Diesel of the Week is presented by
Cummins is the name of the game throughout diesel motorsports, that’s fairly obvious when you look at any of the top competitors in the racing and pulling world. That isn’t to say that there aren’t any guys making waves with Duramax and Powerstroke powerplants. In fact, one of the most famous pulling trucks from the past decade-and-a-half isn’t Cummins based.
And it makes sure to make that apparent to onlookers too. Named “Cummins Killer,” the Super Stock GMC has continuously ascended the ranks of the diesel pulling world since 2008, thanks in part to a triple-turbo Wagler Competition Products DX460 Duramax engine.
The original Cummins Killer was born from the minds of owner Wes Kusilek and his father. Now, after retiring from pulling, Craig Dickey pilots the machine. Unlike many competitive builds, the Cummins Killer retains a factory body complete with panels, working headlights, and a factory hood. Underneath, the team turned to Performance Pros for the IFS tube chassis and tilt body setup.
A big truck needs big power, and Jeremy Wagler was brought into the project nearly a decade ago when Cummins Killer was still in its second rendition. Now in its third form, the truck boast Wagler’s powerful DX460 engine. The Duramax engine has a full aluminum block with a standard 3.900” stroke and 4.310” bore.
The DX460 features a COMP Cams camshaft with COMP roller cam lifters, a Winberg crankshaft, Ross Top Fuel pistons with a Wagler bowl design, S&S Diesel supplied the CP3s, injectors and the Bosch 15.1 ECU to support the fuel side of the engine. The 460 DX also has Victory valves, Pac springs, Cometic Gaskets, Trend wrist pins and push rods, and Manton roller bridges.
The team has since made the remarkable change from common rail to mechanical injection. Kusilek will tell you that they aren’t “mechanical guys,” but the Bosch ECU didn’t have the right current to support the current injector setup at the correct rate.
One of the newest changes to the truck is the turbo setup, which has continuously been altered over the years due to competitive rule changes and performance tweaking. The team removed the former 6-inch Pro Stock charger and replaced it with a triple-turbo arrangement. The three T6 chargers come from Wimer; two 4.5-inch inducers serve at the atmosphere and force compressed air into the 4.1-inch that resides beneath them.
Wimer also provided the 17mm injection pump that flows at 1,080 cc’s of fuel and the feeds eight John-Deere based injectors.
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]
