6.3L Stroker 6.0 Powerstroke: The Ultimate Tow Build?

Anthony, how's it going? Welcome back to the DC podcast.

Doing good. How about you, Patrick? Happy to be here.

Yeah, I'm getting ready for springtime and know the like race

season kind of starts here, you know, soon. I think people, you

know, they're gonna be getting their trucks ready for summer and

towing and trips and things like that. And kind of, you know,

the project's got put on hold during the winter and the holiday.

So it's a really cool time when you're a diesel enthusiast and

really pay attention to the industry to see what's rolling

around this time of year.

Yes, it is. Yep. Everyone's prepping up for all the truck

shows, all the races. It's the best time of the year. If you're

asking me, that's for sure.

Yeah, it was. Well, we were talking a week or so ago about a

build that you guys are involved with. And I was checking out,

you know, some of the things that is going to be done to the

truck. But one of the huge ones, and we talked about it a

couple years ago. And we had like a short from that episode

that went out on TikTok and just got like hundreds of thousands

of views. And it was you talking about the 6.3 liter power

stroke. And I know we talked about it another time. I keep

hearing more about it. And it looks like on this particular

build, you know, the owner decided to go with that. So I

thought it'd be cool to have you talk about JNK's involvement

with the build. And then what you guys are doing with the

engine side.

Cool. Yeah, no problem at all. Yeah, everyone loves the 6.3

stroker. I mean, besides being a head turner, you know, in a

one off build, it's just the most reliable 6.0 on the market.

So guys are loving it. We build them every day, ship them out

across the country, overseas and, you know, having a lot of

happy guys with them. But they want all the reliability and

all the power without sacrificing longevity because

the 6.3 is there has the added power without having to up your

air fuel at all. When guys do it like my own excursion, it

makes it that much better. But it's a good reliable platform

that you just pretty much, you know, don't have any worries

in the world. So we've got a really cool one in the works

right now about to have a full production of it. A bunch of

YouTube content and social media. But it's for Kirk, he's the

VP of marketing of custom offsets. So which is really cool

for us because, you know, we're so involved in the diesel

engine realm and turbo and injectors and, you know, more

just in-depth engine building where they are the glitz in the

glam. They do wheels, tires, suspension. They have a lot of

different companies under that custom offset umbrella. So

it's cool to, you know, do a build with those guys because

it's not just race or, you know, performance engine oriented.

It's also, you know, some of the aesthetics which everyone loves

a nice lifted truck, loves the wheels and tires. It's a, it's

a great thing. But, but yeah, we're doing a one-off 6-3 build

with them. Doing a full 6-3, 3-83 stoker teamed up with a lot

of great guys in the industry to do this build and it's

definitely going to be a one-off. I mean, I think every nut

and bolt and part under the hood that you can powder come,

we've done that too. So some really fun stuff.

To talk about the 6-3 stoker for a little bit and maybe somebody

who hasn't heard about it before. What changes when you do

that, that sort of build? Is it pistons, rods, like how, how much

different is it than a regular 6-liter? Realistically, once we

provided to the customer, it's a drop in replacement. So they

don't have to do any modifications. Now, we do use the

bigger beefier 6-4 crank and that's why custom offsets wanted

it because they're going to take this and they're going to do a

lot of burnouts. They're going to put this truck through its

paces. So they wanted something that could be reliable and

still do burnouts beyond rev limit and have something that's

going to last. So that truck for those guys is going to be,

of course, at FP 5.0 here in a couple of weeks. That's what

we're grind time is right now. The whole shop pretty much shut

down this week for, for grind time to get this thing knocked

out for FP 5.0. So it's going from there straight to

Cletus McFarland's Freedom 500. It's going to be the pace

truck for that. And then, you know, just going to go to SEMA

and all the other events, but the 6-3 is just a, the different

crank has a modified front cover as well, modified pistons,

but everything else, you know, bolt on wise is a straight 6-0.

So it's before the common rail. So injectors, turbo kits, all

these are relatively inexpensive, but you get the same

reliability. And, and I mean, besides the bore and the stroke

of it, you know, and being able to hold more power, the linear

torque curve in this thing is unlike any other 6-0 in the

market. So that's why guys love them stock. They love them

adding bigger injectors and turbo, just because, you know,

it has a limited turbo lag and really, really, you know, hops

into the RBM nicely. But, you know, it's just a very, very

fun build. And, you know, guys see it and they say, what, you

mean a 7-3, right? That's a 7-3 under the hood, not a 6-3. And

we had to do a lot of correcting.

I saw, I saw a video the other day and this guy was talking

about 6 liters and he made a really good point. He was talking

about how they are, they're new enough that you can still get,

you can still get some of those creature comforts that you

want. There's a huge aftermarket for them, be it with

transmissions, injectors, turbos, things like that. But if

you're looking to get a diesel truck and you want to have fun

with it in the sense of you want to daily drive it, you want to

tow a little bit, you might want to take it to some events or

do burnouts or dyno stuff and be able to invest money wisely.

It's probably one of the best platforms to do it. And so I

think like something like a 6-3 stoker and what you were

mentioning there, it applies to anyone in that kind of

spectrum of I want a 6 liter, like do you want it to tow? Do

you want to use it every day? Is it nostalgic for you? Or

do you want to make really good power with it? And it's,

I think it gives 6 liter owners such a wide choice and really

freedom to design the build how they want because a lot of

times when I think of, when I think of a stoker engine, I

think, okay, I'm pretty much planning on this thing to live

on the track in a trailer and I'm going to tow it places and

it's not something I could daily drive or tow with but like

your excursion, I know from chatting with you before, you

know, you could drive that every day, use it whenever you

want. And I'm sure you have a lot of customers that, you

know, maybe they had a 6 liter engine failure and they're

like, hey, I want to do this upgrade. I want to pick up, you

know, some of that torque and air flow, but I'm using it

every day. Yep. Yep. That's that's pretty much our, you

know, our number one clientele. Now, there are guys

racing them but a lot of them are just, you know, nicer old

trucks and the guys are already going to invest a little

money because what do they want to do? Go out and spend 80,

90 grand on a new truck or repower what they have that's

already in good shape. And and I'm in a lot of them, like

you said, yeah, there's ragged out six O's but man, there are

so many on the market these days with clean interiors, clean

bodies. It is like you said, I think it's definitely one of

the best bang for your bucks in the medium diesel category

altogether. And then not even talking about the 63. The

63 is amazing because like you said, a lot of guys want that

reliability and just to have it there and not necessarily

maximize the power potentials because you can put a lot of

power to this 63 but all the internal coatings, the piston

coatings on the skirts with ceramic helps out with, you

know, cylinder wear and lubrication, the tops are

polymer coated, all the bearings are coated along with

ARPs throughout every orifice has ARP head studs, main studs,

connecting rod bolts. So, you know, it's for guys that pretty

much that are fed up with the the standard 60 fail points and

they want something that they can rely on drive every day and

just when they want to have fun, it's there. Hey diesel fans,

our friends over at Kershaw Knives have a 20% off code for you. If

you go to kershaw.kaiusa.com and use code 20TD8FR26, you get

20% off your cart and free shipping over $50. So, if you're

in the market for a new EDC knife, something for hunting,

fishing around the job site, around the house, they've got

you covered with a whole bunch of different choices for

blade steel, blade shape, different opening mechanisms,

different handle designs and scrimmage, save some money and

get some cool gear. Again, go to kershaw.kaiusa.com, use code

20TD8FR26 and get 20% off your cart and free shipping over

$50. Now, when it when it comes to building that, you had

mentioned that it's as far as everything that goes with it is

regular 6L like injectors, injection pump, things like that.

When somebody calls you guys up and says, hey, I heard about

the 6L or I think it's what I want. I've heard a lot about it.

But they know there's some other issues with the 6L in

general, whether it's with the oil, oil cooler, water pump,

some of these other things. Is that something that can be

incorporated into a build? Like if somebody calls you, like

how complete is that engine when it arrives? What options do

you guys have for people?

Well, the 6L is kind of like every other engine we build. We

are completely built to order. If a guy wants a nice work

truck to make money with his family, we're going to adjust

and we do those builds every day versus the guy who wants

high horsepower. The 6L comes as a base shore block with

everything I mentioned there, all the coatings, all the

balancing, all the ARP hardware, and then you dress it up

for there, whether you want our JNK aluminum high flow heads.

At any time you turn it into a long block, you have our

chrome baldy push rods that are included in every build,

rated for over 1,400 horsepower. And we just add those just

because it was another fail point for the stock 6O that

revised push rod length has a lot of great attributions to it.

But the thing is, guys don't want the typical failures.

They don't want a throttle lifter. They don't want all these,

but built to order pretty much means that guys even run in

stock injectors and turbo, you put the 6.3 in your truck and

it runs phenomenal. But the guys who want to do some other

modifications, I do it, but a lot of guys, they hear about

the stamp pipe issues where they have high pressure oil leaks

so they want one piece stamp pipes. And then by all means,

whatever you want, I'm here to build the truck or your dream.

So I'll accommodate anything, but there's a lot of things

guys here online or guys read on the forums and a lot of it's

snake oil. So I'm here to just explain what's really worth it

and what's not from a company who builds more than 500 power

strokes a year. What would be a couple of those things that

there's a misconception on when it comes to building a 6

liter that because it's so overwhelming with how if I go

on to Google or ask any search engine like built 6O or what

fails on a 6O, you're going to find things for like 15, 20

years worth of stuff, right? So how do like what are a couple

big ones that we should pay attention to that in your

experience at J&K engines, isn't necessarily true or maybe

you'd put an asterisk by it because it's not the full story.

I'd say the first one would just be a Ford OEM oil cooler.

Back in the day, yeah, they had a lot of issues. Some of them

were cast with some sanding sand in them or casting material

that would push through your engine and have issues. But the

past 10 years, we've been running nothing but OEM Ford

engine oil coolers. Guys want to run air to oil or you know

different setups by all means. We're here to help out and we

have those in inventory as well. But one big misconception is

a Ford OEM oil cooler is garbage. It's not. Now they did

for a while during Corona. They were reboxing them with

dormant coolers. So you know, take it how you want it. I

don't know why Ford would want to want to put that under the

name. But as long as you know, you're buying genuine

motorcraft parts and you're not buying something off of eBay

that's re-boxed, a Ford oil cooler is a great cooler. And our

government contracts, they put 40, 45,000 hours. That's about

850, 900,000 miles behind these coolers. No issues at all.

Their deltas are in line. Their oil temps are coolant.

Everything is in par. And these guys put them under the

harshest conditions. They sit in idle all day, low oil pressure.

They're they're dragging these trucks through the mud and

having nothing but great luck. So that's one of the biggest

one is the the OEM oil cooler issue. Another one I got

mentioned a minute ago were those stamp pipes. A lot of guys

out there creating aftermarket stamp pipes and dummy plug

kits for them. And as long as you get to the newer gen

revised through Ford, we have great luck with those and

never have an issue. I mean, we are bread and butter is

technically machining and building engines. That's what we

do in-house. That's what we strive for and that's why we

have a quick lead time. But we do installations all day,

every day as well. I think we did more than 40 of them last

year alone. And those, you know, those are guys that ship

in their trucks from across the country because they were

just done with the headaches of their local diesel shop.

Because you know how hard it is to find a good shop that's

trustworthy and you can, you know, install a quality product.

Yeah. Yeah, it's real tough to navigate too. Like I said,

there's so much information. It's so easy to get and you can

get lost and I imagine it adds up quickly dollar wise if you

start getting into some of the things you might read that

are necessary upgrades according to what you read.

Can be the cost of an engine or the half of cost. I mean,

versus a $400 oil cooler from Ford versus $25 to $100 to

$3,000. That's a huge difference. So you could have a,

you could replace a lot more components that are known to

fail and they're known to have issues versus, you know,

actually changing up the, you know, the engine in those

aspects. So with this, this build, you mentioned that

there's going to be some videos and some other things

coming out. When, when do you expect those to hit? Because I

think people, they're going to, they're going to love to see

like we want to see and hear it. And I think that's one of

the reasons that, you know, if we think about some money that

we want to invest in a vehicle, like I always think back to

the older ones, I think most people do too, because sound is

such an important part of a diesel truck. And it's just

like, that's the first thing that I, that I want to hear

that the new ones don't necessarily really have, you

know, is that part of it. So where, where or when can we

expect these, these videos to start rolling out?

Filming actually started today. We just learned last week

that we were going to be able to make this happen before

FP5.0. So this week, the shop is at a halt. We got custom

offsets, filming crew in here, taking all of the

videography, all the documentation, everything that

they do that is above my pay grade for video wise. So

eventually we're going to get good, but it's going to be

at least released FP5.0. So not this coming weekend, but

next, it's the like March 14th and 15th, I believe is the

next FP event. So we're having this going to be the

pretty much the unveiling of this truck. So I guarantee

you, content will start releasing then along with a

bunch of YouTube videos across all social media platforms.

It's going to be released here pretty shortly, but I don't

know an exact date, but I do know it's going to be

sooner than later because they can't wait to release this

family. And people can just go to like JNK engines, like

search on Instagram, Facebook, different platforms to

find you guys that way. Yep, that way, our website, I'm

going to put every video on my website as well under

our videos category. We've got some really cool videos

out there, but it kind of comes down to what you said,

Patrick, the sound of trucks back, I think it was like

maybe 13 years ago or so when we took the 6-3 engine that

was in our first service truck and put it into a nice

show truck, we pulled the same powertrain out, same engine

and everything, but did a turbo upgrade. And this is

before we had a lot of relationships we had now,

but just a power max turbo doing a burnout, this video

got 100,000 views on YouTube versus me getting in-depth

showing you everything about a build process, getting

20,000. That's what the guys want to see. They want to

hear the trucks, they want to see it, be rowdy, they want

to hear it, the whistle of a 6-0. And that's really what

made me believe that this could definitely be

something, because it's unlike anything out there.

Yeah, well, and like you mentioned before, when you

think about investing money into an older truck, for some

reason I've been getting ads on Facebook for local

dealerships, so I'm seeing 2026 rams or power strokes,

and I look at the trim level of the truck, and then I look

at the price, and I'm like, this is $78,000, and I've

got like cloth seats, and you know, it's nice, but it's

not like, I mean to me, $70,000 plus thousand dollars,

you know, you're getting leather seats heated, cooled

now, not until you start spending a little bit more

money, and I think of, you know, what can I find a

clean 6-0 for, you know, 15,000, 20,000, I'm not sure

what they're going for on the secondary market, but then

I think, okay, what if I want to put 20,000 into it, I

could have a really nice truck, I could have that

sound, I don't have DF fluid, I don't have a whole lot of

emission stuff, I know there's some that are on there, but

it's not as in depth as the newer trucks, and I see why

it makes a lot of sense for people.

Yeah, yeah, and all the problems, these trucks have been

out for a while now, I mean, you know, I'm building a

7-3 right now that's been out for 30 years, so they're

great engines, but new gen engines come with new gen

issues, you know, once you figure out something, another

thing pops up, just like, you know, their fuel system

issues, those CP4s that everyone wants to throw into

the garbage, we're pairing those up with a lot of 6-7

builds right now, simply because, and when guys are

going back in, even though their high-pressure fuel pump

might have been running perfectly fine, do they want

to take the chance of a 10, $12,000 grenade?

Yeah.

It just doesn't make sense, it's free labor, you know,

the labor is the same to go back in with your existing

versus a DCR conversion, or some of the other options

out there, but we really like the SNS DCR kits, and

that's what we promote here, and I try and push on every

single 6-7 customer, and we are building a lot of them.

It's interesting you brought that up, because I had SNS

on recently, and I was asking them about the pump, and

they've been out for a while now, so the number of them,

and he had mentioned that they have a dealer in Texas

that, to his knowledge, has the lowest mileage 6-7

power stroke that got a DCR pump, and it had like

seven miles on it, and he had it towed from the dealership

to his shop to do a DCR pump right away, and, you know,

the 6-7s have been out for a while now, and they're

really popular, it makes a ton of power, it's a hugely

popular platform, I know you know, but what are some

things you've seen with the 6-7s as far as now that

they've been out for a while, and what you're able to do

building an engine for them, kind of like we just talked

about the 6-7, like what you could do to a 6-liter engine

in 2010 or 2015, it's totally different than 2026.

Well, how does that apply to the 6-7 power strokes?

A lot of options, I mean, over here our standard build

comes with everything in the new gen, you know, 2020 plus 6-7,

so we incorporate free of charge, including every engine

build, our steel piston upgrade, and that's one thing that

why not, you know, it has so much more reliability and, you

know, and for guys out there that want to push a truck a

little bit, it's a no-brainer, and even for guys that are

working on them, I mean, it's a great option, but we don't

ARP stud them, they don't have our high rev valve springs

or billet push rods like the other builds, because those

fell points aren't the same in a 6-7, but we do use the

2020 plus brand new crank shafts that have been balanced,

the new gen connecting rod with the steel pistons, and, you

know, everything else is relatively, you know, standard,

but the 6-7 had a bad tendency of spinning main bearings

back in the day, the first gen, it's like 11-14, so spinning

main bearing issue has been solved with our coated

bearings, coated main bearings, a lot of them drop

lifters, they have, you know, the dual plunger setup and

those lifters, so we go ahead and, you know, take care of a

lot of the issues in the 6-7s, and our standard engines

having no issues at all, guys pushing them, but then, again,

when guys want to upgrade them, we're here, we have a nice

JNK O-ring cylinder head for the 6-7, that's unlike

anything else, we have ARP head studs, we're doing a little

bit of research right now with ARP, because they are the

brand new gen, like the 2026 trucks, their studs aren't

quite long enough, so we're doing a little bit of

research into development with those guys, lengthening up

these studs to make them compatible for the guys with

the brand new trucks wanting to run bigger turbos, wanting to

push, you know, their fuel system to the max and still

have reliability, because anyone can go out there and

throw compounds on a truck, but getting it to last a few

months is a whole other story. I saw something recently

about that with the head studs and the length of them, is

that something where people are pushing a bit more power

through them and then they're starting to see head gasket

failures on the 2026s? Yeah, yeah, they are, there aren't

too many guys building because a lot of those guys, I mean,

they want to use up their warranty, so of course, they're

not pampering or doing too many aftermarket, you know,

support with them, but there are some guys out there who are

pushing them and it really sucks because they're limiting

theirself, you know, you can't build one for high horsepower

simply because unless you want to throw on like a earlier set

of cylinder heads on it, which doesn't make much sense, why

would you want to head swap it? You can't get enough, you

know, enough meat on those ARPs. So they just thickened up the

casting, which is great because the early Model 6-7s that have

some issues with their cylinder heads, they would crack and drop

some valves. So I like where they're thinking is that, but

now aftermarket support has to be there because if ARP, one of

the biggest fastener companies in the universe hasn't come out

with it yet, and you know, it's just a matter of time before

someone else does. How does the O-ring for the heads, like

that's another topic where if you jump and start, you know,

searching online for O-ring, firing, you can go down a

rabbit's hole as well. And I'm thinking about like the daily

driver or the truck, it's probably tuned, but something

that someone may be towing with and they put a lot of mileage

on, is that something that holds up well, that's something

you can daily drive, you can use as a work truck and get the

benefit of an O-ring head? Yes, yes, they really do,

especially guys that are towing every day and all of our

hot shotters, they opt in for the the CNC O-ring standard, but

when you CNC those O-ring around the combustion chamber and

pressing that stainless steel ring, it just gives that much

more added, you know, added reinforcement around the

combustion chamber. So under high levels of booze, guys that

are off-road use, wanting to, you know, do some drag racing,

do some things like that, then by all means they can do it and

not have a worry that the truck's going to be pushing coolant

after the first pass. So yes, it is something great that any

daily driver anyone can do, but there's a there's a million

ways to do it and we've come up with a process, but some guys

O-ring the blocks, some guys O-ring just the cylinder heads,

some guys do both of them. So our process is tried and true,

we build thousands of engines the same exact way and and you

know, we don't we don't really do much block work, besides

of course, all the standard decking honing that comes with

that line boring, but we find that it's as long as you have

two true services, there's really no reason to O-ring the

block itself. The cylinder heads are really all you need and

you still get maximum reliability.

I think the DCR pump conversion when when you're having an

engine built would just be a no brainer if I was having one

built like I would there's so many like bad stories and

expensive stories about the CP4 and then I think, you know,

I'm talking with you and planning out a build and and doing a

build to order, you know, on a six, seven power stroke like

that would be part that would be definitely part of my budget

and what I'm upgrading.

Yeah, yeah, the DCR is like I said, I try and place it on

anyone even like one of my personal best friends. We do a

lot of boating in the summer. He's toned his boat every day.

He's a landscaper. He's toning his. We rebuilt his six, seven

and his pump he had to see before running perfectly fine

beforehand. But of course, you know, when you dig into an

engine and you pull a pump, we did everything installed it

back in. And of course, the pump wasn't building volume. So,

you know, to him, it was a no brainer. But to me, it's just

the fact of the labor cost to dig back in there when it

happens because it's not a matter of if it's when with the

CP4. So it's gonna grenade and even if you install, you know,

your disaster prevention kits, that's just that's just

preventative measures. It's still gonna fail. So I'm with

you. I'd rather install the DCR on all of them and just

bite the bullet and, you know, buy once cry once not ever

have the issue again.

I like to understand the relationships between different

parts of an engine and different upgrades and how how one

can affect another. And I'm not sure if this actually happens,

but I thought it'd be a great chance to ask you is so you

get a core in and somebody says, Hey, I've got to have a 6n

power stroke. And they say, Hey, I want to I want to do an

engine build my CP4 failed. Depending on how it failed, how

much metal got in the system. Can you guys see engine damage

with it if it got into the injectors and maybe it changed

the way that it was spraying or did something like do you

actually see damage from an injection pump failure on a

6n power stroke?

You definitely can. Sometimes it will just shut down the

fuel system and then that's the best case scenario, Patrick.

Well, we have a wall of shame over here in our core

department. That's a plethora of pistons, broken cranks, just

issues where a piece of metal hangs open in that that

injector, it'll just over fuel and completely melt down a

piston. So it looks like you take a settling torch and went

right through it. I mean, I'm talking about little quarter

inch holes directly through the piston all the way in, you

know, into the block. So yeah, there's ways to fail. Now,

they don't necessarily always fail like that, but it's

pretty easy to see whenever something like that happens. And

even guys that get them flow tested, I mean, you can go out,

test your pump, you can go out and test your injectors. But

we've had customers just spend money on testing, spend money

on this, that and the other, just to get them back in their

brand new engine and then have a hiccup soon after, after a

few thousand miles.

Wow, that would be, well, I bet as far as building engines,

that also helps J and K a lot as well to say, you know, you

build this engine for someone that you guys care about them

and how they're going to use it. You want a happy customer, a

long term happy customer, right? And if they call you six

months or a year down the road, and, you know, they're like,

hey, I had a fuel system failure, I think my engines, you

know, destroyed. It's like,

it would almost be like a required upgrade is kind of what

I'm getting at, like, I would almost require it.

Yeah, yeah, there are especially components like that,

because, you know, if you have a tired turbo and a turbo,

let's go, that's not going to blow up your engine. But

injectors definitely can harm the engine. Or they could just,

you know, just cause headache, because we just had a

customer install his on a family road trip, and then, you

know, get a fuel knock, and he went through the process,

spent the money, got his injectors flowed out, just to

have an issue soon after. And, you know, I knew what it was,

he called me, we FaceTime, I heard the knocking, his

thinking was it's internally engine wise, but I could tell

I got a year for that thing, and injector knocked from a

mile away, and I could, I could definitely tell what it was.

So swapped his injector out, you know, we got him back on

the road, but I did recommend him to, to go ahead and

replace all eight of them in the future, just because I

know if one just went out after flow testing amount and

getting them cleaned and inspected, the other seven

aren't too far after. And that's the thing, you know,

that could flow out perfectly fine one minute, and then,

you know, and then have an issue the next, that's why

going with with new components is by all means the best

thing out there. Hey, diesel fans, I wanted to chat with

you about diesel fuel, it's something we've talked about

a lot on the podcast and specifically ways that it can

lead to a lot of costly repairs. And the main reason

that we have these issues is a lack of lubricity. Our

friends over at Hot Shot Secrets have developed a

formula that boosts performance and then addresses

this issue. So whether you have an old truck, new one,

something anywhere in between, we all face this issue.

Hot Shot's EDT is a six in one formula, it cleans

injectors, boosts C-tane, and it has four times the

lubricity as our leading competitor. So it's a great

way to be able to stay ahead of the maintenance curve,

avoid those costly repairs. And the best part is it

does the work for you. So all you do is add it to your

regular fuel up schedule and it's doing all the heavy

lifting. So you don't have to worry about some of those

issues that just come with diesel fuel anytime we buy it

from the pump. If you go to hotshotssecret.com, use code

dieselpod20, it'll get you 20% off your order. We

really appreciate the team and our friends over at

Hot Shot Secret offering this discount code just for you

guys. So if you're in the market, head on over their

website, use code dieselpod20 and get 20% off your order.

Maximizing power, reliability, and efficiency begins with

clean diesel fuel. That's why fast fuel systems remove

air and vapor up to 99% of water and filters debris down to

two microns. This alone can triple the life expectancy of

your fuel system while also restoring lost power and

efficiency. Whether you have a diesel pickup truck or

commercial vehicle or anything in between, there's a

fast fuel system for your rig made right here in the USA.

Visit fastride.com to find the perfect fuel system upgrade

for your truck. Are there misconceptions with the 6.7

power stroke? Like you mentioned the six liter couple

things that the internet will say you have to do, you

have to upgrade this and you guys find something

different. Is there some similarities or differences

or what do you guys see on the 6.7s? A lot of guys request

to tick weld the crank gears and by all means, I see all

the horror stories online. I see the shops, you know, we

don't do any service work. We don't do anything like

that. So I do follow the guys and I chat with those

shops every day to buy my engines, but we don't see

too many cores that roll through the building with

their crank gears actually spun. So you know, it's a

great feature to add. We can throw a tick on there, no

problem at all. And that's a great feature, but you

know, some guys might not need that. A lot of other

things that go on with these 6.7s, there's a plethora

of things, but you know, I'd say that they crank

you're being welded. It's a great option, but I don't

think if it's going to make it or break it, you know,

don't think you have to pull your truck and do it

automatically, but it's a brand new truck. Those

things can run happy and healthy. With maintaining

them and this could apply to any of them. 7.3, 6.0, 6.7,

6.4s that you guys build. When it comes to the

maintenance side, what do you guys tell customers

with that? As far as doing oil changes and staying

on top of coolant changes and stuff like that. I

know it's important, but in my mind, it almost gets

more important. I think once I spend the money

invested in an aftermarket engine, do the upgrades

that you have mentioned. I've bought an aftermarket

turbo kit or compound turbo kit. How do I maintain

one of your engines? Pretty simple. After the

initial break-in procedures, it's normal routine

maintenance after that, but out of the gate, you're

going to want to do a couple quick oil changes. You

put 100 miles on our engines, you're going to go

ahead and do your first break-in service. Believe

it or not, there's some guys that don't read the

welcome packet and they think just their 15 ports

that you put in an oil change is plenty for the

brand new engine, but that's not the fact. Your

engine will consume at least the minimum of two

ports on the initial fire up, filling up every

galleyway, filling up your oil filter, filling up

your cooler. It'll suck down some oil. We make

sure that customers are adding those couple extra

ports out of the gate just to ensure proper oil

pressure, but other than that, one more oil change

after that and they're broken in. A lot of our

guys are in the workforce. We do a lot of guys

for leisure, a lot of guys for having fun and

racing, but most of our guys were J&K, we're

price for the working man. A lot of these guys

are making money for their families with their

trucks, their work trucks. Technically, there is

a two-stage power home with a 25450 grit. Out of

the gate, the engine is broken in, but we want

to make sure any assembly lub is out of the

system, any break-in contaminants. We just want

to make sure that A, you're using a new oil

cooler because we've had just recently had a

6.4 customer, his technician reused his oil

cooler after he had a catastrophic failure. He

renated a rod, technician reused his used

oil cooler. I've never seen anything like it,

Patrick. He pulled in, he had magnets all on his

oil pan on the bottom to try and help attract

all the metal that was going through his oil

pan and oiling system. It was sad, but he had

to buy the bullet and have us reinstall the

engine, replace the oil cooler, thoroughly

clean out everything. Luckily, we salvaged the

engine, but if he would have ran that much

longer, he would have been buying a whole

another long block from us. This goes to show

you trying to save a few pennies or reuse a

part like an oil cooler, that will never work

in your favor. That's one thing that in the

front cover with low-pressure oil pumps are

the only things that we really make mandatory

because any time an engine has an issue,

those aluminum front housings that house the

low-pressure pump, those will get scorn and

scarred. Any kind of metal that goes through

there will cause low oil pressure. We just

want to make sure that guys are doing their

diligence, replacing the parts that are

mandatory, but we're not here to build a

ticket. We're here, we're budget friendly,

we've got the best competitive prices

around with the most quality engine builds,

but there are still a couple things that are

a no-brainer when you're doing an install.

Is that one of the hardest parts when not a

shop that you work with continually, they're

a professional in the industry, but when

it's an individual truck owner? Is that the

hardest part when talking to them about an

engine? Because I find probably maybe

somebody's going to buy one aftermarket

engine the whole time they own that truck

or the whole time they own trucks, so

they're not used to it, right? And they

think, well, in everything else that we

spend money on in life, we feel like we're

being sold something and the upsell,

even when you are doing your cable,

they want to upsell you on stuff or your

cell phone, they want to upsell you or

any sort of like streaming service. I'll

pay a little extra, you get no ads with

it, right? So we're kind of conditioned

that while we're being sold something, I

don't need it. Is that really hard when

talking about engines to say, hey, I'm not

just trying to sell you something here,

but you need to spend money on the

oil cooler, you need to spend money on

this and that because it could

catastrophically damage this brand new

engine you're getting from us. Yeah,

yeah. I mean, we have a nice template

that come with all of our estimates that

we send. I give you all the pricing for

those must-haves, so it is, and you know,

I'm not going to twist anyone's arm. I

mean, it's your truck, but we're going to

recommend the necessary steps. It's kind

of like our Stage 2 cam too in our 6064

platform because I'd like to recommend it

to everyone just for the fuel economy

benefits. I mean, it will pay for itself

for the small amount this brand new

billet cam is, besides the fact of

correcting the valve train issues because

6064 is notorious for lifter issues.

Needle bearings coming out of those

lifters causing all kinds of havoc in

them. So, you know, eliminated turbo

lag, having the ultimate bulletproof

valve train and just the, you know, the

reliability isn't everything and some

guys, you know, think I'm trying to

upsell, but man, if I compare it with

every engine build I would, even, you

know, they say, oh man, it's just a

work truck. It doesn't matter. The work

trucks are the guys who need it the most.

We have the data that proves that 250 to

300 degree EGT loss just from installing

this camshaft alone getting up those

exhaust gases quicker. So, I mean, to me, it's

another brand new, like I said, I like

the fuel economy benefits. I don't want

to be spending a fortune at the diesel

pump, but yeah, there's a lot of

products and but that's what we're here

for and that's kind of what makes us,

unlike anyone else, you know, we answer

the phone every time we call. We have

tech support. We're here to help walk

you through any questions that you have,

but also, we're here to inform people.

You know, I have the best job in the

world simply because I love what I do

and I'm helping people get their trucks

back on the road versus putting in a

Ford Reman per se. Now, I'm not going to

down anyone else in the industry, but

even a Ford Reman uses spray and liners

in the cylinder walls. They don't

properly machine or bore anything out, so

besides our costs, just the the bank for

your buck you're getting when you buy a

J&K engine is bar none the best out

there. The education part is what I

love and like one of the most rewarding

things

that I find in like doing a podcast is

when somebody hears an episode and I

appreciate these emails whenever I get

them, somebody it might be from two

years ago,

two weeks ago, 10 years ago now, is

somebody will say, hey, I heard this

episode and I had this failure on my

truck and I called this place up and

they got me set up with this and it's

been running great for

however long it's been. I appreciate

the content, like I love that more than

anything else because I know how

important

it is for those people that use their

trucks for work, specifically like

talking about them is like that's a

livelihood,

that's a mortgage payment, that's getting

your kids stuff for school or sports,

that's it's so crucial

and I'm sure you've you know your time

in the industry have seen or read

stories of somebody who buys something

and it fails and it ends up snowballing

into this huge expense

and you know you could have saved them

from the start

and so like the content like you

mentioned with the videos or us doing

this podcast a day or the information

that's on your website,

the things you guys do, I think that

education part is so so crucial to

people out there using these trucks to

make money and support their families.

Yeah, that's it exactly because that's

what it comes down to you know

and that's why one reason too why this

year alone we've bulked up on so much

inventory,

I've got so many blocks machine prep

ready to go

just because you know a lot of guys

they can't have downtime

so for somebody to wait two and three

months, four months for an engine

it's just not feasible

so we have a nice quick lead time

right now and it's only going to get

quicker in the future so

we are we're grateful just to be in

the industry that we're in and help

people on a daily basis and

that's why eventually we want to

veer off you know

we're a very niche company because

power strokes are all we do

but we're doing research and

development on Cummins and Duramax

now just because we want to branch out

we've we've got to supply everybody

we just can't limit our our customer

based down to the power strokes

because all these shops and fleet

companies that buy our engines

they want to buy J and K build

everything

not just power stroke engines.

That's interesting it's something

that I kind of wondered like with the

shops because they're getting

well one of the things I always ask a

shop owner during the podcast is

what do you work on most

and I've never had anyone say they

just work on one like one engine

platform or one specific year range

of engine

it's usually like they're heavy on two

of them might be Duramax and Cummins

or could be power stroke and Duramax

or some combination of at least two of

the three

and I imagine that's probably a lot of

feedback

that that you get being a supplier is

they have a good experience and then

say well I've got

like six seven Cummins in here that

need help

or

use LMLs that need help or

LB7s whatever it might be that

that they're seeing there

you know come in come through the shop

yeah and what makes me really upset is

how many guys spend a lot of money on

an engine to do it again

in the future Patrick

they're having to buy engines two or

three times for these trucks

where you know if they would have done

a little bit of research

you just you know called us up and

we could have got them a quality build

the first time

and that's kind of what makes me upset

in the industry is

you know a lot of guys look for ways to

get out of warranty issues

look for ways to to hide behind our

closed doors

we're we're transparent

all of our reviews are out there for

everyone to see

we come five star rated for a reason

and we just you know our customer base

sees that

this year I've started posting you know

all of our

all of our reviews in the engine building

room

because all of our head office sees them

of course but the guy is the team down

in the shop

those are the guys who need to see it

so

we've been slapping those down there in

the build room

giving everyone encouragement

uh letting them see you know how how

happy they're truly making everybody

that's really

that's really cool

is I think

like

whenever you can

I think whenever you can like hear the

feedback of something you built and put

together

and

it's I imagine that in general an engine

building that's kind of disconnected

right because

these guys are

you know they're focused in on

building this putting it together

getting the parts

and they're probably really dialed in

with the process for it

but they might not know like who it's

going towards or the story that

you know down the road

and I think being able to connect those

two would be really important

yep or the guys that you know

we have to push to the to the head

you know guys that are in the biggest

time crunch and our lead times are by

far the quickest out there

but some guys can't even wait a couple

weeks on an engine build so

you know for for us to be a company

that I just had last week

or one of my head engine builders

he stayed late

stayed till about eight o'clock at night

just to complete an engine for a guy

who was coming the next day

and had to have an engine

so I mean I don't know of many other

outfits out there who would

who would do that

and my staff is by far the best team

out there

I mean you should see these guys right

now I'm looking at the cameras doing

this install on this truck and

I mean this from how neat

everything so powder coated but we

have every teammate on this

we got you know three guys

assembling and fully dressing and

building the engine

all being filmed at the same time too

which is craziness

and then we have the other team doing

the install pulling the engine out of

the cab

you know this this truck for custom

offsets getting a full fuel system

you know all the fasts and everything

so it's not just a run of the mill

install where you can sink it in and

run it

this is a lot of aftermarket parts

a lot of guys wanted to be a part of

the build so

a lot a lot more than just your

average installs going on

and we're going to make this happen and

and be at FP 5.0

which is their overall goal

I had a lot riding on it and we made it

happen

I imagine the pressure from that is

probably pretty intense right like

the first thing I think about is like

powder coat finished product

and you're dropping this huge engine in

you got a hoist you got tools you got

all these things around like the

pressure from that alone

is probably a ton

oh yeah yeah I'm not gonna lie I've been

home thinking about it when I go to

sleep a few days this week

it's uh it's something that's resting

on our shoulders but like I said our

team is the best out there

these guys grind like nobody else in

the industry and then it's gonna it's

gonna pay off

I can I can definitely see

just from the the content alone on this

build I mean

if we got more than 20 powder coated

parts alone I didn't even know there

was 20 parts under the hood that were

visible of the 6.0

so to see all those glitz and glamour

it's it's really cool because

you know we've done it

past you know we're more so

we want it to be practical so I'm not

going to recommend you know us

powder coat parts that are buried under

the engine and never get seen we want

to do everything that's

aesthetic and pleasing on the outside

your inner cooler piping

your alternator housings I mean that

takes a lot of work just to disassemble

get all that cleaned and off the powder

alone so yep we're uh slowly but surely

turning into a little powder coat shop

or sell it's so cool I appreciate you

sharing the build with me and talking

about it and I'll definitely keep my

eye out for those videos and the

content that's coming up but if somebody

has questions about six leaders six four

seven three six sevens how can they find

your website and then you know call in

if they have questions sometimes it's

really helpful to talk to someone and

be able to ask the questions and in

real time how can people connect with

you guys now I would love to get a

phone call I love speaking to all my

clients by all means if you need to

email me email me but the best way is

to call the shop 615-758-7749

our website has a lot of in-depth

information about our engine builds our

process literature on past builds that

have made it on you know all the biggest

diesel magazines in the nation so we have

a nice contact us page all of our

social medias I man all the social media

accounts so a lot of guys don't want

direct messages message me I love to

chat with you that's the best thing

about us we're family on and operated

so even after hours if you want to shoot

me a dm I'm most likely want to talk

diesel with you so by all means any way

you can reach us you can reach us but a

phone call and our website and email are

definitely the the top three ways to

get in contact with us

very cool Anthony well I always enjoy

chatting with you learning about power

strokes that's that's six three

strokers really cool I know I've seen

like talk out there and things unrelated

to like an episode or anything like

that just on like Facebook groups and

other things about it so it's really

cool to to learn about that and then

also some of these other issues that

you guys see that maybe like you guys

have a different experience like talked

about the oil coolers and and some of

the other things with these engines

it's helpful to know what the

professionals are seeing and and just

understand more about them so thank you

for your time today chatting with me I

appreciate it and I look forward to

seeing those videos and and that build

that you that you told us about

oh yeah I can't wait to get it out there

Patrick give it I got to do a little

break-in process I can't send it right

to the burnout pit but we're going to

put some miles on this thing and you

are going to see some some of the

rowdy is 6l platform because

technically it is you know the six three

is just the most built 6l out there but

some of the the coolest and rowdy is

content will be on this truck so be

looking forward but always good chatting

with you too brother appreciate

everything don't forget diesel fans make

sure and head on over to kershaw.kaiusa.com

use code 20TD8FR26 to get 20% off your

order kershaw's got a whole lineup of

knives to meet any budget that you might

have whether it's a new knife or EDC

hunting fishing something around the

job site around the house

they've got you covered with a bunch of

different choices for blade steel blade

shaped different handle designs opening

mechanisms and you also get free shipping

over $50 so we really appreciate them

offering that discount code just for

diesel podcast listeners

also want to give a shout out to some of

our patreon supporters

robert john tsw diesel all of our other

patreon supporters all of you who follow

us on social media

we appreciate all your support here in

your 10 of the diesel podcast and look

forward to bringing you more of the

content that you want to hear in 2026

till next time keep the shiny side up

you

6.3L Stroker 6.0 Powerstroke: The Ultimate Tow Build?

About this episode

diesel enthusiast

truck shows

6.0 Powerstroke

6.3L stroker

drop-in replacement

6.4L crankshaft

burnouts

SEMA

turbo kits

injectors

common rail

bore and stroke

torque curve

limited turbo lag

aftermarket

daily driver

oil cooler

water pump

ARP hardware

long block

chrome baldy push rods

stamp pipe

high pressure oil leaks

J&K Engines

CP4 high-pressure fuel pump

bigger turbos

fuel system

ARP studs

Hot Shot Secrets

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

Help improve this episode

More from The Diesel Podcast