fire breather. I switched to a race built th400 transmission, bigger turbo, lightened the truck up some more and raced the next season. Finished 2nd overall in my class.
The next year, added more go fast parts, lightened the truck some more, switched to a water to air intercooler and moved stuff from the engine compartment to the rear of the truck and added good shocks and caltraks. Finished season 2nd in Class 2 and 1st in Class 3
Last year, I made some minor changes to the truck, changed radiators to an aluminum radiator, bigger ice box for the intercooler. 2nd race of the season, my turbo went and caught my new carbon fiber stack on fire. I bought an even bigger turbo and went from a s366 based turbo to an s475 based turbo, switched back to my steel stack and dialed the truck in the rest of the season with the new turbo combo and finished 2nd in class 2 and 3rd in class 3.
We are in the offseason now and that Powerwagon body that's been sitting out by the fence has been calling my name to be put on the race truck.
So after the last race of the season, I pulled the truck into my new shop and started stripping it down to the frame.
I built body mounts for it over this last weekend for the cab and started figuring out the mountings for the front grill, I've got to pick up some more steel to build the mounting brackets for it. I've got a few parts to track down, like the firewall to grill rods (or I'll make my own), need to find floor pans/trans tunnel or build them, etc.... I have the bed frame as well, but the bottoms are rusted pretty good, so I've got to figure that out as well.
Here was the truck last season:
![](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7426/11183432074_eeb6925e38_b.jpg)
A video of my 2013 season I put together:
http://youtu.be/S3OW7XQmGuI
The work in progress
![](http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2808/11161811625_0e911a2782_b.jpg)
![](http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5474/11161870944_cdab950d29_b.jpg)
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