Two-wheel drive means the truck only powers one set of wheels (usually the rear). In drag racing, that can make the car simpler and sometimes easier to tune for traction.
A short bed just means the truck’s cargo area is shorter than a standard bed. Builders mention it because it changes the truck’s proportions and can affect setup for racing.
“Heads” are the top parts of the engine where combustion happens. In performance builds, what cylinder heads you use matters for how much power the engine can make.
Duramax is a diesel engine used in certain GM trucks. “Generation one” means the earliest version of that engine, and people still like it because it’s been around forever and has lots of aftermarket upgrades.
LB7 is a particular version of the Duramax diesel engine. Saying “LB7 power” is a way of telling you which engine it is, and that affects what upgrades and tuning people do.
Here, “progression” just means the truck’s build changed over time. They’re talking about how the setup started one way and then got improved with mods.
Term
twin kit
A “twin kit” typically means the truck has two turbochargers instead of one. That helps the engine make more boost and power.
Duramax is GM’s diesel engine line. A tuner shop is where specialists adjust the engine’s settings to make more power, usually along with performance parts.
“91 millimeter” is a size measurement tied to the turbo hardware. Bigger turbo-related sizes can support more power, but they may spool differently (how quickly boost comes on).
Carillo (Carrillo) is a brand that makes stronger forged engine parts. Using that kind of setup usually means the engine internals are built to survive more boost and power.
A compound kit is a turbo upgrade that uses two turbochargers instead of one. That can help the truck spool faster and make more power, and “Whirly” is the name of the kit being discussed.
Exhaust manifolds and up-pipes are key parts of the turbo exhaust path. “Kodiak manifolds” and “up pipes” typically mean upgraded cast/aftermarket components that improve exhaust flow to the turbo(s), which can help spool and power on diesel turbo builds.
Car
Duramax
Duramax is a diesel engine used in certain GM trucks. It’s popular with performance builders because it responds well to upgrades like turbo and exhaust changes.
Think of a short block as the bottom part of the engine. It includes the moving parts like the crank and pistons, but not the top parts like the cylinder heads.
A turbo kit is a set of parts that lets you add a turbo (or upgrade it) to make more power. It’s more than just the turbo itself—it includes the pieces needed to connect everything.
A four-link is a suspension system that uses four arms to control the rear axle. It helps the truck keep the tires planted and behave more predictably when you launch or brake.
Axle tubes are the metal “housing” parts that hold the axle assembly together. If you weld or drill them, you’re basically modifying the axle’s structure so you can run different (often stronger or larger) axle parts.
Weight savings is the practice of reducing vehicle mass to improve acceleration, braking, and overall responsiveness. On a drag-focused build, it often drives decisions like swapping suspension components to lighter setups.
Torsion bars are a type of suspension spring that works by twisting a metal bar. Replacing them with coilovers usually lets you set the truck’s stance and handling more precisely.
Tubular arms are the linkages that connect the wheels to the suspension. Using tubular (round) steel arms can make them stronger and sometimes lighter for a performance build.
Coilovers are suspension parts that let you lower or raise the truck and control how it rides. If you change where they mount, you may need custom brackets so everything fits and lines up correctly.
Tire gap is the empty space you can see between the tire and the fender. Lowering and tire sizing are adjusted so the truck looks right without making the suspension angles unsafe.
Lowering spindles are parts that move the front wheels lower to drop the truck’s stance. They can also change alignment, so you may still need to dial in the final ride height and settings.
Term
factory keys
They’re saying the truck was still sitting too high because the factory ride-height adjustment pieces weren’t set to the lower position. Even with other lowering parts installed, those adjustments matter.
A dyno is a machine that tests a vehicle’s power in a controlled way. They’re asking if the truck was measured on one to see what kind of horsepower/torque it’s making.
Exhaust housings are turbocharger-related housings that affect exhaust flow and turbo spool characteristics. Changing them can alter boost response and the shape of the power/torque curve, which is why tuners swap components during dyno development.
Torque is the twisting force the engine produces, and it strongly influences how quickly a vehicle accelerates—especially under load. In diesel performance, high torque at usable RPMs is often a key goal for towing, launches, and track consistency.
Term
dual fuelers
“Dual fuelers” refers to running two fuel systems/components (commonly two fuelers/injector-related setups) to increase fuel delivery for higher power. In diesel performance, that’s often paired with turbo/boost and tuning changes to support the extra fueling safely.
The Dodge Charger is a performance car that’s built to be fast, usually with a powerful engine. People sometimes modify them heavily—swapping parts or combining components—to make them perform differently than stock. That’s why it can show up in a conversation about unusual custom builds.
Injectors are the parts that deliver fuel into the engine. For a boosted diesel build, you often need injectors that can supply enough fuel for the extra power without causing problems.
An Exergy pump is an aftermarket fuel pump used to help deliver the right fuel pressure for a diesel. The point here is that it’s a common, buy-it-now upgrade rather than a one-off custom part.
“Off the shelf” just means you can buy the parts normally, not custom-made. The speaker’s saying today’s builds can be copied because the parts are easy to get.
Term
hybrid 64
A “hybrid 64” is a turbo setup built to behave like a larger “64” turbo, but with a mix of parts to improve how it spools up and drives. It’s basically a tuned turbo combination rather than a single off-the-shelf model.
“Drag and drive” means you want the truck to be able to race like a drag car, but also be able to drive there and back under its own power. It’s about performance you can actually use.
A “hybrid deal” means a kit or plan to convert the truck so it uses both a traditional engine and an electric system. It’s basically a packaged way to do the conversion instead of piecing everything together yourself.
Term
88
“88” is likely shorthand for a specific turbocharger option used in performance diesel builds. The speaker is saying the customer wanted that particular turbo choice as part of a twin-turbo style kit.
Concept
emulate the drag truck
This means the builder is trying to copy the kind of setup a drag-racing truck uses. The goal is to make the truck behave like that drag truck, not just look similar.
“UCC” is mentioned like a shop or program the host is comparing to. They’re basically saying it’s not a realistic option unless you have a huge amount of money.
Exhaust flanges are the bolted connection surfaces that mate exhaust components together, such as a turbo to the downpipe or manifold. If the flange pattern or thickness doesn’t match, the turbo setup can’t be bolted in directly and may require custom fabrication or modification.
Aftermarket seats are upgraded seats you install instead of the original ones. They can be more supportive or more comfortable, especially for a modified truck.
Wheel horsepower is how much power your truck actually delivers to the road. It’s measured at the wheels, so it’s typically less than the power the engine makes on paper.
A hybrid setup combines a conventional engine with an electric motor and battery system to assist propulsion. In performance builds, hybrids are often used to improve response and traction, and to help manage power delivery at low speeds.
Spooling is how quickly the turbo “spins up” and starts making boost. If it spools fast, the truck responds quicker when you hit the gas.
Term
driving manners
“Driving manners” means how smooth and predictable the truck feels to drive. It’s about whether it behaves nicely when you accelerate and shift, not just how fast it goes.
Shift points are when the transmission decides to change gears. If you tune them, you can make the truck shift sooner or hold gears longer, which changes how it feels day to day.
Throttle is how much you press the gas pedal. More throttle usually means more power and, on turbo cars, more boost—so the truck can feel very different at higher pedal positions.
Drivability is how easy and smooth the truck is to drive in real life. It’s about whether it feels controllable and predictable, not just whether it’s fast.
A “tune” is the software settings that control how the truck runs. “Tune issues” means those settings weren’t right, so the truck didn’t behave the way they expected.
Concept
mechanically wrong
“Mechanically wrong” means something physical in the truck wasn’t working right. They’re saying they later discovered a real problem that had probably been there the whole time.
Place
Great Lakes
“Great Lakes” is where they were racing/competing when the problem happened. It’s basically the event location in that region.
A roll bar is a basic safety bar meant to protect you in a rollover. A full roll cage is more complete and usually required for higher-level racing rules.
Term
10-0 cert
“Cert” here means the safety approval level for the roll cage. They’re saying the original setup would only qualify for a lower safety level, so they upgraded it.
“Tech” is the inspection where officials check the vehicle’s safety and rules. If something isn’t up to spec, the team has to fix it before racing.
Term
rear down bars
Those “rear down bars” are metal safety bars in the back of a roll cage. They help protect the driver and also make the truck more rigid when it’s being raced hard.
“Shifting” is when the transmission changes gears. If it’s not shifting, the truck may feel sluggish because it can’t get into the right gear to keep pulling.
A boost leak means pressurized air meant for the engine is escaping somewhere in the turbo system. That makes the engine not get the boost it expects, so it can feel weak or inconsistent.
Term
valley horn bolts
These are bolts that hold a part in place near the engine’s intake area. If they’re missing or loose, the seal can fail and you can get leaks.
An O-ring is a small rubber seal that helps keep air or fluid from leaking at a connection. If it gets damaged, that connection can start leaking under pressure.
Paint is usually applied in layers. A “base” is the first layer, and “heavy silver base” means the silver layer is meant to be strong and opaque so the final top color looks richer.
Prismatic is the paint brand the speaker is using for that “racing red” color. Different brands can look different because of how their layers and metallics are formulated.
A “candy” paint is like a tinted, see-through layer. It lets the color underneath show through, so the final color depends a lot on the base coat.
Term
OEI
“OEI” is an abbreviation the speaker uses, but in this snippet they don’t explain what it means. It sounds like it’s referring to a specific person/group or a specific thing about the truck/wheels.
“20 inch” means the wheel is 20 inches across. Bigger wheels usually change the look and can make the ride feel different because the tire sidewall is typically shorter.
Back ordering means the company doesn’t have the parts in stock right now. They’ll make or ship them later, so you have to wait.
Term
17 inch PYOs
“17 inch” is the wheel size. “PYOs” sounds like the specific wheel type they chose so they can keep driving/working on the truck even though other wheels are delayed.
Term
12.9
“12.9” sounds like a race time—how many seconds it takes to run the track. They’re saying you need to be quicker than that number before slick tires make sense.
Topic
six summer
“Six summer” sounds like the name of a racing event or series they did. They’re talking about it as part of the truck/project’s schedule.
The “Michigan mile” is a racing event where cars/trucks run a full mile to see how fast they can go. It’s a place to test speed and performance with a clear distance.
The Woodward Dream Cruise is a big car event in the Detroit area. The hosts mention it as a stop/checkpoint where lots of people show up and hype drivers to do burnouts.
Garrett is a brand that makes turbochargers. A turbocharger helps the engine make more power by forcing extra air in, and changing it can change how the truck feels and performs.
LIVE
All right, guys, welcome back.
This is the Diesel Performance Podcast.
I'm Anthony Bernini.
Chris, how are you doing today?
I'm doing good.
Thanks for intro-ing us in, dude.
You do such a good job.
I try.
You've been practicing.
I have.
Listen, when I go home, I sit in the mirror and I do these intros and I just try to nail
it down to make you happy.
I'll say we've been gaining some momentum.
We've been having some listeners email in saying good things about the content and about
you stepping up.
No way.
Yes, we're the God.
I'm going to show you what we're doing.
The universe at Jamie's sending emails, trying to make me look good or something like that.
All customers.
Appreciate that, dude.
So, like, hey, your efforts aren't going unnoticed.
Thank you.
It means a lot coming from you, especially the listeners.
You know.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Serious.
I mean, I still think he's bullshitting me, but...
No.
I mean, the next episode, I'll name-drop with the email, but yeah.
No.
Appreciate that.
Well, I mean, they appreciated it.
Not me.
How about you quit kissing my ass and let's hang out with our guests today?
All right.
Well, we have a good one.
We've got a good one.
So...
We've got Dustin from WCFab.
Dustin, how are you doing?
Hello, everyone.
I'm doing wonderful.
That was very soft to low.
Yeah, it's not here.
I've got a ton of sites.
You've got to match our energy right now.
We're pumped.
You've got to be pumped.
Listen, don't come into our house being, oh, hey, how are you guys doing?
Because right before we went on air, you were wild.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
I don't think I was wild.
I might have came in as normal me, but maybe I'll spice it up a little bit for you guys.
I'll spice it up.
So we wanted to get you on, right?
We've had, you know, we've done some recent episodes with, you know, builds and this,
that and the other.
And now we have something that's a little bit more radical, right?
You've been doing...
What was it?
Six summer?
Yep.
So I didn't get my show notes corrected.
Thanks, Anthony.
Yep, yep.
But this isn't your first event like this.
But you have like this shop truck over at Worley.
That's like kind of like this purpose build for this stuff, essentially.
It was customers' truck that kind of, we sparked interest in wanting a drag race, two-wheel
drive, already four-link, short bed, LB7 truck.
So it was something that kind of just fit the drag racing build.
And we con Jason into it, and the rest is history.
How much conning had to take place of Jason, because Jason likes to do cool shit.
So was it just like, hey, Jason, yeah, let's go ahead.
Like he cut you off and said, let's sign up?
Or we'll just say if it wasn't for Ryan Worley telling him we should do it, it probably
wouldn't have happened.
I mean, the negotiation side of it.
So the owner of the truck, his name was Brett, right?
The customer, mutual customers of ours.
And Brett was trying to sell the truck for a while.
And I remember Brett coming to me saying, hey, Jason has some interest in the truck.
But it was months after, until like there was the Worley open house.
The truck was there.
That kind of re-engaged some conversation.
So it was crazy to see that deal actually go through and you guys take on the truck.
But I think what's more crazy is, is the evolution of that truck, from the time you
got it to what it is now, there is no comparison.
They're not similar.
Other than it's a black truck, and it's still a black truck.
Like that's the only- A black four-link short bed.
Yeah, sure.
That's it.
Yeah, like the way I explained it in LB7, short bed, four-link.
And it was one of those funny things too, when we got it.
Jason, we're talking about it.
And it already had, you know, big turbo kit, big fuel, dual fuelers, all this stuff.
But like, it was 10 years out of date.
Yeah, it was a dated setup.
It was dated, but it worked.
And everything was like, it was turnkey, go put the slicks on it, go to the racetrack.
And we got it in the fall and it was, oh, we're going to change a few things.
And he did like a little video on it and no joke.
The day we released the video and said, we're going to change a few things.
There was no motor, no trans in the truck.
We had just pulled the rear end to do some modifications to that.
So like, it was a shell of a truck at that point.
I remember the deal went through.
That all took place.
I remember calling over to Worley a couple of times to get ahold of you.
You were MIA, you were in the shop working on the truck.
And I remember getting an email from Jason.
He's like, hey, you know, I need a little bit of background on the motor.
What heads are on this thing?
And I told him what heads.
He's like, oh, sir, not they're not couple of fleece.
All right, adding that to the list.
Just no expense spared.
Like the newest modern technology for reliability.
It kind of goes back to some of the episodes we've been talking about where it's,
you know, the technology that was around 10, 15 years ago, like things have advanced.
Oh, yeah, especially in it's it sounds weird to say it, but in the LB seven
world, the technology is still advancing, even though the truck is,
you know, 26 years old, pretty much.
So I mean, it's a it's a good platform.
It's a great foundation to be able to do this stuff, you know, so it's it's cool
to see that that generation one Duramax still getting the love,
attention, you know, saw it at UCC, you know, LB seven power Duramax.
So it's just nice to see that stuff, you know, still circulating.
Yeah.
And every racetrack we go to on every drag and drive, there's somebody
that's coming up and complimenting the truck and it could be there could be no
other truck people there and it could be just some random guy that's there
hanging out when he comes and chats my ear off for an hour about how beautiful
the truck is.
Well, I think what's cool about the truck, it's unique in the sense of if
you're a car guy, that truck will resonate with you.
Yeah.
If you're a gas truck guy, it's going to resonate with you.
If you're a diesel guy, right, it's going to resonate with you.
Like it's not that die hard four wheel drive, you know, it's not it's it's not
the conventional race truck that we're all accustomed to in the industry.
No, it's it's very cool to again, we're talking about progression and a
question I kind of want to go back and forth with, we're talking about the
truck, we talked about a couple of the mods and how it was kind of dated for
the setup at first, you had a big part to do with the truck initially when it
was here before it went to WC Fab.
What was the setup on the truck now?
And I kind of want to chat with Dustin to let him go through what changed
and everything like that because it's got a different twin kit.
The powder coating is different.
There's a whole bunch of nice newish WC Fab parts under the hood.
So when the truck, as you remember it, when Brett had it, what was kind
of the loose setup on there?
I mean, I remember going to the old calibrated Duramax tuner shop when Nick
had it in union before I even work there and Brett's original motor was
sitting on an engine stand as a showpiece when you walk into the shop.
So we're talking 2012, 2013.
Wow.
You remember that J-Bone, you know?
No metal.
But it was your, you know, 250 overs, you know, dual fuelers, which I feel
like is the most dated part of that.
It had one of our old concocted, you know, S400 stealth LB7 style
droppings with a 91 millimeter precision.
If I'm not mistaken, it was a big, I believe it was a 91, 94, something
like that, because it was a similar setup to what I had on my LMM on Slam.
You know, the motors had a couple of different iterations.
Brett had a couple of motors go in the truck, but I think it was a
Kali's crank, Carillo style setup, fingers, pistons, standard heads, you
know, old LB7 style heads on that, trans built by calibrated, you know,
DJ, you know, our shop manager was once our main trans builder.
I mean, he had a hand in the trans several times over.
And then there was a drive line shop, a speed shop in Crystal Lake that, you
know, Brett knew that they did the four links set up on and whatnot.
But I mean, that's, that's kind of the gist of, you know, Whirly compound kit,
you know, Whirly's done the piping and everything on it from, from day one.
But, you know, it was definitely a much lazier, you know, labor some truck to drive.
I mean, again, the technology in what that compound kit offered back then was so
far ahead of its time, but like, to me, that's like the staple in the foundation
that has allowed the turbo technology and what we can do in compound kits today.
So that being said, Dustin, when you guys got a hand on it, where, how
far has the truck changed?
Cause I, you know, we were talking about when you posted the video, go ahead.
Kodiak manifolds and up pipes.
Yes, sir.
Oh, yeah.
That's what I remember.
When you guys posted the video talking about like, Hey, you know, here's what
we're thinking about.
Here's what we're going to change.
And then what was it?
One of the next videos, it was like the motor was out and I was just kind of like,
Holy shit.
And I didn't think about it at first.
I was like, Oh, he's got a Duramax behind him.
Jason's talking to the camera and I'm like, Oh, that's Brett's truck.
Holy shit.
That thing is apart.
But where's the truck at now versus when like the last time we had it here?
Now, I mean, comparative to what he was just talking about, if you want to just go over
basic build, I mean, we went from the two fifties actually down to one fifties.
We got a single 14 mil on it.
It's still the same short block, fleece heads.
It's a Borg 488 over a stealth 64 hybrid in the valley.
Like honestly, a super basic setup.
Our manifolds are up pipes.
Like the Kodiak wasn't caught in it for you or what?
You know, sadly, the Kodiaks were gone when we got the truck.
So, but I mean, it was when we tore it apart, it was, okay, let's just do a new
turbo kit and then the head thing popped up.
Yeah.
And Jason's like, well, we might as well just, you know, get ahold of fleece,
get some fleece heads and start this out the right way.
Famous last words.
Well, we're here.
We might as well.
We might as well.
I mean, but that's what you get from someone who's done this before.
And that's the thing.
And that's how it all happened.
Like we were doing some random four link stuff changes and Ryan Worley walks
past, oh, the axle tubes aren't welded in the housing.
And I'm like, no, he's like, well, you know, they're known to like break away
and like turn and stuff.
And I think that'll be bad.
So that's, that's what gets the rear end pulled out of it is we're welding
the axle tubes and we're doing this and then we're, we're drilling axle tubes
to go to bigger axles.
So like it snowballed so fast within like a month's process, it was just craziness.
So this is something I've never been a part of.
And I remember, you know, when Brett had the truck, it had its own look.
The truck is completely different look.
Like if you saw the truck before and after you could pass it off as two
different trucks, what went into the visionary portion of the build?
Like, was there a plan or it's just, Hey, this is what it ended up being.
And like the, we'll say the look of the truck, there was no like big plan.
It was Jason kind of, you know, let me run with how I wanted the truck to look.
And I'm like, well, it sits like a dump truck now and we're not driving
this thing around like that.
I mean, we got it with 33 inch tall slicks on the back on a 12 wide wheel.
Look like a chode running down the track.
Yeah, even the front tires that were on it were 31s and the thing was lowered.
And I just like, we, this has got to change, you know, and then we get into, you
know, we start working on it and then we're like, Oh, well, we need to also
think about weight savings.
So then, you know, torsion bars get ditched and we go coil overs in front
and some tubular arms.
And so we get the front down where we want it.
Well, then we technically couldn't get the rear where we wanted it.
So we had to make some, some new brackets for coil overs.
And it just snowballs into this thing.
Well, I'm like, well, I want the truck to sit like in the weeds.
Like it's a two wheel drive truck.
We need this thing on the ground like a traditional two wheel drive truck.
And without getting crazy and screwing up geometry angles with the front,
like we lowered it as much as we could to make it look, you know, appealing
and not have some big crazy tire gap.
But I mean, we went from 31 inch tires to like, I think the fronts are like
29s now, the rear is a 20 by 12 or like a 29 inch tall tire, like the
street tire set up.
So it's all, I mean, significantly shorter than the way he had it.
I mean, I bet you we lowered the truck almost seven inches overall with tire
package and everything.
I didn't consider that truck a tall truck beforehand to think that it's
that much lower.
Well, and that's the thing is like, he already had lowering spindles on it
that we didn't take off, but the truck was still on like some factory keys
that were just turned down.
It wasn't really where it needed to be suspension wise.
So I know what the truck had ran prior in its past life.
What are some of the times and has the truck been on the dyno?
Like what's what kind of power is this new and improved setup making?
So we haven't been on a chassis dyno.
The engine, I will always say that Jason ran the snot out of it on our engine
dyno.
I think it was like 34 passes on the engine dyno to get this thing where he
was happy with it, like changing exhaust housings and doing this and doing
that to get everything happy where he wanted it.
I think it made like 1270 or something on the engine dyno.
It's impressive.
And I can't remember the torque number.
The torque was like 2000 plus foot pounds.
I mean, it was, it was impressive all around.
But I mean, if you think about the truck before the truck made, I want to say
it was 1500.
If you don't remember, I don't think it ever made that much.
But I mean, the truck would run consistent.
Nine nineties, nine eighties.
And we dialed it all back because we won like the kit that we threw on it was
something that we wanted to be like, Hey, anybody can buy this off the website
and go racing.
That's exactly what the next thing I was going to bring up is.
So that was to roll into another thing here.
It's all like that's kind of the way we built the truck is it's like anything
under the hood was parts you can buy off the shelf at WC fast.
No, I mean, when you think about the first iteration of that truck, you know,
10 years, yeah, dual fuelers were pretty common.
Two fifties were like up and coming, right?
Like 10 years ago, two fifties weren't common though, had to be like some big
and they had hundreds.
He had hundreds in it originally.
And I just remember the turbo kit.
That was a custom one off turbo kit for the big precision.
And, you know, the, the valley charger was some Frankenstein thing that was a
very small limited run.
I remember we got a turbo sent back to us years later from a sled puller and
like, we didn't have parts to rebuild it because that's how custom and like limited
batch that stuff was.
So like the iteration of the truck now it's, I like it just because everything
can be replicated off of one or two websites.
You want the injectors exergy pump exergy off the shelf units, nothing special.
The turbo kit literally go to Worley's website, order it.
The, the hybrid 64 that we have on the truck, you get it off our site, your site,
whatever, like it's all, I don't want to say, I don't want to use the word
cookie cutter because I don't want to take away from the build, but the build is
very achievable for any DIY guy.
I mean, really it is cookie cutter.
If you think about it, like, I know how you don't want to say it like that, but
it is, I want to sell it short.
Yeah.
But I mean it, and I want to say that it is like that because I want to try to
entice more people to come out and do the drag and drive stuff with us.
I mean, I guess in that regard, right?
Like here's a blueprint and here's all the parts that are going to get you there.
And you don't have to be a special fabricator and you don't need to have
all of these connections and all of this time to be able to custom one off this
stuff.
Like you could easily replicate this within reason.
Yeah.
Like I was, I had a customer on the phone the other day and he had already bought
a stealth 64 actually directly from you guys and he was talking to me about the
hybrid deal and I lined it all up to have him send that back in and build it
into a hybrid because he wanted to buy a twin kit with an 88 and emulate the drag
truck, which I thought was the coolest thing ever.
It's to your point too.
Like you don't want to make it seem cookie cutter, but at the same time you do
because there's going to be that guy or that kid up in the stands like, oh man, I
wish my truck could be like that.
And it's, it's, it's different than going to UCC where it's like, Hey, if you
don't have two, 300 grand to throw in a truck, like you're not even in conversation.
It's like, no, here are these guys, they make all the parts, this truck's running
this, I drove it all week, AC was blown ice cold and I didn't have any issues.
Like you could do the same shit.
Yeah.
I mean, you have those customers or you have those enthusiasts that want to go
against the grain and they want to make things difficult and then they wonder why
their stuff never runs or they're always upset when something breaks and it takes
forever to get a replacement part for.
And I guess, you know, you all, we all learn by experience, right?
And I know what it's like to be in that position of, oh, I built my own compound
kit and I ran into this issue, but I can only run this one style of turbo charger
to make this work or I need this one special flange for the way this, this kit is,
is fabricated or, you know, Hey, I have this turbo charger, but now the exhaust flanges
and the discharge on the compressor is different.
You know, so now you're sending it off to be modified, right?
It just, I want to be able to buy it, get it shipped, bolted in and go on my merry way.
Yeah.
You know, leave it to hell alone.
And then speaking of the truck and everything done to it, how was driving it?
Cause we've all talked about how big and not big, how bad ass the truck is.
All the cool shit on there is a driver cause you've spent, you spent, I mean,
you spent more than a week in the truck, but in that week, what was the driving
experience like going from track to track?
Honestly, the truck drives amazing.
Like there's, it's comfortable.
Like we, it's got some aftermarket seats in it.
It's got coilovers all the way around.
I mean, but it drives, besides being a little bumpy from the coils and the four link,
it drives like a stock truck.
Like it's, that's nice.
As far as the turbo chargers, right?
Because like there's the stigma in the diesel space of like, oh,
you want to make 1200 horsepower, you know, 1000 wheel horsepower, let's say,
you know, it takes considerable, considerably big chargers to do that.
And like with the hybrid setup, like that, that truck within reason, not to say the
stupid facade of, oh, it's spools like stock, but it literally has driving
manners that are within reason of factory expectation.
Yeah, like the, like the trans file that's in it, we really fine tuned, but it's really
a stock, like my street driving file.
Like it's pretty much a stock file that we stretched a few shift points out,
but like you can leave a stop sign just like you would in an LB7 with a stock charger on it.
Like it drives just like a stock truck.
No, I mean, you get up over 50% throttle, that's different.
You better hold on, but it drives like stock truck.
I feel like that's the whole, you know, like we talk about drivability, right?
And like drivability, what is it, right?
Like I feel like it's a fake word that this industry, you know, we bring up.
It's different for everybody when they talk about it.
But once you experience an undrivable truck, drivability makes sense now, you know,
now it all resonates.
Now it's not that, you know, nice drop in, it's a big 400 or something.
It's like, oh, that's what I drive every day.
It's like, yeah, it's not great drivability.
I'm fine with it.
Yeah, I'm judging you.
Like I was there, I get it, but I'm judging you.
Did you have any issues with the truck at all?
Both in terms of mechanical or because I saw a couple posts.
We'll just say, okay, so last year, 2025, we did all a six summer and we pretty much
won and done every day, no problems, hardly checked fluids.
Like we beat the snot out of the truck all week doing burnouts at every stop and no joke,
we hardly popped the hood.
My kind of race and shit.
This year, we were under the hood doing something every day.
That tracks.
You could ask Ryan Worley, who was riding with me, I think this is 100% his last drag
and drive because it was just a frustrating week.
So you think he was the bad luck?
No, no, no, no, no.
Is that what I'm hearing?
No, no, no, no.
Was Ryan Worley with you last year?
Yes.
Ryan Worley, so I made him ride with me this year because he was the one that started all
this with kids and everything else he's got going on.
He's a busy guy, but I told him, I was like, you need to ride with me one more year and
do this.
And we had trans issues day one, day two, we were just tune issues and couldn't figure
stuff out and we're going back and forth and end all be all.
We find something stupid mechanically wrong with it at the end of the week that we probably
had wrong with it all week, but we had no idea.
And the truck still made it through the whole week with that issue.
Yeah.
And on Thursday, we ended up blowing up a trans cooler at the Great Lakes, but it was
one of those where it's like, okay, it's leaking a little bit.
Let's drive on and we'll have somebody bring us parts.
So we meet at the first checkpoint to get parts to fix it.
Well, we don't have the right fittings.
And it was just, it was a mess.
And if it wasn't for the red horse guys turning around and bringing me fittings to help us
out, we probably wouldn't have finished this year.
Now, having that experience this year and having those hurdles, did that make you or
does that make you appreciate how smooth last year went?
Oh, yeah.
Do you think you took last year for granted a little bit?
Oh, yeah.
Last year was just easy.
Like no joke.
It was like press the easy button and go.
Like every, I think there was, I think every day was just a one and done.
Like we'd do one pass.
We were happy at the pass.
We'd go hand in our slip and take off.
Like we were in the hotel by 89 o'clock every night.
Dude, we didn't get to the hotel most of these nights until almost 11.
It was just rowdy days waiting there all day to make a pass to try to, hopefully that was
that one hero pass.
And if you didn't, you're running around back to the staging ways to try to make another one.
So it was, it was a crazy week, but it was just another amazing experience.
Yeah.
Now you have another, you have another event that's similar to this coming up too.
Yep.
In August, we got a sick Michigan miles.
So.
And is that somewhat similar to how this event was?
Very similar.
It's all eighth mile instead of quarter mile.
Okay.
So just other than that, it's pretty similar to six summers.
Six summers is there's definitely more classes and more competition.
Class wise, uh, sick Michigan miles is something that's way more dialed back.
They only do like quickest of sort of be like, you know, quickest diesel, quickest GM,
quickest forward stuff like that.
They don't have all the classes laid out like they did in the sixth summer.
And the sick Michigan miles is like one of the spin off events where
he's trying to get people to come do the event so they can get their feet wet to then jump
up into a bigger one, like either sick week or six summer.
Now you've convinced other participants with diesel trucks to want to get involved.
Yes.
One of the mechanics here at calibrated Jake is coming with, and then also one of our
dealers up in Michigan, the cold front guys are bringing in.
And the best thing is, is it's all three LB sevens.
Yeah.
All only two wheel drive is the one you got.
Yep.
The other two or four wheel drive.
Jacob has, uh, has emptied his piggy bank in a project for his truck.
Yeah.
And I'm pretty sure that truck is on its way down to us to get a cage put in.
It is going through with it.
Yeah.
It's already on the schedule button.
So just so we're on the same page when he came up with this idea last year,
he's like, my dad really wants me to buy a house, but I really want to put a motor in
my truck.
And I was like, Jake, you only live once.
And like his mom loves him, loves him being home.
Dude then decides like, oh, a motor's only going to cost X.
Well, it was double that, right?
That's just how these projects go.
Going to listen to DJ.
That's why.
So then this year he comes up to me and, you know, once in a while we'll talk and he
like, he wants to tell me more.
Yeah.
So we're chatting.
I'm giving him a hard time and he goes, so guess what?
I'm like, what?
He's like, I'm putting a cage in my truck.
I'm like, dude, your dad fucking hates you.
Like he hates you.
He's like, it's, you know, it's only X amount of price.
And you know, I'm at the border where I'm going to need it and it's a safety.
So like I have to have it.
I was like, dude, that's the pitch to your old man.
Like I get it.
Like I totally get it.
He's young, right?
If you're going to do it, do it now.
Get it over with.
He's really turned that truck around from.
The pile that it was before.
Oh my God, from what it was to what it is now.
That thing should have been kicked off in the ocean to rot with the rest of the world.
That truck sucked at first.
All joking aside, that truck was one more winner from just being condemned in a
scrap yard.
Like it was, it was that bad.
And I mean, he has a truck that he has built that he could take a lot of pride in.
And like it's a looker.
Like it's a good looking truck.
It runs strong.
And you know, drive very nice.
It does.
And he's driven it with some of the video shoots.
I mean, other than the stack behind my head, it reminds me of when I'm 19 again.
Like drive ability wise, that thing comes up real nice.
It's smooth and it hauls ass.
It's something that I think he should take a lot of pride in.
Like I said, every nut and bolt's been touched on that thing at this point.
Don't, don't worry.
When he gets that Lexan window in the back, he'll hate that stack.
I would see him.
Because that was one of the things I had mentioned.
I'm like, Jake, don't they, because I don't know how like the cages and the rules and
stuff.
So my terminology is I'm going to sound indirect.
I'm like, don't they put like plexiglass on the back window?
He's like, yeah, but if you got a cage and a racetrack, that's what you got to do.
And he's so serious when he tells you.
I know he is.
Well, it was one of those things we even fought through because we updated the cage over the
winter and went from just like the basic roll bar, like what Jake's doing, it would
be like a 10-0 cert.
We took that cage out and did like a whole 850 cert cage.
So if we ever get touched.
Didn't you have to?
Like somebody, you got not in trouble, but like somebody had brought it up, you're going
too fast in it.
Because I remember it was like, it was a pretty quick turnaround, wasn't it?
Yeah.
I would guess that would be our one 2025.
Whoa.
As it was day three, the day actually rained out and here comes the two main tech officials.
And I'm like, oh man, what's going on?
And they roll up to us and they're like, hey, can we look at your cage?
And I'm like, yeah, check it out.
Open the door.
Do you like this?
This is wrong.
This is wrong.
And he's like, well, you don't have any rear down bars from like the top of your cage to the back.
And I'm like, well, you guys tech me to go 10-0.
And they're like, well, technically this isn't like anything that we can tech.
Like you can only go 1150s.
And Ryan, we're really standing there and Ryan's like, so if we go back and like take
the back window out of this truck and put two bars in it, we can keep racing.
And they're like, yeah, that would be awesome.
So we know joke.
Hour and 45 minutes from the racetrack is where our shop was.
A, it's raining.
We get on the interstate and start boogieing in this truck.
And then it starts torrential downpouring.
Dude, we drive through a torrential downpour to get to the shop.
We get out, we drive out of the storm.
We get to the shop.
I'm cutting the back window out.
Ryan's cutting the bed floor out.
Like we're making this happen.
We're cutting a piece of sheet metal to like pretty much, you know, screw into the back
and duct tape the edges.
Well, we don't think about it when we take off and start driving.
We're driving back into the same storm that we drove through, but now it's in town.
So we're driving through the torrential downpour.
I have, I actually have videos.
They just popped up on my phone as a memory.
It is raining in the back of the cab because the rain is rolling off the cab.
You didn't duct tape good enough or what?
No, I'm telling you right now, we pulled over and added more duct tape.
And this thing was still like, there's a video of me and Ryan and I like
filmed me film him and it's just like a waterfall down the tin in the back.
Like it was, it was a mess.
But we went back and finished the week, didn't have to get rid of any times and ended up,
I think with like a 1040 average for the week in 2025.
It pays to no people.
We're just going to take the truck an hour back.
We're going to cut, do some welding.
That's where they're like, break the news.
Like, oh, we can just go fix this?
Yeah, if you want to, oh, we're back.
Yeah. And they were, and the funny thing is when we got back,
the one tech guy, the main tech guy, Keith Turk, he's been,
he's pretty much started Dragon Drives.
So like I've known of him forever.
And then he's like, oh yeah, when you get back, you come find me.
We'll park you in quarantine and you can just hang out with me all weekend.
If you get these bars fixed and no joke, I pulled right back up to the next racetrack the next day
and he's laughing.
He's like, I thought you guys were joking.
I didn't think I'd see you guys back.
You know, we worked for a fabrication company.
Yeah. And so what that's the thing is we sat there and talked to Keith about like,
you know, what we do and everything and he was blown away.
Like he just couldn't believe that we went back and added those two bars
just so we could keep racing for the week.
I'm like, well, I'm not going to slow it down because that seems lame.
So that was a whole nother experience.
But the thing is like with him adding that stuff and going to that plex,
like there's no other way around it.
And we were sitting there in tech this year and a buddy of mine,
local guy, he's there with his kid.
They were doing Junior Street in his car and this truck's leaving.
And I already seen this truck through tech, like Big Block, Big Blow or all this stuff.
And I'm like, oh, dude, why is that guy leaving?
He goes, oh, that's my buddy.
He goes, he's got to go put rear down bars in.
He goes, because of you guys, they tech that now harder on trucks.
So because he didn't, he had a whole forward cage, didn't have his rear down bars
because he didn't want to take out the back window, kind of like we didn't want to.
And that guy ended up driving all the way back up to McHenry where he was from
to put down bars in it, to come back and ended up doing a test pass that Sunday too.
No kidding.
Yeah. So it's now, I guess, just a common thing at six summer that people have to do
that. What were the times this year versus last year?
Were they the same?
Do we get slower, faster?
What did that look like?
Dude, we were slower all week.
And that's what like, we couldn't figure it out.
Like, and we're going back and forth with your guys here.
Like, you know, a truck doesn't lose a tune, but this thing is like, it's lazy.
It's not going anywhere.
It's not shifting.
Like we are just struggling, struggling, struggling at the end of the week.
Don't tell Nick because he'll be upset.
I haven't told him yet.
Jason might have.
You don't listen.
You're good.
Go for it.
It had a, it had a massive boost leak, like a massive boost leak.
And then we're at where the valley horn bolts on the three bolt deals.
The two bolts on the bottom, they were gone.
Oh, wow.
And it ate the O-ring.
I had no idea.
Holy shit.
So like, we're struggling all week running like 11os and 1080s and 1090s and like,
like what happened?
Like we were having tons of trans problems and testing.
Before six summer and then we get all down to that and we find this big boost leak and
then we go up on Friday and run a 10-4 right away.
So we're like, okay, we're back to where we were.
But the thing was is like, even when we fixed it, like kind of like
last minute through it together, it still had a mild leak and went 1040s on the last day.
And I'm like, cool.
We finished the week.
We're happy.
And now actually the guys have been thrashing on the truck all this week.
So we could try to go do some testing on Friday.
And what color is the kit?
Because that's a nice color.
And I have seen questions before.
Is there a color you're talking about?
Yeah.
I can't tell you, Anthony, because you're going to steal the color for your truck.
Damn.
Shit, I'll plug my ears.
So if anybody wants to know, it is a heavy silver base.
And then the top is actually racing red from Prismatic.
So it's just a red candy top coat that actually has a pink and purple like metallic in it.
It's very nice.
It's a wild color in the sun.
And I love the wheels.
Yes.
Those are some nasty wheels he got on there.
WC Fab three piece PYOs are always the topic of conversation at almost every racetrack as well.
Some guy comes up and, whoa, the OEI just like loses his mind.
What are those?
Yeah, like just loses his mind over them.
Are there any other trucks out there that have those three piece PYOs?
So it was a thing, yeah, I'd say it was a thing that we were doing for a little bit.
It was a pull truck thing.
Like there's a set of 20 inch PYOs on our pull truck.
There's a few other sets of wheels that we've built and sold of different designs.
But it was we lost our barrel manufacturer, the guy that was in the States, the only guy in the
States that was actually making the barrels finally retired and like disperse the business.
Oh, shit.
Yeah.
So like there's multiple wheel companies right now that are like back ordering.
They don't know what they're going to do.
Like there's other suppliers, but no US made suppliers.
At least we got the 17 inch PYOs to keep us held over for the time being.
Hey, put some slicks on that, dude.
Amen.
Amen.
Maybe get some slicks on that LOY in the parking lot.
I got to be faster than 12.9 to put slicks on something.
Shit.
And then a driver.
Yeah, damn, dude.
Shit.
Kind of in a bad spot there to say the least.
What would you say the biggest accomplishment of the truck, of the project,
doing six summer, doing, you know, the event last year was in Michigan, if I'm not mistaken.
So we did six summer last year, which was local.
Okay.
And we did Michigan mile last year.
So you did two last year, and then you're doing both again this year.
Out of last year and this year, what do you think the biggest accomplishment or what do
you think you've learned the most from?
I would honestly just say our biggest accomplishment overall of like 2025 is like no joke in 2025.
We didn't do anything to the truck.
We raced the truck all year and we kicked the snot out of that truck.
Like Jason and Jason jokes.
I came back and there's a whole thing with these dragon drives where there's people alongside
the road and everybody's all got a sign, do a burnout, do a burnout.
So like guys are doing burnt trailer burnouts and burnouts everywhere.
And like Jason knows that's a part of it.
Like we're not going to go and not put on a show.
So after Michigan miles last year, we get back and the street tires around the truck on the trailer,
the trailer's pulled in the main part of the shop.
And Jason goes, well, I guess we need new tires and these things are pretty much got
cords hanging out of them.
They were brand new spring of 2025 and they had less than 3400 miles on the truck total.
I think that the burnout video that the cold front guys did was probably the the cord showing
that that was the teeter totter.
Yeah, that was an aggressive day.
We kicked that was a good video.
We kicked the belt that day, like in the middle of a burnout, which was entertaining too,
because then all of a sudden we're at a high rate of speed and oh, there's no steering or brakes.
So there was and I mean, there was so many opportunities in Michigan with people like
the Woodward Dream Cruise was part of Michigan miles.
Like that was a checkpoint that you had to go through last year.
And like every five feet you got a kid telling you to do burnout.
And I'm sorry, I'm not going to disappoint my inner child.
I mean, I was that kid yelling 100 percent.
I mean, you left a real nice set of patches out here in our parking lot.
Yeah.
Now it's fair to get up a trans cooler.
Yeah.
Now it's fair game to do a burnout.
Hey, I was I was I'm just going to say it right now.
I was told by Jamie to do the burnout in the parking lot as payroll deduct.
Well, we'll get you taken care of.
Don't worry, don't worry.
It sounded I was sitting in the office and I hear power and I'm like, what is that?
And then I see on social media an hour later that you were at the shop.
I didn't know you were here.
Didn't know the truck was there.
Didn't know if that's what it was.
Sound of good.
You know, it's not a healthy.
It was it was healthy.
It was healthy.
And the funny thing is it still had a massive boost leak at that point.
Next the charger will go out by the end of the year.
And is this thing still in order to get a big old boost leak?
Well, I mean, if the charger goes out, that just means it needs a 67 in the valley and maybe 400,
400 kits sounds pretty cool.
You know what?
Hey, there's a there's a white L5P in your shop.
You could probably take some parts off of.
Man, he'd be he'd be upset, but he does want to get rid of that Garrett.
So maybe that could be an upgrade for the LLY.
I would ask why.
But that's a whole nother episode that we do not need to get into.
I'm just diving into Brian's truck thought process.
It's called it's not big enough.
That should be his motto in life.
I'm going to get a phone call when this goes live.
So we guys talking shit about my truck.
I hope I hope.
Yeah, I hope he calls us boldly.
Definitely will.
But cool.
Dustin, we appreciate you coming out.
Nice to get a little perspective, get a rundown on the truck, your experience,
everything like that.
Looking forward to some more content on the next event and probably just years to come.
Excited to see the progression of the truck, not only of where it's at,
but where it started, where it's at and kind of what's to come.
Appreciate you stopping by.
For the guys listening, where can they find you?
Social media, Facebook, Instagram, where are you at, dude?
WCFab, everything.
I kind of try to hide my personal accounts so nobody can find it.
A lot of people ask, I saw some Instagram stories today.
There was definitely asks and I will be at the open house for sure.
I don't think I could miss the open house.
I don't think I would have a job if I missed the open house.
There will be a line.
You will be handing out candy and you'll be signing autographs is what I've heard.
I heard doing a burnout.
Yeah.
There might be some burnouts, but I don't know if it'll be at the show.
Gotcha.
Yeah, fair enough.
But cool.
Appreciate you guys stopping by.
Thanks for listening and we'll see you soon.
We got it with 33 inch tall slicks on the back.
On a 12 wide wheel.
Look like a chode running down the track.
Yeah.
About this episode
Dustin West from WCFab joins for a “Sick Summer 2026” recap that starts with a customer’s LB7-based 2WD four-link short-bed as the spark for a drag-racing build. The conversation tracks how the truck evolved from older hardware into a turnkey track setup—engine/turbo choices, rear axle and suspension fabrication, and even the stance work to dial in a 2WD look. Between event updates and breakdown stories, they also explain how modern, off-the-shelf parts help replicate these builds and keep them drivable.
Dustin West dropped into the studio to discuss him and Ryan Wehrli of WCFab's week at the Sick Summer 2026. 800 miles of street driving to throw down over a week at 5 different days of drag racin. He recaps the ups, downs, and everything in between! If you're into diesel racing and the stories that come with them, you won't want to miss this episode.
