Power Driven Podcast

If you have ever cracked open an engine block and wondered whether you are missing something the shop guys never talk about, this episode is for you. Todd, Will, and Myer break down the real hands-on engine building process, step by step, using their Myers UCC build as the backdrop for a conversation that covers everything from the stuff you check before you turn a wrench to the stuff that will bite you if you skip it.

The episode kicks off with oil galley plug inspection, what the guys call the oil rail, oil rifle, or oil passage depending on who is talking, and why making sure every one of those plugs is seated before assembly is a non-negotiable. They get into cleaning procedures using an engine bore brush kit to pull out machining particles and metal flakes from the cylinder bores and oil passages before anything goes back together.
Bearing clearances get a solid breakdown here. The guys walk through main bearings and rod bearings on a Cummins engine, explain why the oil holes in the bearings do not line up the way you might expect, and talk through what proper clearance looks like for street builds versus high RPM race applications. They also hit a detail that trips up a lot of first-time builders: rod caps are matched to their specific rod during the machining process, and swapping caps between rods will cost you roundness and likely an engine.

Cylinder wall prep takes up a good chunk of the conversation too. The guys reference using the Total Seal ring break-in compound to verify cleanliness, where green means the wall is ready and brown means you are not done yet. From there the discussion moves into piston ring gap, how they set the second ring at or slightly larger than the top ring, ring orientation during installation, and their experience running Total Seal gapless second rings at higher horsepower levels where piston land strength starts to become a real concern.

The back half of the episode covers assembly lube, specifically the Joe Gibbs Driven line and other black assembly greases the guys have had good results with, where to apply it and where not to, and the proper way to lube a camshaft, lifters, and cam lobes before the engine goes together. The cylinder head side of the build runs long and gets pushed to next week, so consider this Part 1 of a two-part deep look at what it actually takes to build a diesel engine the right way.

Subscribe on YouTube to catch Part 2 the moment it drops, and if you are listening on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, follow the show so you never miss an episode.

Everything the guys talked about in this episode, rings, bearings, assembly products, all of it is the kind of stuff you can find at PowerDriven.com. If you are building an engine, start there.

Shop Power Driven Diesel: https://www.powerdriven.com
0:00 Intro and Mars UCC engine build overview
1:18 Oil galley plugs and why they cannot be overlooked
2:30 Cleaning oil passages and cylinder bores
4:13 Main bearing installation and oil hole alignment
5:03 Measuring journals and bearing clearances
7:07 Cylinder wall prep and final cleaning order
10:00 Total Seal break-in compound and cylinder wall verification
10:35 Measuring rod journals, main journals, and bearings
12:30 Bearing clearance specs for street vs race applications
13:24 Why race clearances and thick oil do not work on a street truck
18:33 Rod cap and rod matching on Cummins and aftermarket rods
29:52 Piston ring clearance and piston wall clearance
31:42 Ring gap setup and second ring sizing
33:34 Ring orientation during installation
40:37 Total Seal gapless second ring discussion and high HP concerns
42:06 Loctite, fasteners, and oil galley plug sealing
49:15 Assembly grease selection and application
52:25 Camshaft and lifter lubrication
53:45 Episode wrap and Part 2 preview

Pistons are one of those parts everybody installs but not everybody actually understands. Todd, Will, and Myer break down piston design from top to bottom, and if you have ever wondered why there are so many options or which one belongs in your build, this is the episode you need.

They start with piston bowl design and why it matters more than most guys think. Narrow bowl versus wide bowl, reentrant versus non-reentrant, and how each design affects the way fuel and air mix inside a diesel cylinder. Because diesels fire fuel directly into that bowl at the very end of the compression stroke, bowl geometry has a direct impact on combustion quality, smoke, and power output in a way gasoline engines never have to deal with. Swirl numbers get covered too, and why that circular mixing motion plays a bigger role in emissions and haze than it does in outright peak power.

The conversation moves through piston options platform by platform. Common rail, 24 valve, VP44, and 12 valve all get their own breakdown. The guys talk about why they almost always steer people toward a narrow bowl for over-the-road use, but also when a wide bowl makes sense, like sled pulling and nitrous-limited classes where you are chasing every last horsepower.

Cast versus forged is a big chunk of this episode and the guys do not sugarcoat it. Forged pistons are stronger and handle RPM abuse better, but the increased wall clearance required, the wear characteristics, and the oil ring differences make them a poor choice for anything that sees regular street miles. They even mention their factory 6.7 cast pistons surviving a truck that averages 2200 horsepower down the track, and what that says about how capable a properly built cast piston really is.

The 12 valve guys get their section too. Stock pistons, the early first gen wider bowl swap, and why the shop has largely moved away from recommending low compression pistons now that six seven blocks are the go-to platform for high-output Cummins builds.

Piston coatings and cylinder honing round out the episode. The guys cover their coating experiments on Myer's race truck, what coatings can and cannot protect against, and why proper piston wall clearance is still the thing that determines whether any of it survives.

Subscribe on YouTube and follow the Power Driven Podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you do not miss episodes like this one.

Everything from pistons to full build components for your diesel is available at PowerDriven.com. If anything from this episode sparks a build question, the team there can point you in the right direction.

Shop Power Driven Diesel: https://www.powerdriven.com

Myer's drag truck just ran a 4.99 in the eighth mile, and the engine making it happen is almost offensively simple. On this episode of the Power Driven Podcast, Todd, Will, and Myer break down what it took to get there and why the technology available to diesel builders right now is changing what is possible at every level of the sport.

The guys dig into what that number actually means in context, where the money goes in a build like this, and why high level diesel performance is more attainable today than it has ever been. The conversation covers everything from drivetrain decisions to turbo costs to cylinder head development, all through the lens of what it took to put a tow truck in the fours.

Pro Street diesel is growing fast and the boys make a strong case that now is the time to get in. Multiple trucks are running deep fives and dipping into the fours, the parts are better, and the price to compete has come way down compared to even a few years ago.

Everything the guys talk about in this episode is available at PowerDriven.com. Links below.
Shop Power Driven Diesel: https://www.powerdriven.com

Every diesel guy has been there. The truck feels great empty, pulls hard, and you love it right up until you hook a trailer to it. Todd, Will, and Myer dig into exactly why that happens and what you can actually do about it.

The conversation starts with a real story about building a 12 valve for power without thinking about what it would have to do. Big pump, big single turbo, five speed, and a trailer to tow. The result was exactly what you would expect from a setup built for the strip and not the highway. It towed, but it was miserable, and that experience sets up everything else in the episode.

From there the guys get into tuning strategy for trucks that need to work. Pedal mapping and throttle input are a bigger deal than most people think, especially when your transmission is mechanically activated and does not know your engine is making twice the power it was designed around. If your transmission thinks you are at light throttle while your engine is at full pull, you are going to have a bad time. Getting the tune and the transmission working together is step one.

Turbo selection comes up as one of the biggest places guys go wrong when building a tow truck. Oversized turbos that are great for making peak power numbers are often terrible for towing because they surge, they come on hard, and they kill drive manners under load. Compressor wheel clearances also factor into efficiency and reliability in ways most people do not think about. The right turbo for towing is not the biggest one you can bolt on.

Fuel system choices matter too. Massive injectors and multi-pump setups introduce complexity and reliability concerns that become a real problem when you are stranded on the side of the road a long way from home. For a dedicated tow truck, simple and reliable beats flashy every time. Carrying spare parts because you know your setup is likely to break is not a strategy.

Tires are another thing that can quietly kill your tow truck. Load ratings, tire size, and how they affect your effective gear ratio all play into how your truck behaves under a load. Going up in tire size without accounting for everything downstream can smoke a transmission and make towing miserable regardless of what else you have done to the truck.

The core takeaway is something the guys come back to repeatedly. You have to decide what your truck actually is before you build it. A dedicated tow truck and a street truck that occasionally tows are two completely different builds. You can have a modified truck that tows great, but the parts and strategy have to match the application.

If you are building a diesel and towing is part of the plan, this episode is worth your time. Subscribe on YouTube and follow the Power Driven Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.

Everything discussed in this episode is available at PowerDriven.com. If you are building a tow truck or a street truck that needs to work, the team can point you toward the right parts for your application.

Shop Power Driven Diesel: https://www.powerdriven.com

Todd poached a purse and the diesel community is not happy about it.

He showed up to a Blue Collar class drag race in Phoenix with a high mileage Cummins truck, a nitrous setup thrown together the night before from used shop parts, and no real plan to win. Then he won. Now there are posts. Now there are opinions. And now Todd, Will, and Myer are here to talk about it.

The truck was not purpose built for the class. It fit the rules close enough to enter and that was the whole strategy. A 62mm turbo, a 52 jet, and a flat foot launch that just happened to hook. No PDD resources, no race prep, no endless planning.

The guys break down the full story, get into the spirit vs. letter of the rules debate that followed, walk through exactly what was on the truck, and dig into whether nitrous should be banned from the class or just opened up to everyone with a standardized jet.