Diesel of the Week is presented by
We recently attended the 2020 King of the Street Challenge held in West Salem, OH at Dragway 42. The competition, promoted by Smoke & Speed, was the third annual running of the diesel challenge, which pits diesel trucks up against one another in five different performance events – drag racing, dirt drags, sled pulling, a dyno competition, and a 100-mile street drive.
Ohio offered up a perfect weekend for the 2020 King of the Street (KOS) and we got an invite to attend the high-horsepower excitement. That’s where we met Chris Patterson, owner of Unrivaled Diesel in Weatherford, TX. Chris and his team were new to the KOS Challenge this year, but they were none-the-less eager and excited to see how their truck, a 2007 Dodge Ram 3500, could do.
Unrivaled Diesel specializes in Cummins work for everything from high-performance street builds and competition builds to regular maintenance and repair. The shop does its own engines, transmissions, turbos and fabrication work. Patterson says they can do it all, with the exception of tuning and cage work.
Chris’ 2007 Dodge Ram 3500 was originally a 5.9L Laramie, which Patterson jokes was pretty nice until he got it.
“We put a 6.7L in it, Flux Diesel 330% comp hybrid injectors, two 14mm Exergy race pumps, triple 472 turbos, a couple kits of nitrous, and we came out here to King of the Street hoping to do 2,100-2,200 horsepower, run some low 6-second passes, pull 300-some feet, and dominate,” Patterson told us.
While this 6.7L Cummins engine had a bunch of goodies on the outside helping it make tons of power, the build started with a stock 6.7L Cummins block, but that was about all that was stock on it.
“We used Apex triple-beam billet rods, wide-bowl pistons, a ported cylinder head done by us with a Banks Big Hoss side draft, 14mm head studs, a girdle, a Hamilton 188/220 camshaft, and full Manton valvetrain with roller rockers and everything,” Patterson says.
There’s no doubt this 6.7L Cummins was built for big performance, but the key to Unrivaled Diesel’s set up was the engine’s triple turbos.
“They’re definitely small and they spool up quick,” he says. “We have a wastegate and we’ve tuned a lot with that and we’ve really made it to our advantage. I feel a lot of guys aren’t properly utilizing them. This set up is sweet, small and spools up quick. It’s hard on engine parts, but it’s been working pretty good for us.”
Whether competitor’s engines are running well entering the challenge is one thing, but they have to make it through five competitions that make up the KOS Challenge in order to earn points and a chance at the prize money.
“It’s a 100-mile street cruise, 1/8th-mile drag race, a dyno horsepower-only competition, a dirt drag, and a sled pull,” he says. “I’m obviously a dually. I’m probably the heaviest here. I’ll probably be one of the top three in horsepower, so I feel like my advantage is going to be dirt drag with the weight and six tires, as well as the sled pull with the weight and six tires.
“I’m not going to be on the top edge of the drag race, but I’ll be up there, and hopefully I’ll be one of the top two or three in horsepower and the street cruise should be easy, because we street drive this thing all the time.”
When the dust settled on the 2020 KOS Challenge, unfortunately, things didn’t go according to plan for Unrivaled Diesel. After running an impressive 6.38 in the 1/8mile to start the event in fourth place, the truck had issues after that. However, we know Chris and his team will look things over and be ready for more high-horsepower fun real soon.
Diesel of the Week is sponsored by AMSOIL. If you have an engine you would like to highlight in this series, please email Engine Builder magazine’s Editor, Greg Jones at [email protected].
