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Horsepower Vs. Heat

[fa icon="calendar'] Mar 27, 2020 10:00:00 AM / by Nick Priegnitz posted in diesel performance, Knowledge Base

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Balancing Performance, Heat, and Reliability

 

Hold a cigarette lighter up to your thumb for a split second, people around you will look in amazement at how your skin magically tolerates it.  Hold a lighter up to your thumb for 5 seconds and get the ice water ready.  During those 5 seconds you're quickly using up your thumb's heat buffer.  This parallels what's happening inside your engine when pulling up a grade at GVW or passing on the highway.  Your engine has well engineered heat transfer pathways to dissipate heat from the 'front lines' the same way the blood in your veins moves heat away from your skin in the cigarette lighter experiment.  In the performance world we're concerned with 2 elements of these pathways, the first is the amount of heat the system can hold and the second is how quickly the system can move heat from the source. 

 

"Your engine has well engineered heat transfer pathways to dissipate heat . . ." 

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The History Of 6.6L Duramax

[fa icon="calendar'] Jan 3, 2020 2:28:45 PM / by Justin Tyson posted in Duramax, diesel performance

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The Duramax engine has a history that runs deep.  It has the following still to this day and continues to up expectations in terms of power and everything else. While it's history stretches back to 1982, we are going discuss the more modern years. The 6.6L was introduced in 2001 and replaced the 6.5L and the company hasn't looked back since.

2001 - 2004.5 LB7


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The History of the 5.9L Cummins

[fa icon="calendar'] Dec 16, 2019 10:08:04 AM / by Justin Tyson posted in Cummins, diesel performance

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The 5.9L Cummins engine has been regarded as revolutionary and has a ton of fans that backed it in its heyday. It's history is even more impressive, we're going to talk about the engine's run from 1989-2007. 

1989 - 1993 

The Cummins engine had been successful in agriculture implements for a few years prior, so in 1989 Cummins and Chrysler introduced the 12 valve as an alternative the the V8 gas powered Dodge.  It was a hit immediately for those that wanted double the torque and a better option for fuel economy.  These diesel powered trucks were introduced stock with a 160 horsepower rating.  The truck was very simple.  Between 1989-1991 they offered a non-intercooled, turbocharged, and a three-speed automatic transmission, as well as a five-speed manual transmission option. Interestingly it had a rotary style mechanical injection pump.  These were the reason the truck was fuel efficient, but also why the truck lacked power. Another interesting point is how the original injectors were bigger than the next variation which arrived in '91.5.  The updated 12 valve now came with smaller injectors, a larger turbocharger, Cummins would introduce an intercooler to the truck, and the automatic transmission now came equipped with overdrive.  

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COST PER HORSEPOWER

[fa icon="calendar'] Apr 23, 2019 10:00:00 AM / by Paul Wilson posted in what are some upgrades I can go to my LML?, Duramax Turbo, diesel performance

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What is "Cost Per Horsepower"?

Cost Per Horsepower is a simple way to display and measure the cost-effectiveness of automotive performance upgrades.

In practice, this term is probably more often used to prove someone has wasted money on a specific upgrade or the purchase of an entire vehicle.  For the purpose of this article, we are going to assume the vehicle in question is either a Duramax, Cummins, or Power Stroke diesel truck.  

 

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