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Powerstroke is the name of the game for Tyler Brancifort, a diesel enthusiast and business owner out of Middletown, CT. Ever since he bought his first 6.0L at 16-years-old, he’s been hooked.
Fourteen years later, Brancifort now owns North Coast Diesel Performance, a one-man operation that mainly sells performance parts and performs installations. Brancifort also doses exhaust tuning and other services. He still works primarily on Powerstrokes, as he says that’s his main demographic in the area.
His work on the platform shows, as he’s been pushing the envelope for years over the course of his racing career. In 2019, Brancifort’s 2011 F-350 made 1,242rwhp utilizing a single-turbo 6.7L setup — which is pretty impressive for a 8,300-lb. truck. He also currently owns an F-450, which was one of the first 2020+ model year trucks to have compound turbos installed on it.
“I haven’t dyno’d it yet because it has probably the worst setup for dynoing,” Brancifort says. “But it’s got an S475 over the stock valley charger and it makes good power, I’m pretty much just using it for towing.”
For racing, Brancifort uses his 2006 F-350, an interesting 6.0L in a sea of 7.3Ls.
“There’s not much benefit in using a 6.0L when everyone’s going common rail now,” he says. “And not everyone knows how to fix the issues these engines have like bad head gaskets, but when you get down to it, they are nice little engines that can make some decent power if you spend time on it.”
The engine has a stock block and crank, a Stage 2 RCD camshaft, coated. fly cut and de-lipped RCD pistons, and a set of original RCD 6.0L rods. The titanium valve springs are also from RCD. The heads were ported and o-ringed by Center Auto Machine and the set of pushrods were from Smith Brothers.
“It’s got 395/400 RCD hybrid injectors and an RCD Stage 1 bumper high-pressure oil pump in the rear with my NCD slash elite dual pump on a belt up front that runs an ’03 aluminum style pump,” he says. “It also has a Maryland Performance Diesel remote oil cooler in it.”
As for the air, Brancifort has a Borgwarner S475 in the valley and an S591 T6 atmospheric turbo, along with a Nitrous Express nitrous kit.
Last year, the truck made 1,380 horsepower on the dyno. On fuel, it pumps out around 1,050 horsepower, with another 300 hp or so when sprayed with nitrous. Brancifort’s best pass in the truck was 10.82 at 132 mph in the quarter mile, and that time is expected to drop since the truck has lost some weight.
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].
