This is a diesel-truck competition run by Amsoil. Teams bring their trucks and race/compete to show what they’ve built, and this episode is about getting ready for the 2026 event.
Sled pulling is where a truck drags a heavy sled and tries to pull it the farthest (or with the most weight). Diesel trucks often do well because they make lots of low-end pull.
“Dyno time” is when you test a car or truck on a machine that measures how much power it makes. It helps tune the setup so it runs better in real driving or racing.
They race over a short 300-foot distance, and the track isn’t prepped to be extra grippy. That makes getting off the line and staying hooked up the big deal.
Nitrous is a system that injects a special gas to help the engine make more power. On a diesel it has to be tuned carefully, or it can actually hurt results.
Car
1994 12 valve Cummins
This is a 1994 Dodge-era Cummins diesel (an inline-six) with a “12-valve” head. It’s popular with diesel tuners because it’s strong and there are lots of performance parts available.
Part
59 block
The “59 block” is the engine block version the builder started with. It’s basically the main metal foundation inside the engine that determines what kind of build you can do.
Term
20 over
“20 over” means the cylinders were bored out a bit larger than factory. That lets the engine use bigger pistons to make more displacement, but it has to be done carefully.
The cylinder head is where air and fuel enter and where combustion happens. A stock head can limit power, which is why the builder wants to upgrade to a ported head.
Part
188 220 cam
The camshaft controls when the engine’s valves open and close. A specific “188/220” cam profile is chosen to help the engine breathe better and make the kind of torque the builder wants.
A ported head means the passages in the cylinder head are modified to let air flow better. That can help the engine make more power, especially when paired with other upgrades.
Part
marine wide bowl pistons
These are special pistons with a particular shape inside (the “bowl”) that affects how the diesel burns. The right piston shape helps the engine make power more efficiently and consistently.
Connecting rods connect the pistons to the crankshaft. “Competition” rods are stronger aftermarket parts meant to survive harder driving and higher power.
“Manifold” is basically the pressure inside the intake system. When people say “manifold boost,” they mean how hard the turbo is pushing air into the engine.
“GT55” is the name of a turbocharger. Different turbo sizes move different amounts of air, which changes how much boost you can run and how fast the engine responds.
A solenoid is an electrically controlled valve. For nitrous, it’s what triggers and controls when the nitrous is released and how much gets through.
Term
48
“48” is the name of the transmission platform. It tells you what transmission family the builder is working with, which matters because different transmissions handle power differently.
Cody Carlson is the person who built the truck’s transmission setup. The quality of that build is a big deal for how well the truck survives hard launches and racing.
The Tesla Semi is a large truck that uses electricity instead of a diesel engine. It’s built to move cargo over long distances, and the power comes from electric motors. Because it’s electric, the main “engine” parts are different from what you’d find in a typical diesel truck.
“Turbos” are the turbochargers that add boost. If they keep failing, it usually means the setup is pushing them very hard, so having spares helps you finish the event.
The eighth mile is a shorter drag-racing distance than the quarter mile. Some tracks/events use it, and it can make the racing feel different because the run is shorter.
In drag racing, the quarter mile is a standard track length. People time how many seconds it takes to go that distance, so a “10.8” is how fast the car is.
In drag racing, “60-foot” is how quickly the car gets off the line and reaches the first 60 feet. A better 60-foot time usually means the car hooks up better and the whole run improves.
Common rail is how many modern diesels inject fuel. It uses a high-pressure fuel line (“rail”) so the engine can spray fuel more precisely for power and efficiency.
“A thousand horse” means the engine is making about 1,000 horsepower. For diesel builds, that’s a big target that usually takes serious modifications to reach.
“Single turbo” means the engine has one turbocharger boosting it. It’s often simpler than using multiple turbos, and it can be easier to tune and predict how the truck will make power.
Data logging means capturing what the engine sensors are seeing while you run the truck. Tuners use it to figure out why power changes and to make safer adjustments.
Diagnostic capabilities are how easily you can find problems using the truck’s computer and sensors. If something isn’t making the expected power, diagnostics help pinpoint what’s going wrong.
A long block is basically an engine package that’s missing some of the outer parts. People buy them to build or refresh an engine without buying a fully complete “turnkey” motor.
“12 valves” means the engine has a valve setup with 12 valve openings. In diesel circles, people talk about it because it’s part of a specific engine design that’s popular for upgrades and performance.
A “VP truck” is a diesel truck built around a certain type of fuel injection pump. In racing or competitions, that usually puts it into a specific group with similar rules and setups.
A “VP pump” is part of the fuel system that controls how much diesel gets injected into the engine. Diesel builders care about it because it strongly affects power and how the truck performs.
“Transmissions” are the gearbox that sends power to the wheels. When a diesel is tuned for more power, the transmission often needs upgrades too so it can handle the extra stress.
A “head gasket” is a seal inside the engine that keeps coolant and combustion gases from leaking into the wrong places. If it fails, it can cause overheating or mixing of fluids, which is expensive to fix.
This is when the oil-cooling system leaks and mixes oil into the coolant. It’s a problem because it can mess up how the engine cools itself and can lead to bigger damage if ignored.
A “cage” is a metal safety frame inside the cab. It helps protect you if the truck flips or crashes, and it can also make the truck feel more solid when driving hard.
This is a dirt-track drag event the guest says they’ve been going to. Because it’s on dirt instead of pavement, the truck has to deal with different traction and grip.
In motorsport, “traction” is how well the tires can grip the surface so the vehicle can convert engine power into forward motion. On dirt, traction changes constantly with ruts, moisture, and tire choice, so setups often focus on maximizing bite and minimizing wheelspin. That’s why the hosts emphasize getting the right tires and setup for dirt drags.
LIVE
Thank you for joining. You're listening to the Diesel Performance podcast. We're here
with another UCC competitor for Amsoil Ultimate Call Out Challenge 2026. Without further ado,
we have Johnny Hooper. Johnny, how you doing, man?
Oh, not too bad about you.
Oh, you know, it's, uh, well, it's, it's like crunch time for UCC the couple of weeks until
the show's here. I, uh, I have to imagine, you know, you're, uh, you're rather busy or
is like the truck ready to rock and roll and you're just waiting for the day to show up?
Uh, I'd like to, but that would be a lie. So I mean, it's, we're not looking horrible,
but there's definitely going to be some late nights after work yet. Getting ready. It's
getting close, but hopefully we'll do some testing this weekend, but it currently is not
able to move under its own power yet. So I'm excited for this interview just because you're
the, you're the first rookie. You're the, you're the first guy who this is your first stab at it.
This is your first Ultimate Call Out Challenge event, huh?
Yeah, indeed. And sometimes I've looked forward to for a long time and give it a shot.
Have you been going to Ultimate Call Out Challenge events in the past or have you just
followed? Like what's your, what's your UCC history as far as, you know, exposure to it in the past?
So I have only ever been once. I went back in 21, I think it was to watch and I told myself, Ben,
I was like, I'm coming back here to watch this every year and then life gets in the way and I
haven't been back since. So I'm really excited to go and be bringing the truck this time instead of
just going to spectate. Awesome. Well, we'll back into some of the truck info here in a bit,
but I think for, for any of our listeners who maybe aspire similar to where you're at now,
where you're going to be competing, can you give us a little bit of background on you and how you
got into diesel? So I pretty much have been driving diesel since I could drive. I bought my first one
when I was 16 and it was a VP truck and I just bought it for using it on the farm basically and
wanted something to pull hay wagons with and pull trailers around and stuff like that. And
I had that truck for, I still have that truck today, but from there I kind of spiraled into,
I bought a 12 valve and then started trying to add horsepower and then well, the rest is history now.
Everybody comes in when I, when I talk to anybody who's into diesel, it's either,
it was a necessity that turned hot rod or a friend influence and where are you located in the country?
I'm from Wisconsin. Okay. So more rural farm area and I know I grew up in Northern Illinois
and it was one of those, Hey, your first truck, it's like, Hey, if you can get your hands on an
you're kind of like the hot shit. Like those are the tickets to have.
Yeah, it's definitely how I felt when I bought it. I'm not going to lie there.
So the VP truck, you say you still have it. Is that like your dedicated tow rig or is that just
a commuter for you or what do you do with that truck currently?
It's pretty much morphed into just a tow rig at this point. It's been through some
revision since I've owned it, but it's mostly just used for a tow rig. No.
Okay. So the the truck that you're, well, we'll back in what kind of,
what exposure do you have to competing? Like, do you have a background in drag racing or sled
pulling? Does the truck see a lot of dyno time? Like, what's, what's the current use of the truck
that you, that you have? So I originally, when I first got the truck that I'm bringing,
it's set up for dirt drags, mostly dirt drags. And we do local to me, there's
like once a month, they do a 300 foot no prep. They call it street drags. So
it's kind of same idea as dirt drags is 300 feet heads up, no prep surface. And that's really what
I use the truck for. We have a blast running that street drags, you get to run against cars and all
sorts of whoever shows up really. And then dirt drags, hub city dirt drags, that was where it
originally was kind of debuted, I guess you could say. And now I just kind of chase dirt drags
wherever I can with it. Okay. You have a lot of like sled pulling experience or like,
has the truck been on the dyno? I guess what's your history of that stuff?
So I have a dedicated sled pull truck. It's like a, it's considered like a hot street truck,
I guess you could say. I've been sled pulling that one for quite a few years. This chassis that
I'm bringing to UCC, I have very minimal sled pull experience with this one. I think I've
sled pulled it twice since I've owned it. So it didn't do very good either time. So we definitely
need to do a little more work in that department yet. I don't have much experience on the dyno with
it, about the same as sled pulling, I've been on the dyno with it twice and neither time it made
the number that I was hoping for. It actually kind of threw me off a little bit. It made less
horsepower on nitrous both times I've been on the dyno, little backwards.
So that's going to be, I guess you could say a challenge.
Out of the three events, I probably had the most experience sled pulling, I guess.
Okay. And just, but you have that dedicated puller. So on this truck, it's more of like a chassis,
more or less like knowing the truck set up and having that confidence out at the track.
Right. I have a general idea of how to set it up to sled pull decent. So we'll try to take the
knowledge off the dedicated pull truck and apply it to this one, then see if we can make it perform
well in that aspect. What's the, what's the truck? So you said it's a 12 valve is, you know,
can you give us, give the listeners a quick rundown? Like what's the truck consist of?
Yeah, it's a 1994. It's a single cab lung bed. It's 12 valve Cummins, obviously.
It's kind of a, it's a sleeper build was the original idea of it. So it's not going to look
like your typical new CC trucks. I mean, it's got paint fade and dense and it's got a camper
shell on the back to cover the roll cage and stuff like that. It's, I mean, it's as much of a sleeper
truck as you can build to that extent, I guess. And that as far as setup of the truck goes,
do you run one turbo, two turbos? Is this, is this a P pump motor or give a little background there?
Yep. So it is currently a 59 block. It's for 20 over. It's got,
it's got, currently it has a stock 12 valve head on it. I'm hoping to figure out a ported head
before you CC. I think that's kind of limiting my setup right now. It's a 188 220 cam. It's got
waggler competition rods. It's got marine wide bowl pistons in it. And then it's got compound
turbo. It's a 475 on the manifold with a GT 55 107 mil on the atmosphere. And then Scott currently
three kits of nitrous on it as well. Only three. Yep. Yep. The cheap way is 125 solenoids that I
took a drill bit to the jet and opened them up as big as I could. I mean, I feel like that,
that keeps it with the times with a, with a 12 valve. You know, I mean, you can get away with
that stuff. So why not do it? Right? Pretty much. Now, what do you do as far as transmission on the
truck? It is a full manual body 48, but a good buddy of mine, Cody Carlson builds it for me.
It's been a really good unit so far. I fingers crossed. I don't hardly ever have trans problems.
I'm hoping that will stay the same through UCC. Now, going to an event like UCC,
some of the, some of the competitors are talking about, you know, everybody's kind of in the same
boat, trucks not together, crunch time, you know, we're at the final weeks of getting everything
together. And then you talk to some guys where they have a laundry list of spare parts that they
bring as a just in case. What are you going to do? What's your plan preparation wise, you know,
four spare parts for the event? So we will have, I'm hoping, well, everyone's hope, I guess,
more spare parts than what we need. Obviously the motor that's in the truck is a semi built engine.
I have two stock 12 valves that we're bringing with. So the joke is we have a motor for every
day so we can compete all three days no matter what. That's awesome. So the longevity of those
motors, I'm not really sure if we have to use them. They might only last a day, but we'll have
two spare motors. Cody's set me up with a spare trans. So we'll have a full secondary 48 with us
if we need to swap one in. I'll have spare, I got a couple spare turbos. The truck has
a history of blowing up turbos this past year. So hoping to not have to tap into that, but we also
have a spare turbo for every day if we needed. So with the trucks like current setup or the
last time it was out, what was the personal best as far as like going to the track and running it
in the quarter mile or in the eighth mile? So I have a very limited drag strip time. I've only
been to a drag strip, an actual drag strip with that truck twice. And both times or last fall,
both times I blew a motor up. So I don't have very much drag racing experience. The best
pass it has done in the quarter mile, it ran a 10 eight at like 130 miles an hour or something
like that. And that's about the only pass that it has done anything significant. All the other
times it blows up before the end. So well, the other time it blew up before the end. So,
I mean, a 10 eight at 130 mile an hour. I mean, the mile an hour is there, you know?
Yeah. Yeah. I need to learn how to 60 foot it. That's the goal would be to get to a drag strip
before you CC and try to work on the 60 foot a little bit, especially since like I've never
raced eight mile except on ice oddly enough. So I don't really know what to expect on black top for
that. Probably, probably similar with that kind of power and nice, you know, but you see what
happens. What one way to find out, right? What's your goal, right? Your rookie year coming into
this, you know, 12 valve diesel. I mean, to me, I think diesel performance, I think a 12 valve.
I mean, that's how I got into this stuff. But you're in a sea of common rail competition.
So what, what's the, what's the goal for you as far as you CC 2026 goes?
Um, I mean, I would like to finish all three events. I tend to look at events a little
differently, I guess. Like I, for me, this, I'm going with the idea of I want to have fun doing
it and I'm going to do my best at it. I don't really care where it places at the end of the
day, as long as I know I'm going to have fun doing it. And I know we're going to try as hard as we
can. And I really, the main goal, I guess would be competing all three events. And I really want
to see a thousand horse on the dyno. Cause as crazy as that setup sounds, it has not made a
thousand on a dyno yet. And that's been a goal for me for a long time. So I was hoping to achieve
that goal before you CC. And it, that just didn't happen. So I'm hoping that we can have the setup
figured out or I can learn how to drive it on the dyno, whatever the issue is there. We can at
least make at minimum a thousand horse. That'd be a big personal goal for me would be to see
four digits on the dyno. No, I mean, in the experience, like you said, right? You just,
the goal is to have a good experience through the event.
Yeah, definitely. Now, do you have any like personal best so far that, you know, you're going to
this event that you want to be able, I guess, to achieve? Like, I guess you haven't had, I guess
it's, you know, a thousand horsepower that you mentioned before. What, what, what power has the
truck made on a dyno so far? So the best it's ever done was last year when I was running a single
turbo on a lot of nitrous, it made 985. I was right there. This year with the compound setup,
it's been on a dyno twice. The first time it made 850 on fuel and then I sprayed it to 750.
Oh, wow. And then the last time I was on the dyno, which was only a couple weeks ago,
it did 750 on fuel and then I sprayed it to like 710 or something like that.
It's been printing numbers backwards and not, we haven't exactly figured out if it's the way
I'm driving it. If it's the way the dyno is loading it, I did, it's new to me to the point
where I'm not really sure what's causing it yet. And we're really hoping that we can find the power
that it used to have as a single turbo. It was there. It was almost that a thousand.
And we may do some backwards things and take the compounds off for the dyno and run a single
turbo since we know that works. But we'll make that call when we're at UCC probably.
Now, do you have any motive? Does the 12 valve motivate you to want to continue on that platform
or is there motives to like, hey, I like the theme of the truck, but I might want to go common rail
because of the data logging and the diagnostic capabilities or is that not really something
you've ever thought of? I have certainly had the thought process of like a common rail. I'm not
going to say it's easy to make power on, but like there's recipes that are very successful in the
common rail platform where like, you know, you buy these parts and pretty much know it's going to,
you got to get good tuning, but you know, it's going to cooperate and the 12 valve definitely
does not respond like that. My main reason for being with the 12 valve is because
we're kind of doing this on a budget and 12 valves are cheap.
No, I don't know. I'm not going to agree with you on that anymore. The days of finding thousand
dollar, you know, 12 valve long blocks on Craigslist or on Marketplace, I feel have gone to the wayside.
Yeah, some of the parts and upgrades are a little less expensive than common rail, but
you know, everything these days, you know, it's hard to find good parts.
It is. That is very true. 12 valves are very hard to find for less than 1500 bucks nowadays.
It's definitely not the way it used to be where you can find them all day long for $800, but
those were the days. Yeah, no kidding. Now, no kidding. As far as like competitors, are you
like, are you following the competitors going into this year? Are there any competitors that
you kind of have your eyes set on? Like you're sizing your truck up to those trucks like, okay,
these are the trucks that I know I'm going to be competitive with that, you know, you kind of want
to stack your truck up next to, or is that not really something you've paid much attention to?
I can't say I've paid a ton of attention. I do follow most of the competitors enough to know
like, you know, what they're bringing and whatnot. I can't, like, I don't know. Going into this,
I know I'm very outdone, so I'm not necessarily looking at them going, oh, I think I could stack
up with him. I'm mostly just going into it with the mindset of we're going to do the best we can
with this platform and see what happens, see how it's stacked up. No, I'm excited because I, you
know, as you're talking about your truck, your truck seems, you know, fairly, you know, competitive
in a sense compared to like Patrick Brown's truck, you know, another second gen, but his is a VP
truck. And, you know, he competed last year, I was able to see him on the Northwest Circuit
Dino's Dino at the thoroughbred event a couple weeks before UCC last year. And, you know, he made
a good number. The truck sounded super healthy. He was super pumped. And, you know, he's doing
it for the VP guys. He's like, yo, I love the VP pumps. I want to show out and show up for those
guys. And, you know, it's, I feel like there's not enough second gens in that class of competition
these days. I mean, I think it'd be really hard pressed to interview any of those competitors
and ask them how they got into this. And it's, it's not from, you know, the motivation of a second
gen in some aspect in the diesel community in some, you know, way shape or form. So I think it's
super cool. Something about a second gen. Not the money I've ever spent on transmissions or
head gasket or oil coolers with oil in my coolant. But hey, you know what? I'm right there with you.
Right. But cool. So I guess, you know, with that, like, you know, do you have,
do you have like a large like, you know, team behind you? Do you have a lot of buddies that
are helping you kind of thrash and wrench on the truck? Like what's the support system look like
for, for going into something like this? Yeah, I mean, we, I guess part of the other
thing that I think is cool about this truck is, you know, I,
I have a full-time job. I don't wrench on stuff for my day job. So everything just happens after
work. And Josh Hagerty, he does all my fab work. Same thing for him. He's got a full-time job,
and he does fab work on the side. So he did the cage and the compound piping and stuff like that.
And Cody Carlson, who I mentioned before, who did the trans, you know, he's a full-time job,
does transmissions after work. Like we're all just kind of working on it in our free time. I
guess you could say it's more of a side project. It's not a full-time thing. And it ended up
working very well to the point where, I mean, I got noticed or got enough attention that
Chris thought I had what it takes to come out there and see what it can do.
And I got a couple other buddies that, you know, they have to work, stop out by my shop at home,
and we wrench on it for a few hours and probably stay up later than we should and
just try to take it out that weekend and have fun with it. Yeah, pretty much.
You brought up something. How did that come about? What, you know, for, for any of the listeners who
are aspiring for something like this, how did you get the invite from, from Chris for, for this event?
I'll be perfectly honest with you. I don't totally know the whole backstory. I believe
that he first heard about the truck from Hub City dirt drags. That's been kind of the main,
I guess, promoter of the truck. That's kind of been, I haven't been to UCC with a truck yet,
so maybe this will change, but currently Hub City is my favorite event to go to.
They do it twice a year and it's just a blast. It's dirt drag, flood pulling,
and I know like it's, it's kind of, it's UCC, but you're based on dirt instead of black top.
A little more for dirt. And yeah, a little bit. I feel like dirt drags are kind of like the new
thing. Like there's, there's a dirt drag event out this way that we've been doing the last couple
years. And unfortunately, there's not enough dirt drag events I feel, but it, it really brings the
community together. Like there's a lot of trucks and a lot of guys that show up to dirt drag.
Yeah, it's something about it. It just like, before I had done it, I always was kind of like,
I don't know, dirt drags, like, I guess it sounds cool. Maybe we'll try it once and then you do it
once. And then it's like, man, I'm hooked. That was fun. Just something about it. It just,
you end up moving so much faster than you expect to be able to. And you think you're just spinning
and you're, it actually ends up, there's traction out there. If you get the right setup,
get the right tires, dirt drags are a blast. And I travel for them at this point because
there's so much fun. But like you said, they're just, there's not that many of them.
I don't know how the city does it twice a year, but it's only twice a year. That's not like you
can go every week. I always felt that way about dirt, about sled pulling. Like I grew up in an
area where sled pulling, you know, in our area, Northern Illinois, Wisconsin, I mean, you could
pretty much go to any local county fair in a weekend and there's, you know, sled pulls, you
could go to two or three sled pulls in a weekend if you wanted. And all my buddies did it. And I
thought it was like so boring. And then the first time I got behind the wheel and hooked up to a
sled, I was like, Oh man, I'm hooked. Like this is super cool. And kind of the dirt drags was kind
of that same thing. It's like, why would you want to dirt, why would you want to drag race and dirt?
And then you do it and you're like, why wouldn't you want to drag race and dirt? Like it's perfect.
So, right? It's way more fun than it sounds like it would be. And that's, I tell everybody that
that like, if you get a chance to dirt drag, oh man, you got to do it. Cause it's so much fun.
No, definitely. There are more of them, but it's so much fun.
Hopefully the popularity on those, you know, get better over time. I know like land and space and
insurance and, you know, all the, all the critical things that you need to run an event have some
questions. So I feel like that's maybe why there isn't as many, but I just hope that more of them
come about over the next couple of years because, you know, the turnouts would definitely be there.
Yeah, I think they're, they really use the market for it. And our part is getting adequate shut down
is really what it seems to come down to. Yeah, yeah, definitely. No, 300 foot section of dirt to
race on is one thing, but having 1000 feet after it to get slow down is, that's a little different
story then. Yeah. For, for any of our listeners that maybe want to try to follow you to learn
more on the truck, learn more about you, follow the event, you know, what's, what's their, what's
their ability to follow you on socials? Yeah, I got, I don't do the best job of posting. I'm
trying to be better at it, but my social media is johnny underscore 12 valve.
Simple one to the point. The roots. Awesome man. Well, we're looking forward to seeing you compete.
We're excited to see how you do your rookie year. I love to see a 12 valve in this man.
We're rooting for you. We wish you the best. I appreciate that. Yeah, I'm excited.
Awesome. Well, we'll, we'll be on the lookout for you and, you know, we should the best and
we'll, we'll probably try to schedule something and get you back on after the event. I think that
it'll be a fun story just to kind of pick your brain on, on the experience of your rookie year.
So we're excited to get you back on if you're up for it.
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Cool. All right, man. You enjoy. All right. Thank you.
Well, the joke is we have a motor for every day so we can compete all three days no matter what.
That's awesome.
About this episode
Johnny Hooper joins the Diesel Performance Podcast as a UCC competitor for the Amsoil Ultimate Call Out Challenge 2026, and the team’s 12-valve Cummins build is still in late-stage prep. The truck runs short-course “street drags” (300 foot no prep) and sled pulling, with a compound turbo, multiple nitrous kits, and a full manual “48” transmission plus spare parts. They compare dyno results, talk 60-foot and four-digit dyno goals, and explain why 12-valve parts are getting harder to find.
We are interviewing our first rookie of this years event, Jonny Hooper! Jonny is ready to put his 12 Valve Cummins into the competition and make some waves. Coming from a background in sled pulls and dirt drags up in Wisconsin, he is hooked to the experience of competition. Jonny is looking to have fun and achieve his own goals at this years AMSOIL UCC 2026. As avid 12 valve fans, we are going to have fun watching Jonny take on this years competitors!
