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Concept
emergency vehicles
An emergency vehicle is a vehicle that responds to urgent situations, like medical emergencies or fires. Because it has to get there fast, other traffic is expected to make room.
Brand
Bobcat dealer
Bobcat is a company that makes heavy-duty construction machines like small loaders. If you’re a “Bobcat dealer,” you sell those machines and usually help with service and parts too.
Brand
Mahindra
Mahindra is a company that makes vehicles and equipment, including farm and off-road machines. Here, they’re talking about working on Mahindra diesel utility vehicles.
Term
diesel powered
A UTV is a rugged off-road vehicle you can use for work, like hauling or getting around a job site. “Diesel powered” means it runs on a diesel engine, which is often chosen for pulling power.
Part
o-rings
O-rings are little rubber seals that help stop fluid or gas from leaking. They sit between parts so the connections stay tight even under heat and pressure.
Part
test plates
Test plates are like purpose-built test parts. They’re used to check whether other parts fit right and work properly before you put them into a vehicle.
Part
turbo
A turbocharger is a device that uses exhaust gases to spin and push more air into the engine. More air usually means more power, but it needs good sealing and cooling to work well.
Part
manifolds
Manifolds are the passageways that move exhaust or intake air around the engine. They help route gases to the right places so the turbo and cylinders get what they need.
Term
hard drive
Hard drives are computer storage devices that keep files even when the computer is off. In this context, they’re being targeted because they might contain important digital information.
Concept
delete
Here, “delete” means someone removed or turned off parts that control a truck’s exhaust pollution. The discussion is about how a shop can still be held responsible if they work on a truck that already had those emissions parts removed.
Term
rolling coal
“Rolling coal” means a diesel truck blows out a lot of thick black smoke when you accelerate. It’s often caused by changes to how the engine injects fuel, so it smokes more than normal.
Term
transfer weight sled
A “transfer weight sled” is a heavy sled used in truck pulling events. It’s designed so the sled’s weight shifts in a way that changes how the truck grips the ground while it pulls.
Term
drag racing
Drag racing is a straight-line race where cars or trucks try to get to the finish as fast as possible. The setup and launch matter a lot because traction affects how quickly they accelerate.
Car
Tesla Semi
The Tesla Semi is a large electric truck used to move cargo. Instead of using diesel fuel, it runs on electricity stored in its batteries. People talk about it because it’s meant to do long-haul work while using a different kind of power.
Car
Cupra Born
The Cupra Born is a small electric car (a hatchback). It uses a battery and an electric motor instead of a gasoline engine. It’s brought up because it’s designed to be fun to drive, including in events where cars race or climb hills.
Term
remanufactured engines
A remanufactured engine is a used engine that gets taken apart and rebuilt. Instead of leaving it as-is, the shop replaces worn parts so it can work like a properly functioning engine again.
Brand
power stroke
Powerstroke is Ford’s diesel engine brand. “Powerstroke remanufactured engines” means rebuilt Ford diesel engines sold as replacements.
Brand
Duramax
Duramax is GM’s diesel engine line. If you see “Duramax remanufactured engines,” it means those GM diesel engines are rebuilt for replacement.
Brand
Cummins
Cummins makes diesel engines used in lots of trucks. If someone sells “Cummins remanufactured engines,” they’re rebuilding that engine type so you can replace a worn or failed one.
Term
ISO 9001 2015 standards
ISO 9001 is a quality standard that companies follow to make sure they have consistent processes. If an engine remanufacturer meets it, it usually means their rebuilding and testing steps are more controlled and less random.
Term
quality testing validation
This means the engine isn’t only put back together—it’s also tested to confirm it meets certain standards. The goal is to catch problems before the engine goes to the customer.
Term
industry leading warranty
A warranty is the promise that if something goes wrong, the company will cover repairs or replacement. A “leading” warranty usually means it lasts longer or covers more than average.
Term
OEM engine
OEM means “made by the original manufacturer.” A basic OEM engine is rebuilt to match the factory design, not modified for extra power or different performance goals.
Term
tow haul
Tow/haul is a mode or setup meant for towing heavy loads. It’s designed to keep the engine working comfortably under sustained strain instead of only short bursts.
Term
speed of air series
“Speed of air series” sounds like a specific engine lineup aimed at improving airflow. Better airflow can help the engine burn fuel more efficiently and make more power.
Term
two microns
A micron is a tiny unit of measurement. If a filter catches particles as small as two microns, it means it can remove very fine dirt from the fuel so it doesn’t harm the fuel system.
Term
fuel system
Your fuel system is everything that gets fuel from the tank to the engine. If it’s dirty or contaminated, the engine can lose power and the parts can wear out faster.
Term
diesel pickup truck
A diesel pickup truck is a truck that uses a diesel engine. Diesel engines rely on clean fuel, so upgrades that filter and remove water can help it run better and last longer.
Brand
fastride.com
fastride.com is the website they’re pointing you to for a fuel system upgrade. It’s marketed as a U.S.-made option for diesel trucks.
Term
Class 8 semi-truck
Class 8 is the category for the largest commercial trucks used for hauling goods. A semi-truck is the big truck that pulls a trailer, usually for long-distance work.
Term
check engine light
The check engine light is a warning that the truck’s computer found a problem. It usually means you should get the codes read so you know what’s wrong.
Concept
rolling call thing
“Rolling call” sounds like slang for cruising around in a group. Here, the speaker is saying the way people do it can attract unwanted attention.
Concept
deletion
“Deletion” usually means removing or disabling the parts that control exhaust emissions on a diesel. People do it for different reasons, but it can be illegal and can cause other issues if not done correctly.
Term
emissions goals
An emissions goal is a rule about how clean a vehicle has to be. It sets targets for how much pollution the exhaust can produce, and that influences what changes people make to meet the rules.
Term
EPA emissions output
Emissions output is how much pollution comes out of the exhaust when the truck is tested. If the numbers are low enough, it can pass emissions checks; if not, it fails.
Term
opacity tests
Opacity tests check how smoky the exhaust is. They measure how much light the smoke blocks—more smoke usually means more soot, and passing means the truck is producing less visible pollution.
Term
carb testing
“CARB testing” means emissions testing under California’s air-quality rules. It’s a way to check whether a vehicle (or emissions setup) meets the standards California requires.
Term
common rail injection
It’s a modern way of feeding fuel into a diesel engine. The engine can precisely control when and how much fuel goes to each injector, which helps the exhaust be cleaner.
Concept
tailpipes
The tailpipe is where the exhaust comes out. When someone says it’s “clean at the tailpipe,” they mean the exhaust coming out of the vehicle is cleaner.
Term
Clean Air Act
The Clean Air Act is a U.S. law meant to limit air pollution. It’s why some emissions changes to vehicles can be restricted or prohibited.
Term
EGR filters
EGR is a system that sends some exhaust back into the engine to cut down on harmful emissions. The “EGR filters” are parts that catch soot in that exhaust stream so the system can keep working properly.
Term
DPF
A DPF is a diesel exhaust filter that traps soot so it doesn’t go out into the air. Over time it has to clean itself (regenerate) or it can cause problems with the car.
Term
tuning
“Tuning” typically means changing the computer settings in the engine. On diesels, that can change how the car burns fuel and how its emissions systems (like the DPF) behave.
LIVE
Welcome to the diesel podcast presented by DFC diesel.
Wait, welcome to diesel podcast.
How are you doing this afternoon?
Doing great, doing great, how are you?
I'm doing pretty well.
I've been looking forward to chatting with you.
I appreciate you making time out of your day
to talk with us.
I've known about you over the years
with like the motorsport side and everything.
And I saw recently major news that came out like everywhere
with presidential pardon.
And so I thought it'd be great to have you
on to hear your story.
I don't know much about it specifically with this,
but I thought it'd be great for the audience,
diesel enthusiasts to be able to hear
like what you went through, the process of it,
and then like what the last week has been like,
which I'm sure it's been crazy.
So welcome to DFC podcast.
Yeah, we, oh gosh, where to start?
You know, it's like the day of, I mean,
we'd always heard rumor mill that while you're working on
diesel truck stuff and doing things, you know,
EPA regulations, a cleaner act.
And I had a couple of friends that had had some visits
by EPA agents, maybe a single solo guy showed up,
wanted to talk about their business
and work in what they were doing.
But never really knew exactly the ins and outs
and the dos and don'ts until November 2nd of 2018.
We, you'd have thought we were cooking meth in the back room.
We had the buildings surrounded by local, city,
county, state, the DNR was actually involved.
They were to secure the building.
I think there was 28 to 30 of them surrounded the building.
Four EPA agents had flown in and they come in
and tell everybody to freeze and hold.
And never really said what they're there for,
but you got a pretty good idea.
They come in with a federal warrant to search the place
and the premises and gather intel
is all they would really tell us.
So fast forward, then when they left, you know,
there was a lot that happened there.
I actually had out in the shop, they'd come to me,
there was two agents come to me with a tape recorder
and they sat it down in front of me and they said,
can we ask you some questions?
I said, sure.
And it was who are you?
I had to state my name, all that shit.
And then they said, what do you do here?
And I said, you know, I got a question for you.
I said, I just got done watching that series on Netflix
called Making a Murder.
And I said, I don't know if you guys have seen that at all.
And they weren't personable.
They didn't want to, they just looked at me and I said,
well, I said, here's the deal.
I don't want to say the right thing or the wrong thing.
So do I need an attorney?
I asked them the question.
And they stopped that recorder right then.
They said, we're all done.
That was it.
That's the last time they would talk to me.
They wouldn't talk to me anymore.
And they left after several hours of going through the building
and computers and whatever else.
So we went a good 34 years without hearing anything.
And all of a sudden one day I got a letter and a mail
that we're about to be charged.
And that I may want to seek an attorney.
Which we had called a few people, a few attorneys.
What do we do?
We just got rated like we don't know what,
and they would say, well, you know,
we're defense attorneys, call us when you get charged.
There was no nothing leading up to what to do prior.
And I kid you not, this is 2018 when we got rated.
We went into 2023 before we got charged.
So for four years we're sick, because it was almost 2019.
What the hell do we do?
Almost to the point like, did they forget about us?
Cause then I'm hearing other people
getting some civil cases, kind of like,
we don't know what's going on.
And then all of a sudden we get this,
that we're being charged and we can turn ourselves in.
So we did, we got charged with conspiracy
to violate the Clean Air Act.
And then it was just from there,
whether you fought it, pled guilty or not guilty.
And we discussed with some attorneys, what do you do?
They still won't talk to me at this point during discovery.
We're trying to see, you know, what do they have?
What's going on?
They would not discuss.
It was take it or leave it.
They started telling us about the charges,
being a felony charge and criminals.
And then we're like criminals.
What are you talking about?
There's, but there was no discussion.
They wouldn't discuss anything.
And had to make the decision.
Do you take it to a jury trial?
You got to fight the federal government.
That's got a open checkbook.
They did show a three ring binder at one point, you know,
and it's sitting around a table with,
I don't know if it's got what it's got in it.
It could be blank paper.
The guy says, if you choose to fight this,
these are the charges that we're going to come at you with.
I think it was 362 counts.
He said, or violations that we're going to charge you with
for, and again, he could just kept saying conspiracy
to violate the Clean Air Act, which is a blanket charge.
So I'm like, you have no specific charge.
But he says, I can bring forth several more charges.
He would sit and tap that book,
like he had all this evidence,
but they don't have to show their cards.
So we made the decision with some attorneys and guidance
of in money, monetary, I mean,
take your wicks and move on, you know,
I mean, it's what do you do?
So you can't, I can't say that you can't fight them.
Guys have fought them, but nobody's been successful
fighting them.
I feel like they can always kind of make up their own rules
and laws if they need to as they go.
We've heard some other individuals get
that are pretty verbal on social media,
kind of mentioned that.
Things will get twisted and skewed.
So just a real tough call, some sleepless nights,
how, you know, the way they're trying to decide,
do you really all of a sudden just make yourself a felon
or do you fight for it?
You know, cause I don't believe
that what we're doing is wrong.
What was it like to go back kind of to the beginning stage
of it, like imagine the shock of you go into work one day
and then all of a sudden 30 people show up
and I'm sure they, you know, as a show of force,
like it would just catch you off guard
and then have that large gap, like a four year gap
between that and when you get the letter.
I'm sure that was a lot of stress, worry.
And then also you mentioned reaching out to some lawyers
and they're like, well, don't contact us till you get charged.
So it's like, what do you do in those, that four year interim?
I'm sure it was a lot of sleepless nights and stress
and just wondering like what comes next.
Well, definitely in the beginning.
I mean, it was a Friday, we'd come to work.
Just prior to that, say a month prior,
me and my brother and a relative,
we went joint forces on a vacation cabin
up in the upper peninsula of Michigan,
something that we wanted to do.
So we've just bought that place
and we were planning to go that weekend.
That's where we were going to go up there
and work around that place.
And all of a sudden, Friday about,
it was probably 23 o'clock
when they stormed the building.
Holy shit, you know, well, they told everybody
we were free to leave if we wanted,
but once we left, we couldn't come back until they left.
Well, so the majority of the employees, everybody left.
My brother and I stayed and a couple others.
It was into Saturday before they left.
And we just sit there, well, when they were leaving,
said, well, we don't even know what we're being charged with.
Like, what do we do Monday?
And the guy says, well, continue your business as usual,
but you might want to rethink your business plan.
And you opt and you're just like,
I have no idea what to do.
So yeah, it was a lot of sleepless nights.
And you'd call, we start calling, reaching out to the people.
You know, it was just dead-end calls.
And so really the first few months was just
very aggravating, very sleepless, stressful,
trying to figure out what paths do, what do we do?
Because, I mean, let's face it,
we all knew there was a gray area there in what we're doing,
but nothing in black and white.
There was never a warning or a direction from the government
of what to do, how comply.
When it come to, not to fast forward too far,
when it come to sentencing, I had the judge asking me
if I knew what I did was wrong.
And I'd said to him, I said, you know, at the time, no,
do I now?
Yes.
And I had to say that because you have to admit guilt
when you plead no contest.
So that was my way of admitting guilt.
But he says, what do you mean no at the time?
I said the amount of municipality vehicles
that we worked on, sheriffs vehicles,
on duty and off duty, none of these guys ever came back
and arrested me or gave me charges
as if they were selling me drugs undercover
on a type thing.
So how am I to know that I was gonna be wrapped up
in the same category as cocaine dealers
and these types of things
when nothing has ever been brought to my attention?
You know, I grew up in the school with the dare program,
don't drink and drive, all these different things,
billboards on the side of the highway,
all this stuff telling you you're do's and don'ts.
And there was never anything about what not to do with this.
We had to manage and make it work.
I mean, ambulances, fire trucks,
they all need to run.
Paw trucks, we have a lot of ice in Northern Michigan.
They're the first line of defense.
They're an emergency vehicle.
They gotta clear the road so that everybody else can go.
So it was just a lot of what to do's and what not to do's.
So we did change directions.
We started thinking, okay,
maybe we just don't even wanna be diesel mechanics, period.
But, you know, it's in your blood.
You got it, you know, it's what we do,
but we saw it all.
We became a Bobcat dealer.
We saw it all different lines of work, different avenues.
I do a lot of work with the Mahindra rock stores.
They were a little diesel powered UTV.
We found other methods and ways to work,
but still we went for years in limbo,
months turned into years.
And it was like, man, after like 34 years,
we're just like, I cannot believe that nobody's calling us
or nobody's doing anything.
What is going on?
And then finally all of a sudden one day
got a letter in the mail.
And honestly, I thought it was a piece of junk mail,
almost threw it in the trash,
just cause the way the envelope looked.
And it just, something about it said, I better open that.
And that was on a Saturday mailing.
So there again, we wait all the rest of the weekend
to make calls on Monday.
But at least at that point we knew, okay,
now we know we're being charged.
Now we can call and get representation
and get help and what do we do from here?
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Was it, when they went there
and then I guess it'd be through the whole process,
was it like parts they were looking for in the shop there?
Was it actual vehicles that didn't have stuff on them?
Were you able to get any clarification
of what they were searching for?
You know, I gotta be honest,
they didn't know what they were looking for.
We had cabinets full of parts,
O-rings, test plates,
whatever you may wanna call them, different things.
We had different turbos, manifolds,
all kinds of stuff on the show.
And all they really did was go through
like you would see on TV with CSI
where they like in a murder scene,
they would identify here's exhibit A, B, room A, room B.
They went through and identified every room,
took pictures of everything,
not knowing what they were looking at.
They wanted to copy computers, hard drives.
And they brought in the most primitive computers
and software and sat down where it was like,
they wanted to copy my phone
and they had my phone hooked to a device for a couple of hours.
Finally, I'm like, look,
if you guys want an iCloud backup,
I'll just throw one on a memory stick.
Here you go, now you got my contacts,
my photos, have a good time.
I mean, I don't know what you guys are trying to achieve,
but that'd just be easier.
But we actually had people,
they were asking then they're like,
they would grab a part and ask what it was.
It might not have anything to do with an engine component.
My sister-in-law runs a apparel business.
She does embroidery, makes hats, she makes these shirts.
She does all that kind of stuff.
So part of her operation,
we was in a building that had some shared operations in there
and they're grabbing her stuff.
Like, we're like, oh no, that's a spool of yarn.
You don't want that, what do you need that for?
They didn't know what the hell they were looking for,
to be honest, the majority of it, they really didn't.
With having a company and this happening,
I'm curious about that side of it too.
I'm sure with employees, business partners,
people in the building, you're working as usual,
this visit happens, and then you have this gap.
Like, what was it like as an entrepreneur,
as a business owner, someone who built this,
to face that side of the uncertainty,
internally with people?
Well, it's tough.
I mean, you've got a group of employees
that are all banking on you for a paycheck.
You got to have work for them.
And then your senior going,
maybe some of these jobs we got wind up,
we shouldn't be doing, or where should we continue?
Some of these jobs, let me point this out,
like it might not even be, say, a deleted vehicle
come in the shop for work on it.
Even if we hadn't been the one to delete it,
and we get a truck comes in and needs a turbocharger,
and you change the turbo on it,
you are now responsible for that delete.
It's considered as if you did it.
It's not to leave your shop illegal.
And at their eyes, that was illegal.
So you are now the responsible one.
So some of the jobs sitting all back,
it's like, it's got nothing to do with deleting anything.
But we have to work around the delete
to fix what it's here for.
And now we're responsible for it,
which at the time we didn't know that
we were responsible for it.
So when they're looking around your shop,
what you have there, I mean,
it might already be a deleted vehicle from another facility.
But now it's your delete sitting there.
So that was tough.
And then you got people looking at you.
What do we do now?
What do we, and then the locals,
the businesses around, everybody's questioning,
what was all the cops there for?
What was this raid?
I mean, the misinformation hit the social media,
hit the news.
It was really not that bad until we got charged.
And then when the charges hit the press,
I mean, then the news crews are lined up out front.
Nobody wanting to come in to interview us or talk to us,
they're just taking pictures of the building
and printing headlines that they don't know shit about,
saying dumb stuff, trying to get their views
and ratings up when,
and they're just sharing majority of the time misinformation.
I bet that was tough.
That's a struggle.
I was gonna say, I bet that's really tough
because you're in this situation
where you couldn't talk about it or anything
because you're in this legal process.
But then you have to see local media or social media
and other things take place of just kind of guesswork,
what people think might be going on.
And you just have to sit there and absorb it
because you have a process to go through.
Oh, and they use my social media against me.
I mean, I've got some friends,
other diesel shop owners that they've got 5,000 friends
on Facebook and so do I now.
And we've used that to where we'll tag each other
and gain views, gain business advertising and things that way.
Which we never, I say advertising,
but like we never advertised the work we were doing.
Like we never looked for the work.
The work just came in, man.
It was just, you couldn't keep up
and the work was just there.
But anyways, they watched,
when I say they, the government is watching your social media.
So that was used against me.
They went back 34 years,
videos of me pulling pickups at county fairs.
You know, and that's a competition.
And I'd tell them that, you know,
that pickup's rolling coal, absolutely.
But it's a competition vehicle.
And they would kind of look at you like,
what do you mean by that?
Like, they didn't even understand what a truck pole was.
I had to explain to them what a weight,
what a transfer weight sled is.
Or drag racing, you know, they just didn't get it.
It was very hard to work with them, try to work with them.
But also back to your thing, like with the public
and that I had to watch how I answered stuff
because yeah, we're gonna,
we gotta try to work with them and fight them a little bit.
So you really gotta watch what you say, be careful.
They're already using it against us.
Even after conviction, you know,
we knew that we wanted to try to fight this as best we could.
I always was hopeful someday,
maybe I could get it expunged.
So it's always be very careful what you do.
Everything unwinds to be positive.
Don't talk derogatory and negative about politics
and other things because they're watching.
So it's really up until this last Friday,
a big thumb pushing down on you the whole time,
big brother watching constantly.
And it's like every movie you're making,
prior to sentencing, prior to post sentencing,
the whole last seven and a half years
has just been watch what you do.
I definitely wanna get to like last Friday,
but before we get there,
what was it like at the end of the legal process
when you decided a direction to go,
can you walk me through a mentally
and even emotionally what you went through
with are you gonna fight it?
Are you gonna take a plea for the charges?
What was the end of that legal process like?
Man, you know, it was so tough.
My girlfriend is my number one supporter.
She has been huge through this whole thing.
And she's been in her career, she's done corrections,
she's done police work, she's done legal stuff.
So we've never been criminals before.
Our bedroom overhead, I got an old military musket
with, you know, the sword on it
and we got different things in the room
that are pro-American, I say, I call it.
And I'm looking at that saying,
I mean, I'm making myself guilty
and making myself a felon.
I wanna fight this.
I can't just roll over and say, I'll take the charge.
I had, I really struggled with it.
We laid there a few nights talking about
which direction do we go?
Cause how do you fight it?
How do you at the monetary side of it?
Where do you, you know, we talked about
you can't do go fund me's and shit over it.
You're kind of admitting guilt at that point.
So you really gotta watch how you receive money,
how you fight all the, for legal things.
And it was just really a basket case back and forth.
And then it was, okay, how do we live as a felon?
I mean, we love to travel.
You can't go to Canada anymore once you're a felon.
And if you watched me in history,
I do the uphill semi truck drag racing,
which was kind of born and evolved in Canada.
They all come here to race.
I wanna go there to race and return to favor
and go enjoy their place too.
And that's all, you know, I can't do that anymore.
We avid gun buyers, avid gun shooters.
And I can't buy a new gun anymore.
But there's ways that you can live with that
or work around it, but it was really a struggle
at trying to figure out what direction to go.
And meanwhile, probably what was really hard
is watching others continue to do it.
And brag about it online.
Tell you how American they are.
Nobody's gonna tell them what to do.
And watching all this shit unfold online daily.
And the phone calls that I would take
about trying to continue this line of work.
And I have to tell them, no, it's illegal.
And this is what I'm up against and get laughed at.
We had a lot of close family friends supporting,
but man, the public just thinks they think it's a joke.
They're laughing at you.
They still do this day.
Do not understand what the government,
how they treated you and what they expect of it.
So what I really like about what's happened
since last Friday is the public awareness and knowledge.
And just like this with our podcast
to continue getting it out there,
that one thing that we guys really gotta understand
is this does not make diesel deleting legal.
All they're doing is they're taking away
the criminal side of it.
They're not making you a criminal for it.
They're taking away the felony charges.
There's still guys out there that are felons for it.
They still gotta go through the process
of putting in an application and trying to get a pardon.
It's not just that everybody all of a sudden is not a felon.
And this doesn't mean that they won't come kick in your door.
They can still do that and civilly charge you.
They can take your house.
They can make you so broke that you won't know what to do.
So meanwhile, there's a lot of good coming out of this.
There's still a lot that guys listening,
you gotta be careful.
Gotta be careful where you think your business plan.
That's a really important message
because it's been a, I'm sure you've seen it
on different social media platforms,
different content creators.
With some of the news the last seven months or so
with making it not criminal, it's civil
or deregulation of certain things.
And somebody will take that and say,
well, they're legal, buy them, install them.
What's good to go?
And from you to lawyers to other people I have on,
that's not the message that I hear.
That's why I think it's so important
to have someone like yourself on
for people who tune in or see this episode
to hear the truth from somebody who went through all this.
Yeah, I mean, you know, and I'm fortunate
I didn't get put in jail.
I didn't physically do jail time.
God bless, I didn't do that.
And it's unfortunate we had a few guys that had to do that
to really get the attention of the right people
like Jeff Daughtry, great lobbyist to help get Troy.
Troy Link is the one that started this whole acknowledgement
once he got pardoned and got out.
But see, Jeff was the guy that did that in Stuart Cables.
I mean, these guys, I owe so much gratitude to these guys.
I mean, phenomenal work that they've done.
But it was very hard for me just to back up a little bit.
I didn't do jail, I had probation.
A lot of guys are like, probation's easy.
Well, I'm telling you, I'm the type of guy
that if I find something for sale in Indiana
and I'm in Michigan, I'll be in Indiana in the morning.
Now all of a sudden, I gotta call my probation officer
and ask him if I can go to Indiana.
And then they wanna know who I'm traveling with.
What time am I leaving?
What time am I coming back?
You know what, I left my parents' house years ago.
I don't need this and I didn't want that.
So just that alone, what a pain in the ass.
You gotta report to somebody.
That's not us, we're not them people,
we're not them criminals.
I'd go see my probation officer.
And it got to the point where it was like,
just call me or email me because he had people sitting out
in the hallway in orange jumpsuits
that he had to worry about.
And now that our case is closed,
we've gotten that, we talked with him the other day.
He's like, this case is closed.
And he's like, I feel, I'm so glad that it's closed.
He's like, I'm sorry guys.
I mean, he had a job to do.
It was tough for him to enforce it,
but he had a job to do.
He kind of felt with us.
But it's just been a whole thing.
And then you got the government,
they got forensic accountants that think that you have cash
just stuffed in the safe and money everywhere.
And they want their fine money right now.
And it's like, we'll show you the books.
I mean, I got a mortgage on the house.
I owe on the vehicles.
I don't, if I had that much cash,
you think I would have some shit paid for.
So you got them honing you constantly.
They want money, they want money.
And it's just a constant stress.
Just, I don't even know how to where to keep going with this.
It's so, it's so to the point that last Friday
made this the best for the July.
I can sit back and relax a little bit and go,
I mean, this week now we're getting all the media attention.
We're getting a lot of haters along with,
but we're getting a way more supporters,
a lot more supporters.
So that really tells me that the American dream is still alive
and the people are behind us.
They know they've seen it.
They feel it with their own line of work,
their own personal vehicles.
It's definitely getting good attention.
Tell me about last Friday.
You mentioned you always had hoped that it would be
expunged or taken off your record.
Tell me what that was like.
Cause when we saw it on social media, it was like,
wow, this is happening.
And I saw it on major news networks and everywhere.
It was all out there.
I know it was, you know, I'd talked with our attorney,
we had an attorney, Kevin,
that helped us through the whole case,
that great guy, good guy.
And he said, he used to at one point work
for the federal government.
And he said, look fellas,
he said, this is a federal felony.
He said, I have never seen one get expunged ever.
He said, you have to apply for a pardon.
And it's with the ATF and he says, it's a whole thing.
And he said, you get one shot.
He said, that's it.
He said, if you don't get it, it never happens.
And he goes, but I'm also telling you right now,
I have never seen it happen.
State level felonies, those things have been expunged
in different levels.
He said, this is a federal felony.
He said, do not get your hopes up.
So I just kind of figured this is the rest of my life,
how I'm going to live as a felon.
And come last November,
and we're friends with Troy Link, we know Troy.
I felt awful.
Troy knew he was going to jail before he went to jail.
I mean, just talking about it,
shit make you want to sit and cry with a grown man.
It was like, this is terrible.
But fast forward to, he got pardoned.
He got out.
I mean, I don't know all the backstory.
I know he was in for seven months
and there was a lot of people doing a lot of work
in the background and got him out
and got this in front of the right people
and got the pardon.
And so now the candle's lit.
Now we got a little glimmer of hope over here.
And it was like, oh man.
And then we start watching the news.
We're talking, we do our cables.
We talked with Jeff back before Christmas.
We're getting the plan together.
We start doing pardon applications.
And we start watching the government talk about
and the EPA, we Zeldin and these guys talking
about doing some redactions and doing different things.
So all spring we've just been sitting here
going, I think the government might be doing this for us even,
you know, a little bit,
but we got to continue down the path
of the application, the pardon to do things right.
I had to get some character letters from other friends.
And that's an emotional rollercoaster.
I mean, to start asking your very close friends
to basically just have a eulogy, you know what I mean?
Like tell everybody how great a guy I am.
Would you please?
And to sit and listen to that from your close friends,
that hits, it's an emotional rollercoaster.
And then you're just sitting here going,
man, I hope this works.
I hope this works.
Well, then we just, a few weeks ago, back in May,
I got an email from the pardon's office
with a question about one of my buddies' letters
that they'd sent in.
And I got ahold of them.
I said, they're having a question with your letter.
I know they're looking at this.
I just got the email.
I said, is there any way you can redo this, sign it,
send it, whatever.
He did immediately.
I got receipts that they got it.
I'm thinking, okay, cool, they're looking at it.
And then just the last couple of weeks,
I'm getting a phone call, hey, rumor has it.
You're on the desk waiting for the signature.
He's looking at doing some pardons for the big 250
for the July party and rumor that he might pardon 250 people.
And then rumor, oh, it's not gonna happen.
Maybe this fall and just up and down, up and down.
Well, then right up till Friday,
we were closed Friday as a business.
And my brother and I were in here, we're always working.
And I'm working doing things and my brother comes out
and he says, hey, if you get a phone call
from this area code, he's like, no matter what, answered.
He's like, Jeff just called and said,
where might be a possibility that we're getting pardoned?
And I'm like, you know what?
I said, I keep getting that smoke blowing up my ass.
I said, don't, don't have with me right now.
You know, I'm just, I'm like, whatever, you know?
Well, then, and I said, the problem is my phone,
if I've never talked to you before, it goes to spam.
I'm like, if they call out,
they leave a message and call them back.
And I finished up doing some work about four o'clock
and I pulled out of the driveway
and we got a red light just down the street.
I pulled up to the red light and my phone rang.
It was Jeff and Stuart calling
and they were calling on behalf of the White House
to pass a message that I'd just been pardoned,
that I was one of the sign pardons.
And it was like, I sit there and watch the light turn green
and I had to wait for the car behind me to blow the horn.
I was like, I couldn't wrap my head around what was going,
I'm like, unbelievable, just couldn't believe it.
So, so happy just it brought tears of joy.
I pulled into the gas station and just sit there.
I'm like, I don't even know what to do,
but I'm a free man.
I'm like, this is, this is awesome.
Everything that's been going on the last few years
is now null and void.
And what a sigh of relief.
Who's the first person you called
after you got the call from them?
Nikki, my girlfriend.
She should probably be my wife by now.
We've been together a long time.
And like I said, before she was the best supporter,
close support, she's been right behind me, unbelievable.
And so I called her first and then I,
well, then I called my brother.
She said, oh, shit, we couldn't believe it.
Talked about that for a second.
And I called my mom and my dad.
And then my brother and I were trying to decide,
how do we tell everybody?
And I don't know if you've seen it or not.
I said, well, I got, I'm the one that's got 5,000 people
following me on Facebook.
I said, let's go Facebook live.
I said, I'll be over in a minute.
So that's when I had picked up Nikki.
She was with me and we headed for my brothers.
And we were, so we did that Facebook live
about telling all our friends and family at one time
that we've been pardoned and holy shit.
And then I've been reaching out to Ted Nugent quite a lot.
So with my work with the little Mahindra Rocksore,
he's got some on his ranch.
And I talked with some of his guys, I supply them parts
and we keep his rock stores running and operational.
Ted's kind of hard on things out on his ranch.
And I've acquired his number and I've talked with him before.
And I got to go hang out with him at a concert.
And I got just a tiny glimmer of friendship with him, you know,
and I've been hammering him to help with this pardon.
I'm like, man, you got to help with this.
And so I sent him a text, a screenshot, and I sent it to him.
And actually I was doing my Facebook live,
he responded to it and hopefully he's listening to this one
because I'm still hammering him that we need to,
we need to meet and greet and maybe get on his podcast
and do a little, little thing.
But so I contacted him as well.
And it was cool that he responded
because sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't.
And he's a good American dude.
And then the phone just blew up from there.
And honestly, to this day right now,
I'm still getting messages right now, texts, emails,
Facebook messages, the friend request is through the roof.
And I can't take more friends right now
because my Facebook friends is full
and I haven't pursued another avenue to make it more.
But so I'll let everybody know if you're trying
to friend request me that I'm just locked, I can't.
But I appreciate the support, appreciate the try.
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I'm sure it's still a whirlwind
because it's not that, it's not even gonna be a week yet,
when people hear our conversation.
And I'm sure the emotion and the maybe shock
would be the right word or just elation is still going on.
But have you had a chance to look back on it and think,
well, I can't believe this happened.
I can't believe that it got all the way to the top.
I think that's one of the things that has shocked me
about some of these recent episodes that I've done
is we might look at it the same way.
These are vehicles, these are trucks.
You like to work on them, you like to sled pull them,
race them, upgrade them.
And this hobby has gone all the way to the top
of our form of government to that upper echelon
for somebody to step in and say,
I'm going to change what had happened.
I'm going to pardon this person for what took place.
To me, that's just so, I don't know,
it's so mind blowing in a way to think diesel trucks
and the aftermarket and everything,
it's gone all the way to that level.
I mean, this last week has been, since Friday, definitely.
I'm not afraid, I guess I'll admit,
I've cried more now in the last few days
than it'll just hit me.
It's like an emotional, like somebody finally listened.
That was probably one of my biggest aggravations
throughout the whole case is I can never get them
to talk to me.
I think once I had asked them if I needed an attorney,
they walked up, they wouldn't talk with me.
We couldn't discuss nothing.
And all the way right up to my sentencing,
every time I'd reach out to the DOJ,
I'd have my attorney reach out to the prosecutors.
They never wanted to discuss.
There was no negotiation.
This was the offer, take it or leave it.
It was very hard because I've gotten Christmas cards,
thank you cards.
I get families walking in.
I saved their business, saved them from going bankrupt.
Their truck would have been down for 34 weeks
and that was their income, their Class 8 semi-truck.
Not only were they not able to go make money that week,
but it was costing them $10,000, $12,000 to fix it.
And then it would happen again in 30 days or less
or another check engine light would come on two days
down the road and just the levels of frustrations.
But the people that we got those types of calls,
so that's back to when the judge says,
do you understand what you were doing was wrong?
Fuck no, I didn't.
I'd never gotten more thank yous in my life.
And yeah, I did competition.
I do competition, sled pull and drag race,
but I wasn't out on the street doing that.
There's a time and place for it in it.
Yeah, when I was younger and we first was getting into this,
the whole rolling call thing and we did it to ourselves, guys.
I mean, this whole deletion thing really brought the attention
when people can't keep it off the street
and they do it in the wrong place
that really brought the wrong attention.
And that put us all in this position to where now
we still have these guys that are Billy badasses
that go and get it done and they still do it
thinking that they're all cool as shit.
But where I'm cool now is I've got a letter
with our president signature on it
that I can sit and say that's bad ass
and we're finally getting someone to listen to us.
And maybe we can renegotiate some things
and re-talk about some things
and get some legislation in place.
But what we need to quit having is little Johnny
over in the back corner fucking it up.
So I'd really like to get that message out there too.
Everybody thinks that this is just a legal paper
all of a sudden it's wide open.
No, we're just cracking the door open.
This is gonna be huge in the next while.
And I'm really hoping it's the proper way,
the good footprint and hoping that we can all keep continuing
to at least do the competition that we want.
And I know they're talking redactions
and helping the farmers and all that
but it's helping everybody bring costs down.
There's so many benefits to it
that if you could just keep the hot rod bullshit
out of downtown, that would be wonderful.
Do you think the listening part would be crucial
to all this as well?
I've heard that before from different guests
that I've had on talking about this topic
is they felt like an agency just wasn't listening to them
when they were saying, hey, this is a problem.
These are failing soon or these trucks
are having these issues.
We have figured out a way to maybe potentially
make it better and still do it within a framework
of whatever sort of emissions goal
or emissions output they're trying to do
but the aftermarket has found ways to do it.
Do you think that dialogue is gonna be the key
as we move forward between people like yourself
and those that are either in agencies
or creating the policy to be able to have back and forth
with what works and what doesn't?
That's what I'm hoping is that we can really open up
because that's what they wouldn't listen to before.
We've got trucks that we sent to California
that had carb testing done.
I mean, they're passing opacity tests,
they're passing full blown inspections.
These trucks weren't getting turned around.
California is the most strictest of the strict
and they were passing their regulations
and they're testing.
We sent trucks to be tested.
With common rail injection and with the technology
and the advancements and tuning and things that we can do,
you can be so clean at the tailpipe
that a lot of the stuff isn't needed
but you've never had the opportunity to prove it
because part of the thing was with the Clean Air Act
or with the EPA, what they would sit and say is
you can't defeat, delete, or remove anything OEM
and the OEMs got billions of dollars wrapped into this
but their big issue was to open the hood
and see something changed.
Whether it did better or not, they didn't care,
they just seen something had been changed
and that was their issue
and that's where these things need rewritten
and re-looked at, that there's other avenues
and there's other ways in place
that we can still have clean air, clean water.
We all want these things.
We're not out to kill the environment.
So I really hope it does open that door
to where maybe now that we can get some people
wanna talk and have these conversations
and re-work some things that the whole plastic jug
and cardboard thing.
I mean, we can all sit and throw this shit around
but really at the end of the day,
that's what really they need to be looking at
is what are we doing to our land and water right now?
And really you gotta sit back and go,
it's more than just America, man.
We gotta get this, like Canada's got some rules.
We gotta get this on a global scale even.
It's so, look at the footprint
that the size of the US is on the globe.
If it's just gonna be our cars and trucks
that fix the planet, come on.
There's other ways, there's other methods,
there's other things that need to be looked at
and taken care of first.
But I really think it's,
I'm hopeful that this is gonna open the door
to have some conversation.
Let's look at them testings,
let's look at some things that we can achieve
and maybe set a better standard.
I don't think in my,
deleting was never legal.
They're not gonna make it legal,
at least not a full blown remove everything.
But I think maybe some things could be removed.
So kind of where to sit and stand with that
and be hopeful for now.
Yeah, I think that dialogue will be so productive with,
I mean, there's so many parts,
whether it's piston design or the EGR filters
or DPF, high flow DPFs or tuning
and the capability they have with that
or fuel systems.
And there's just so many things that are out there.
I think that dialogue would be incredible.
I think that's a really good point that you brought up
as you kind of look forward.
And it's probably kind of tough right now
to maybe analyze that part of it.
But do you see yourself taking more of a central role
like in the education or in the trying to help the dialogue
and the change happen?
Are you gonna like refocus on your business
or what are your future plans with what you're doing?
Man, it, I don't know
because it's also new and fresh at the moment.
Yeah.
You know, I say that,
but like just a month or so ago,
I went 30 miles up the road here to a little school
that the guy is trying to start a auto shop program.
So I went up there and spent a couple of hours with him
questioning the answers and talked about things
and how to get started into a hands-on mechanic position.
And these guys are in eighth and ninth grade, you know?
When I went to school, we had a trades side of the school
where we could learn to weld and work on small engines.
And a lot of that should have gone throughout these schools.
And I really think we need to start at those ages.
That's where guys, you'll find kids with interest
that these are gonna be our future mechanics.
But even go like Ferris State University,
we've gone to their diesel down there
trying to hire new employees and find help,
but also to get involved with the professors down there
and give some schooling on what we've been through
just like we're doing this conversation
and have those conversations with those guys
and try to change the mentality and the outlook a little bit.
Not that we can't do it,
but back to more of the time and place.
Building horsepower is awesome,
but we just, we've got two different ways
or places to do it, should say.
Cause I don't wanna be the, man, he's Debbie Downer.
I don't wanna be that guy, but right now, I mean,
right now the door is opening to make the change
and to still have the ability.
So we gotta keep the ability going
and make the ability bigger and better than it is currently.
And I think we've just seen that door open.
We've got, I mean, it's awesome.
Lee Zeldin, I can't thank him like with the EPA and Trump.
I mean, the administration,
we definitely have a lot of positives
and goods behind us right now,
but let's remember laws have not been changed
and we get a different administration change
in a couple of years.
This could, so we really gotta take advantage
of the next couple of years here
and make some headway and do it smart and educate.
So if it's my direction, if I can help educate,
by all means I'm all for it.
The guys here at the shop, we already all have been educated.
We already all have changed our ways
and work in different methods
and learned how to make an income in a different way
and to help people and still have that good feeling
to go home at night that you help somebody
until there's something that you really wanna do
that your hands are tied, then it's back to frustration.
But yet also I've been to classes for after treatment
and how to work on them.
And I think that's a lot of the problem
or some of the problems, issue.
I don't know what to call that,
but deletion was always just the easiest option.
It was the quickest money maker,
the easiest way to grab it and get the problem out the door.
When really what we need to do is focus on
also working on those systems.
Cause I have a feeling that even if some things got redacted,
as in the past, sometimes things,
the way they were born are to remain that way.
So we might still have some 2010 to 2025 models
that maybe you can't change when it comes to legality.
So we might still have to know how to work
on some of these things.
So education is gonna be big
and I'm willing to help in any way that I can.
So I think it is gonna be huge
from a couple of different perspectives.
Like one, what you just mentioned with diagnostics
and how to fix the trucks,
but then also pulling in younger people,
like you mentioned, getting them interested in it.
The other huge part of it is like,
I'm sure you've seen it in your experience in this industry.
I've definitely can vouch for it as well as myself included.
We're not experts in legislation or policy making
or how government interacts with each other,
how agencies interpret laws or the legal process.
But the diesel industry has been forced
to get kind of familiar with it for a really long time.
And it's forced it on,
not just diesel, I know automotive in general,
but it's like another hat to where we need
to understand how it works
and then become involved in the process.
Well, and I've got some friends that are politicians,
local, you know, local stuff as well and state level.
And I couldn't do their job.
It takes, it's just a long process
to get anything done, I feel like.
And I'm the type of guy that when we have a problem
or a solution, we fix it.
And man, so you're right,
I don't know the legislative side.
I've learned a lot about it in the last couple of years
and I still got a long way to go,
but the biggest thing is patience.
Man, I don't know how some of these guys,
they've gotten the patience to do what they do.
God bless them because we need them people,
but sometimes it is like, can we just do it and move on?
I mean, and you just can't.
It's frustrating on that end.
So.
I think we need more people in politics like that
that just wanna fix it, right?
Or less, I don't know.
I don't know.
Yeah, I really hate to get,
I never wanted to get political in my life.
I never really gave a shit about politics
until I was in my mid 30s
and it started to hit me a little bit.
And then when all this stuff went down in my mid 40s,
I had, I got schooled on it real quick.
And unfortunately politics is probably in places
that shouldn't be, but it's there.
So.
Well, I really appreciate your time today, Wayne.
It was great to chat with you.
Congratulations.
I appreciate you telling your story and sharing
not just the, you know, the point A to point B side,
but also the mental and emotional toll that it took.
And I appreciate your insights.
I'd love for people to be able to connect with you
if they'd like to ask you questions
or maybe they're interested in what you talked about
with education,
whether it's younger people getting involved in it
or in this process that we just discussed.
I know you had mentioned that your,
your friendly cluster is capped at the 5,000 right now,
but what are some ways that someone could reach out to you
if they want to talk with you?
Yeah, because I feel like we're going to hang up on this
and I'm going to go, man, I didn't talk about that
or I didn't talk about that.
This could turn into hours worth of stuff, you know,
that a guy could really get into different topics on.
And I always answer my phone when I can.
Sometimes it's a fault of mine, sometimes.
But my Facebook, I mean, I'm Wade Lalone
and you can send me a Facebook message if you want.
I will answer it when I can or when I'm available.
If I don't answer it right away, maybe who knows, I'm busy
or I'm just tired of the same question
over and again,
or my email is Wade at dieselfreak.com.
I'm always checking emails as well.
I don't know if I'm gonna put the shop number out there,
you can Google it and find that.
I don't have all day to sit and talk on the phone either,
but we have been getting calls of support
and some guys just calling to say,
hey, I don't need anything else.
I wanted to do a say thank you.
Well, I appreciate it and I appreciate the support
and the outpouring.
I guess otherwise I don't know.
I've had people say, man, you need to get a tic-tac going.
You need to get that going.
And this going up saying, I don't know
if I want to take that kind of time
and follow myself around and videotape everything
and keep it to one minute and share it and monetize it.
It's like, I don't have time for that.
But always willing to help if I can.
And at some point, I'll answer when I can.
So I'll say that it's Wade at dieselfreak.com
or my Facebook messenger.
That's a way I'm not giving out my cell phone number.
Probably too many people have that already.
And I got friends out there and people wrote these letters.
I'm not gonna sit and get them all involved at the moment,
but they all know who they are.
And I want to thank them for everything they did
helping me get to this day and you're not forgotten.
And if others need my help in that situation
and their journey reach out
and we'll be glad to try to help do the same.
It was a pleasure to chat with you today, Wade.
I appreciate it.
Look forward to staying in touch.
Always feel free to reach out to me if I can help
or you want to talk about something else.
You're always more than welcome to come back on
and use our platform to get the message out.
Appreciate it.
Yep, it's been fun.
I'd do it again.
Don't forget, diesel fans,
make sure and head on over to kershaw.kausa.com.
Use code TDP402026 for 40% off MSRP.
It's a great way to save some money,
get some cool gear if you're on the market
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Then we got you covered with a bunch of different choices
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They've had a bunch of new releases in 2026.
So again, if you're in the market,
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Use code TDP402026 and get 40% off MSRP.
Also wanna give a shout out
to some of our Patreon supporters,
Robert, TSW, Diesel, John,
all of our other Patreon supporters,
all of you who subscribe on YouTube and podcast apps,
follow us on social media.
We appreciate all your support here
in the year 10 of the Diesel podcast
and look forward to bringing you more of the content
that you wanna hear in 2026.
Till next time, keep the shiny side up.
Thank you.
About this episode
A diesel shop owner recounts how an EPA raid upended his life—agents arrived with a federal warrant, seized diesel parts, and even tried to copy digital data. Years later, the case escalated into Clean Air Act conspiracy charges framed as a “blanket charge,” with uncertainty, monitoring, and no clear compliance guidance. The hosts connect the story to broader diesel legality shifts, explaining that “making it not criminal” doesn’t equal permission to “buy and install.”
Original notes
Wade LaLone of Diesel Freak shares his story on today's episode. He
takes us through the day EPA officials and law enforcement arrived at
his shop, the years of uncertainty that followed, his federal felony
conviction under the Clean Air Act, and ultimately receiving a
Presidential Pardon. We discuss the emotional toll the case took on him,
his family, and the diesel community, as well as why he says the pardon
gave him the opportunity to move forward with his life.
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The Diesel Podcast
The Diesel Podcast
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