6.3L Stroker 6.0 Powerstroke: The Ultimate Tow Build?
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Concept
diesel enthusiast
A diesel enthusiast is a person who really likes diesel engines and trucks and spends time learning about and working on them.
Concept
truck shows
Truck shows are gatherings where people bring their trucks to show off how they look or perform and meet others who like trucks.
Car
6.0 Powerstroke
The 6.0 Powerstroke is a type of diesel engine made by Ford that is used in big trucks. People like it because it can pull heavy loads and is good for truck projects.
Concept
6.3L stroker
A 6.3L stroker is a type of engine that has been made bigger inside to make more power. They change parts inside the engine so it can hold more air and fuel.
Concept
drop-in replacement
Drop-in replacement means you can swap the new engine in without changing anything else. It fits right in like the old one.
Part
6.4L crankshaft
The 6.4L crankshaft is a strong part inside the engine that helps move the pistons. Using this bigger part makes the engine tougher.
Term
burnouts
A burnout is when a driver spins the wheels of their truck or car really fast while staying in one spot, making smoke. It can be hard on the engine and parts.
Concept
SEMA
SEMA is a big show where people show off cool car parts and custom vehicles. It's important for car and truck fans.
Term
common rail
Common rail is a way diesel engines spray fuel into the engine to make it run better and cleaner.
Term
bore and stroke
Bore is how wide the engine's cylinders are, and stroke is how far the pistons move up and down. Together, they decide how big and powerful the engine is.
Term
torque curve
Torque curve is a graph that shows how strong the engine pulls at different speeds. A smooth curve means the truck feels strong all the time.
Term
limited turbo lag
Limited turbo lag means the turbocharger kicks in fast when you press the gas, so the truck feels quick and smooth.
Concept
aftermarket
Aftermarket means parts made by other companies to make your truck better or different from the original.
Concept
daily driver
A daily driver is a truck or car you use every day to get around, like going to work or running errands.
Term
oil cooler
An oil cooler is like a radiator for the engine oil. It keeps the oil from getting too hot so the engine parts stay protected.
Part
ARP hardware
ARP hardware means strong bolts and nuts that hold engine parts together so they don't break when the engine works hard.
Term
long block
A long block is an engine that comes mostly put together, so you just have to install it in your vehicle.
Part
chrome baldy push rods
Push rods are parts inside the engine that help move valves. These special chrome ones are stronger so the engine can make more power.
Concept
stamp pipe
A stamp pipe is a metal pipe that carries oil to the turbo part of the engine. Some older pipes could leak, so newer ones are made as one piece to stop leaks.
Concept
high pressure oil leaks
High pressure oil leaks happen when oil that is pushed very hard through the engine escapes from where it should be. This can cause problems with how the engine works.
Company
J&K Engines
J&K Engines is a company that works on Ford diesel engines, making them stronger and better for towing and other uses.
Term
CP4 high-pressure fuel pump
The CP4 is a part in some diesel trucks that pumps fuel at very high pressure. Sometimes it breaks and can cause big engine problems that are expensive to fix, so people often replace it to be safe.
Term
bigger turbos
A turbo is a part that helps the engine breathe better and make more power. Bigger turbos mean more power but can be harder on the engine.
Term
fuel system
The fuel system is what gets gas or diesel into the engine so it can run. Making it work harder means giving the engine more fuel to make more power.
Term
ARP studs
ARP studs are special strong bolts used in engines to hold parts together better than regular bolts.
Company
Hot Shot Secrets
Hot Shot Secrets makes special liquids you add to diesel fuel to help clean the engine parts and make the fuel work better, so your diesel truck runs smoother and lasts longer.
LIVE
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,
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$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
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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
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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
About this episode
Dive into the world of diesel engine builds with a focus on the 6.3L stroker 6.0 Powerstroke, a reliable and powerful upgrade for daily driving and towing. The discussion covers the build process, key components, and common misconceptions about 6.0 and 6.7 Powerstroke engines. Highlights include the collaboration with Custom Offsets on a unique 6.3 stroker build, the importance of proper maintenance, and upgrades like the DCR pump conversion to avoid costly failures. The episode also touches on the balance of performance and reliability, with insights from JNK Engines on building engines tailored to customer needs.
Original notes
J&K Engines tells us about their 6.3L Powerstroke build and why it’s a favorite for towing, performance and more. We also discuss misconceptions about building a Powerstroke and what the shop actually sees for failures.
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