Building A Reliable 12-Second Daily Driver

If you’re a true automotive enthusiast, you can’t leave anything stock for long. The same goes if you own a diesel. Once bitten by the diesel bug, it can lead to constant improvements and upgrades to your rig. Such is the case for Chris Stroud of Orlinda, Tennessee. He purchased his new fire red standard cab GMC Sierra 2500 HD back in 2006. The 34-year-old researched diesel trucks for a long while before zeroing in on the GMC Sierra. Coming from a full-size half-ton short-bed truck, he wanted something similar is size and functionality so he chose a standard cab long bed 2500 HD 4×4 with the potent LBZ Duramax engine and Allison automatic transmission.

After purchasing the truck, Stroud initially planned on simply installing an aftermarket exhaust system and a tuner to improve performance, but then he discovered the online forum dieselplace.com. He started reading and learning about diesel events like sled pulls, dyno days and drag racing, and decided he wanted to do more with his truck.

While still working with the modest budget of a construction crew leader, he went to work on his truck, building it up slowly while saving money on labor by performing the modifications himself. Like many other diesel enthusiasts, Stroud is building his dream truck himself one step at a time as funding allows, and enjoying the progress by driving, competing and racing the truck as much as he can in the process.

Stroud started out with a Bully Dog Power Pup tuner and MBRP 4-inch exhaust system to give the GMC some more oomph. To help the Allison transmission hold up to the extra power, he also installed a TransGo Jr. kit for more holding power. Wanting to be sure that the IFS would hold up to four-wheel-drive launches without self-destructing, he purchased and installed Cognito steering braces and Heim replacement tie-rods to strengthen and replace the factory weak links.

Then to change the truck’s stance, Stroud adjusted the torsion bar preload to raise the front of the truck about two inches and installed Sulastic lowering shackles to bring the rear down so that the truck sits a little nose high, just the way Stroud likes it. He clamped the rear overload springs to the main spring pack front and rear to help prevent axle wrap and also found that it helps his 60-foot times at the drag strip. To tame the ride, he installed Bilstein 5100-series shocks on all four corners. He also gave the truck some new rolling stock in the form of a set of Diamo 17K 20×10-inch wheels wrapped in Toyo Open Country M/T 33/12.50R20 tires on all four corners.

Since Stroud’s truck is not a dedicated track truck and sees regular street use often towing heavy loads, he installed a B&W Turnover gooseneck mount under the bed. For additional secure storage, he installed an aluminum diamond-plate John Deere storage box at the front of the bed that runs across the width of the bed and sits just below the bed rail in total height. To dress up the truck, he painted the door handle buckets and fender flares fire red to match the body and give the truck the look of the higher trim model. Then, to finish off the exterior, he tinted the rear and side windows with 5% tint and the windshield with 50%.

Inside, the truck sports the factory charcoal cloth interior with a split bench seat. To help keep an eye on the Duramax engine, Stroud installed a PPE gauge pod in the overhead mount with a pair of Auto Meter gauges to monitor boost pressure and exhaust gas temperature. He mounted a Directed Electronics Sirius satellite radio tuner next to the factory head unit to deliver uninterrupted tunes no matter where he drives.

Stroud enjoyed his truck like this for a while, but the bite from the diesel bug started itching him to upgrade more. He says that he tried nearly every tuner on the market before finally upgrading to EFILive tuning on the truck. In addition to the tuning upgrade, he upgraded hard parts on the engine as well, swapping out the stock fuel injector nozzles for a high-flow set of 45% over nozzles from Big Dipper as well as a Nictane filtration system to keep the injectors flowing freely.

Stroud also replaced the pinched driver-side exhaust manifold with a BD Diesel manifold and replaced the stock up-pipes with a set of Tow Flow up-pipes from ProFab Performance to maximize exhaust flow to the stock turbo charger. An MBRP downpipe channels the exhaust outlet from the turbo to the 4- inch straight-pipe MBRP exhaust system. Then, with help from his friend Duane Schultz, they installed a set of ARP head studs to keep the high pressures inside the engine and prevent the heads from lifting and blowing out the head gaskets.

The TransGo Jr. kit would not be enough to handle the improved Duramax output so Stroud turned his Allison over to the team at Walt’s Transmission in Bowling Green, Kentucky, to perform a performance rebuild. They used a Stage-4 Sun Coast transmission kit along with a Sun Coast 1057 triple-disc torque converter for plenty of power handling. To help keep the transmission cool by holding additional fluid, he opted to install a deep transmission pan. Since the transfer case simply hangs off the back of the transmission, Stroud installed the Sun Coast transfer case brace to help prevent case damage.

With the built transmission and beefed-up driveline in place, Stroud was able to wick-up the tune on the Duramax and went with custom EFILive tunes from Josh Harris at Top Notch Garage in Van, Texas. Stroud has dynoed his truck several times with it generally making between 480-510 horsepower and 980-1,000 lb/ft of torque, making it a real fun daily driver. On the drag strip, Stroud has driven the 6,600-pound GMC to mid 12-second passes on street tires at more than 100 mph with a best pass of 12.26 seconds running on drag radials.

If you happen to line up next to a bright red GMC on the track or on the street you better watch out, Stroud’s home-built “Red Rider” is a quick ride. And, like most diesel enthusiasts, he has more plans for the truck including a compound turbo setup and some custom detailing and powder coating under the hood as funds become available. UDBG

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