A 600-HP VP44 Dodge

Building a hot rod diesel is often a very personal effort, and involves lots of thought and planning behind the modifications that are performed. This was very much the case for Jason Morgan when he started turning a beat-up 2001 Dodge 3500 dually into his dream truck.

The first thing to go was the dually bed. Jason found a regular Dodge bed that was even the same color, and swapped it over onto the truck. He also put the rear dually spacers on the front, to give the truck an even track width. The engine was also modified, with a Quadzilla Adrenaline, and its looks with 20×10 BMF Reapers on Nitto 420 tires.

Things soon got a lot more serious however, as these initial upgrades only led to Jason wanting to go faster with his Dodge. In almost every modification, he chose to take an aggressive route. It started with ARP head studs that were over-torqued to 160 ft-lb along with a .020-thicker marine-spec head gasket. The injectors that Jason chose were on the rather large size—6x18s—from Rocken Tech. Finally, a big 72mm turbo got the nod for providing the air for the VP-pumped 24-valve.

“In almost every modification, he chose to take an aggressive route.”

But, even the 72mm turbo wasn’t enough for Jason, and with either a Monster VP pump or 13mm P-pump in the truck’s future, he decided to go crazy with a set of mammoth compounds. Jason partnered up with David Farlow from Boostfab Fabrication in Durham, North Carolina, and a plan was hatched to create as much air as the Cummins would ever need. The S400 that was already on the truck was used as the small turbo, and a 95mm S500 was sourced to be the atmospheric turbo. David was the brainchild behind the new turbo setup, which included a 44mm TiAL wastegate directly off the manifold, numerous pie-cuts, expansion joints, and V-bands, as well as a 46mm TiAL wastegate to atmosphere between stages. So far, the truck has made an insane 95 psi of boost with all the gates shut, although Jason regulates it to about 75 psi on the street for longer turbo life, and less tire spin.

The Dodge’s mammoth turbo setup is the headliner, but the rest of the truck has also received its fair share of upgrades over the years. After taking out numerous carrier-bearing assemblies, Jason converted to a 4-inch one-piece driveshaft. He also upgraded the stout NV5600 transmission that was in the truck with a rebuild, and a South Bend 3250 dual-disc clutch. The front and rear axles retained their dually 4.11 gear ratios, as well as the factory limited-slips.

Although the truck hasn’t hit a dyno with the new turbo setup, Jason’s made 643 horse-power on the 72mm S400 as a single turbo. With the new compounds, Jason expects to be fuel-limited by the VP44 injection pump to about 650-700 rwhp, although he reports his exhaust gas temperatures are insanely cool, at around 1,300 to 1,400 degrees at full boost. For the future, Jason has plans to step up to a 13mm P-pump conversion that should push his ride to the 900-1,000 horse-power mark. Whether he sticks with the VP44, or does indeed go mechanical, one thing is for sure, 95 psi sounds awesome when he’s flying by other cars in his daily-driven dream truck. UDBG

“So far, the truck has made an insane 95 psi of boost.”

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