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For as far back as he can remember, William Eaves has always been surrounded by cars. His dad owned an import shop in Arizona when William was just a young boy, and his dad was his inspiration, so the two were always close. William’s interest in diesels began when his dad bought a 6.0L Powerstroke in 2010.
“My father taught me how to do work on engines and to always do it right the first time,” Eaves says. “When my dad bought his Ford 6.0L, at the time, he worked for the Phillips 66 refinery as a mechanic. He didn’t want to come home and turn wrenches on his truck, so he would send it to local shops. We had no luck whatsoever.”
Mr. Eaves’ 6.0L would blow head gaskets just on a simple drive home, and other times it might last up to a month. They were often told by these shops that they were exceeding the power limits of the 6.0L engine.
“At the time, he only had a few things done, which had him around 450 whp,” William says. “After about the sixth time blowing head gaskets from three different shops, we decided to do it ourselves. Once we took it apart, we began to notice old gasket material on the block and heads, so It was no wonder they weren’t sealing. Once we got it running again and made a few more upgrades, the 6.0L made 935 whp and had zero head gasket issues.”
That time wrenching with his dad turned William into a diesel fanatic, and in 2016, William bought his own 2006 Ford F250 and naturally started to do upgrades.
“By October 2018 at Truck Mania in Sacramento, CA, my father and I both put down over 900 whp,” he says. “We were on stock internals, but we got a lot of attention that day from other Ford owners about our builds, including Diesel World Magazine (June edition 2019).
“After the Truck Mania event, many people reached out to us on social media wanting us to work on their trucks. They were reaching out to us because they were having the same issue as we were with other shops doing the work incorrectly.”
What started as a few side jobs here and there quickly turned into enough work to open a father and son shop. By 2020, they had an abundance of work and decided to move from their garage to a legitimate shop space in Oakley, CA.
“Our new place is called Boosted Built,” Eaves says. “We have about 7,000 sq.-ft. with four bays. We are able to do work like welding and fabricating, maintenance and repair, engine building, turbos, injectors, and we offer a variety of horsepower packages and custom tuning. We even offer powder coating by our neighbors at Severed Metal.
“Currently we have three people working in the shop and we’re looking for another mechanic to follow our lead.”
As the shop has continued to grow and see success, so too has William’s 6.0L Powerstroke build. His current engine set up is a stock 6.0L block with standard bore size. Inside, the engine features de-lipped Mahle pistons, Wagler rods, ARP main bolts and ARP 625 head bolts, a Stage 2 DDPM camshaft, cast iron cylinder heads with O-rings from UCF, high rev valve springs by UCF, Fel-Pro head gaskets, and Warren Diesel injectors.
The 6.0L also has a dual high-pressure pump and mechanical IPR bypass, which drives the oil pressure to 5,000 psi. Helping the 6.0L make its horsepower are compound Bullseye turbos – a 76mm paired with an 85mm – from SoCal Billet, as well as two stages of nitrous, which add about 300 hp to the mix. The engine also has a Mishimoto intercooler and the fuel system is a 240 gph set up from FASS Fuel.
Keeping everything happy is an upgraded transmission, a 2600 stall convertor from Precision, axles built by River City Differential in Sacramento, Detroit lockers, and a newly configured brake system to fit race wheels and slicks.
“Innovative Machining Solutions set us up with a six-piston Wilwood caliper and cross drilled rotors,” Eaves says. “Front suspension is 4,600-lb. factory Ford springs lowering the truck 2˝. Rear suspension has reduced leaf springs with Reaper traction bars and QA1 coilovers. I’m running Mickey Thompson slicks 33×10.5×16 on Redline wheels. This new set up is just weeks old and I’m expecting north of 1,400 horsepower.”
With a 6.0L Powerstroke build like that, it wouldn’t surprise us if Boosted Built gets more attention, and business, from competing in future events!
Diesel of the Week is sponsored by AMSOIL. If you have an engine you’d like to highlight in this series, please email Engine Builder Editor Greg Jones at [email protected]
