A dyno is a machine that measures how much power a car makes. A dyno session is when they run the truck on that machine to see what changes improve power.
Horsepower is a number that tells you how much power the engine can make. Higher horsepower usually means the vehicle can accelerate harder, but it’s not the only thing that matters.
This is an engine-building shop. The host is saying the shop has grown, with more equipment to build and test stronger engines.
Company
police performance
This sounds like a performance shop name. They’re talking about how the shop’s engine work and equipment have grown over the years.
Concept
UCC event
UCC is a truck competition where the vehicles get tested hard, not just for raw power. The big point is that the truck has to survive the whole event and keep working reliably.
Dyno numbers are the results you get when a truck is tested on a machine that measures how much power it makes. It’s a controlled way to compare builds, but the event still has to be survived.
A billet block is a stronger engine block made from a solid piece of metal. People use it when they’re making extreme power so the engine can handle the stress without failing.
They’re saying you can’t just bolt on parts and make big power. You need the whole setup—engine, tuning, and the truck’s setup—to work together for the rules and conditions of the event.
A “tuner” is the specialist who calibrates the engine control strategy—fueling, timing, boost (if applicable), and other parameters—so the engine produces power reliably. In diesel builds, tuning is tightly linked to the fuel choice and how the engine is built.
Term
dynamite the fuel
They mean using fuel that helps the engine make more power. With diesel trucks, the tune and the fuel have to work together, so you can’t just pick any fuel and expect the same results.
Making a lot of power isn’t enough by itself. The engine has to be set up as a complete package so all the parts work together and don’t cause problems during the event.
A turbocharger (often just called a “turbo”) uses exhaust energy to spin a compressor that forces more air into the engine. On diesel builds, matching the turbo to fueling and engine tuning is critical because it directly affects boost levels and how much air the engine can burn.
Injectors are what spray fuel into the engine. If they don’t match the rest of the setup, the engine can make less power or run into problems under boost.
Fleece Performance is a company that works on diesel performance builds. The point here is that their experience helps people avoid expensive trial-and-error when putting a high-power setup together.
“UCC truck” means a diesel truck built to compete in a particular event/class. The host’s point is that you can’t just buy parts for big power—you have to set the whole truck up to work reliably in that competition.
Trial and error is when you keep trying different setups until something works. The host’s point is that good builders and data can prevent wasting weeks or months on wrong combinations.
A dyno is a machine that measures engine power under controlled conditions. A “dyno library” means the shop has lots of previous test results, so they can make better predictions instead of trying random setups and hoping for the best.
A sled pulling engine is designed for pulling competitions where the engine works very hard for a sustained time. It’s usually tuned to deliver strong pulling power and survive the event, not just make a big peak number on a light load.
They’re talking about the power needed for a specific event called UCC. The point is that having big power isn’t enough—you also have to use it without breaking the truck before the end of the race.
Nitrous is a system that adds a special gas to the engine to make more power. It’s like a temporary boost, but it can be hard on the engine if you don’t manage it carefully.
They’re saying the real challenge is not just making power—it’s making sure the truck doesn’t break during the whole event. Big power can stress parts, so reliability matters as much as speed.
They’re saying you have to know what your setup can actually handle. Even if you spend a lot of money, the truck can still break if the power and stress exceed what the parts and tune can survive.
It means you build in steps. You start with a smaller goal, learn what the car can handle, and then upgrade toward the big power later—so you don’t waste money on the wrong parts.
They mean the build is about hitting specific measurable goals. Instead of just buying parts, you figure out what you need to change to reach the target number.
The engine block is the main foundation of the engine. Using aluminum instead of heavier materials can make it lighter, which matters when you’re building for big power.
The cylinder head is the top part of the engine that helps control combustion. Aluminum heads are often used in performance builds because they can handle heat well, but they still need the right build quality for high power.
A pump setup is the part of the fuel system that delivers fuel to the engine. When you’re trying to make more power, you often need a different fuel-pumping setup so the engine gets enough fuel.
A front cover is a protective part at the front of a mechanical assembly. On high-power builds, it can also help support and protect internal parts.
Term
34 team note pumps
This sounds like they’re talking about fuel pumps—how many they’re using. More pumps can help keep enough fuel pressure when the engine is working hard.
Water injection is a system that sprays water into the engine’s air path. It helps keep temperatures down and can reduce the chance of the engine knocking when you push boost.
CNC machines are precision machines that cut parts using computer instructions. They’re used to make custom metal components that need to be very accurate.
Term
open
“Open” here means the engine is set up to let more flow through with fewer restrictions. That can affect how the truck spools up and how much fuel and air it can use.
“Jets” in diesel performance talk usually refers to metering or fuel-delivery components (or adjustable fuel/air enrichment hardware) that control how much fuel gets added under certain conditions. Changing jetting is a common way to tune power and prevent going too lean/rich for the engine and traction setup.
It means the tires start spinning instead of grabbing the track. When that happens, you’re basically wasting engine power because the truck can’t hook up.
A “lockup command” refers to commanding a torque converter clutch (or similar lockup function) to engage, which reduces slippage inside an automatic transmission. In racing, timing lockup matters because it changes how the drivetrain loads the tires and can affect traction and acceleration.
The “prep surface” is the track after it’s been prepared for racing. It affects how much grip the tires get, so it can make the car hook up better—or spin.
“One and done” means you’re trying to save your best effort for the main run, because you don’t have unlimited attempts. If you use up too much during practice or prep, you might not be able to do it again at the event.
The driveshaft is the part that sends power from the transmission to the rear wheels (or to the differential). When you’re making a lot more torque, the driveshaft has to be strong enough to handle it without breaking.
“Dino” is short for a dyno, which is a machine that measures how much power a car makes. It puts the car under load while you watch the numbers, so if something is weak in the drivetrain, it can fail dramatically.
Drag racing is racing in a straight line where the goal is to be the quickest over a short distance. The cars put maximum stress on the engine and drivetrain right away. So even if you have a lot of power, you still have to make it through the run safely.
When people talk about the “safety thing” in racing, they mean avoiding dangerous failures. If an engine or drivetrain breaks, it can create fire or flying debris risks. So safety is about making sure the car survives the run and doesn’t endanger anyone.
“Blowing up the engine” means the engine fails in a serious way, not just a minor problem. In racing, the engine is pushed extremely hard, so a small issue can quickly become a big failure. It’s the kind of breakdown that can ruin a run even if you were winning.
The head gasket is like a tough seal inside an engine. It sits between the top part of the engine and the block to keep fluids and combustion gases in the right places. If it fails, the engine can overheat or run badly, and sometimes it can fail dramatically.
“Custom fab” means custom fabrication—making parts from scratch or modifying parts to fit your build. Instead of buying everything off the shelf, you might weld, cut, and fabricate brackets or piping. It takes time, but it’s often necessary for a tight, high-power racing setup.
A “harness” is the wiring system that connects the engine computer to all the sensors and controls. When you change or build an engine, you often need to adapt the wiring so everything talks correctly. If the wiring isn’t right, the engine can run poorly or fail.
A drag strip is a track made for racing in a straight line. People go there to see how fast their truck is and to start building toward bigger competition.
The transmission is what sends power from the engine to the wheels. In drag racing, it has to survive hard launches and fast acceleration, so it often gets upgraded on high-power trucks.
Topic
the 72 fast class
The “72 fast class” is one of the race categories at the event. The hosts are saying it should be especially intense and competitive this year.
They’re describing how some parts start out for racing, where everything is pushed hard, and then those same ideas get turned into parts regular drivers can use. The goal is usually better durability or easier maintenance.
Term
diesel pickup truck
This just means a truck that runs on diesel fuel. Diesel trucks often work harder and run hotter than some gas engines, so cooling-related parts matter a lot.
The coolant neck is a part of the engine’s cooling system that connects coolant hoses to the engine. It helps coolant move around to keep the engine from overheating, and it can wear out or crack over time.
OEM parts are the factory parts made by the company that built the vehicle. The host is saying they also make replacement options when the original part isn’t performing well or is inconvenient to replace.
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Own the dream.
Kenny and John, welcome to Dece Podcast.
Looking forward to chatting with you guys.
I've had you guys on before individually,
but never together on a dual podcast.
So this is going to be fun.
Look forward to having you guys today.
On a mental event right here.
I can feel the energy.
How are you guys doing?
Well, doing good, you know, big days coming up here.
We're running around like crazy,
but everything has been smooth sailing.
We kind of took over a bay at Fleece Performance
and kind of inserted ourselves,
but they've been welcoming and really embracing.
This is really something embracing.
Are you kidding me?
Yeah, it sure is.
Well, it's good.
This is one of the busiest weeks of the year for us here.
Peer eyes and a busy week,
but this one's a little different.
You know, our parking lot is essentially full of racers
right now.
And there's kind of a couple of waves that come through.
It's cool to have the event in our backyard.
You know, you guys showed up Monday afternoon,
late afternoon,
and we already had a couple of trucks in the shop.
Some racers from Texas showed up.
So the next, well, really Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
there's a ton of vehicles here.
We open up our, basically our service shop
to anybody who needs to come in, work on their stuff,
mainly customers, of course.
But, you know, like for can coming all the way
from California, you could imagine,
one, this truck is just dirty.
It's in an open trailer.
So, you know, wiping the bugs off,
which your truck is pointing backwards.
So I'm not sure how the bugs came.
You know, just, they come from a great angle on the way here.
It's such a long drive.
But there's always those last-minute things, you know.
And so it's kind of cool to do that.
It's also awesome to show customers
who haven't been here for a year,
the changes in our building, the things that we're doing,
and then obviously utilize, you know,
this type of forum to talk about some of this stuff
and maybe enlighten or teach people out there
what it takes to be a part of an event like UCC,
72 Fast or any of the things going on this weekend.
It was really cool.
It had me like pumped up to do this episode,
was I chatted with Ken a little bit earlier last month.
And so we were talking about like getting back to UCC
after he had won it in 2024.
And then I was asked him about different parts he was running.
And I'd love to be able to connect parts
to like the manufacturing design side,
which for people who watched the podcast,
this last year we had Braden on
and he walked me through part of the shop
and the CNC machines.
And John, you've gone into detail about like R&D on parts
and you know, whether it's heads or 67 power stroke
stuff or transmission lines.
And so this is like combining two different parts of diesel.
It's what Ken has invested a lot of time, money,
and passion into, which is racing and competing
at the highest level and winning.
And then all the time that fleece
and freedom racing engines puts in
and people like yourself, John,
where you're putting together the best product,
the best options that people like Ken can choose.
So it's really cool because he's there.
He's an Indiana.
Last time we chatted it was in California
and you know, we're gonna put this out as fast as we can.
So it's gonna be right before UCC.
It's just right before it takes place.
So I wanted to start with you, Ken,
a little bit about like when we chatted last
and you were giving me a rundown on parts
and you're excited.
What's it like now that you're like 24, 48 hours away
from everything starting?
That's a lot of pressure.
You know, I've just been, well, the truck's been ready,
you know, for a couple of weeks now
and we have some small little wrap up things to do,
but you know, John likes to laugh at us
because we're sitting there just kind of looking
at the truck and he's like,
you're just looking for something to do.
And it's like, yeah, I mean, I'm over there
making sure bolts are tied, re-torquing things,
paint-penning just like, what did we miss?
Cause something always kind of shows up,
but we feel pretty good.
Everything's pretty prepared.
You know, we've got some test hits on the truck.
Most things are completely fresh.
You know, we just want to go out there
and make some solid numbers and you know,
make sure all of our, you know, T's across and I's are dotted.
So yeah.
From my perspective, I look at a lot of this as, you know,
you spend so much time building the vehicle,
testing it, making sure everything's right.
And then you show up and as soon as the first,
you know, first pass on the track, like everything changes.
Yep.
It's cool though.
You know, Kenny's team is different than some
and similar to others in that,
like it's a really good group of guys
that are going to travel in from mainly the West Coast
to help them out.
I'd say you guys have a ton of fun.
Yeah.
But it's also like, I think about Brandon
that's two years ago when he won,
just like looking at how, like tired
and how much work goes into this event.
It truly is like absolute three day marathon.
Yeah. And I mean, we are like first and foremost
here to have a good time.
That's why we're here.
We are here for the passion, the fun,
like, you know, winning absolutely a bonus,
making some money and paying off some debt,
absolutely a bonus, but we love this.
That's why we do it, you know?
So we put our hearts into it.
And even like you said, you know, we're dead tired,
but at the same time we're, you know,
super happy about it.
What's it like when you get there
and being able to see like the production of fleece,
like the behind the scenes stuff?
This is like one of my favorite parts about coming to Indy,
you know, like if I, if I'm not competing
and John knows this, I show up here anyway.
Yeah, I don't even need a Bay or a tool or anything.
I just walk in the front door and, you know,
someone says, can I help you?
And I just walk right where
I need your t-shirt.
Where did you get things are just disappearing?
But yeah, like
A lot of texts will be in my office
and I'll be getting text messages.
Like, when did you start making this?
Why don't I have one of these?
You know, as he's like walking around
and looking at the new pants, like, you know, our,
our, our shop.
I've been told more than once, no pictures,
but man, there's just such cool stuff here.
You know, like they are every year I come here,
it's bigger, it's more advanced.
There's more machines in the shop.
There's more production going on.
The, the staff is getting huge.
Like it's just a growing part of like just keeps flourishing,
you know, and it's so easy to recognize.
You take one tour a year and you just see the growth.
So like seeing what they're doing in-house,
like almost all of their components are made right here
in the shop.
You know, it's not like they're outsourcing a ton of stuff.
It's all made within the house
and it's all under their control.
So it's just amazing and impressive to see.
And Chase is actually running the engine dyno as we speak.
He's got like four engines.
He's trying to get finished up this week.
So not necessarily for UCC, but for, for customers,
you know, just cause the events going on
doesn't mean the deadline stop.
We were here until midnight last night.
Running some, some secret sauce dyno sessions, you know,
where he's trying to squeeze out every ounce of horsepower
and to be there and watching that is like just,
just the privilege, you know what I mean?
Just to be like, see what he's tweaking,
see what he's doing and just finding horsepower in every way.
So just to have that ability is just super, you know,
it's a cool, cool experience.
That was something you mentioned when we chatted before.
I'd asked you, how do you pick companies
that you want part of your investment
and your passion with this truck?
And you said, I want somebody who'll pick up the phone,
somebody that I can have a relationship with.
And so as you see each year or each time you visit
police performance, freedom racing engines,
they get bigger and there's more machines.
How has that changed at all?
Or do you still have like that same kind of like?
No, well, the crew has been consistent, you know?
I mean, we've got Chase, John, Evan, and you know, Corey,
it's all the same faces.
Like, you know, everyone is like family here
and it's just the same people that are here.
So it hasn't changed at all from that perspective.
Like the communication is still flawless.
So, you know, every time we show up,
like he laughs about, you know, not, not responding,
but I'm just here anyways.
I just, I know eventually he's going to be there
when I show up.
Kind of a, I try to keep Ken held down for most of the year
because he gets so excited.
You know, I can't give him too much.
No, I would say, you know,
to kind of talk about the manufacturing side a little bit,
like we are still always trying to push the envelope
and find new combinations.
You know, we're really always building off
of what our past successes, you know, taking the mindset,
like you're only as good as your last run.
That being said, the industry as a whole
is continually pushing itself to get better.
And so we have to continue to evolve.
A lot of times people like you come through the shop
and you see all the new machines, the new technology,
you know, that doesn't mean we're just instantly able
to do anything we want, although we have the capability.
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You know, such a large scale manufacturing operation
and, you know, with our new building expansion,
there's, you know, intentional purpose behind
allowing our engine development
and our production engine program to have the tools,
the resource from a people perspective
in the space to grow.
So we're really focused in now
on rolling the competition side,
maybe not from a fall you perspective,
but from an innovation perspective.
You know, it gets really tricky to manage
a lot of cans for obvious reasons.
No, but, you know, that type of business
is naturally hard to scale
because it requires so much effort.
There's a lot of time spent on the phone,
a lot of time going back and forth email-wise.
Everybody's combination might appear to be similar,
but they're not all the same.
You know, he might have a chassis constraint
that requires a custom gear housing
or something special to his setup
and it's on us to decide like, hey, can we do that?
If so, you know, how are we gonna attack this?
How much effort goes into it from an engineering
programming and machine perspective to make a good part?
Yeah, and, you know, like people's builds
are constantly evolving too, right?
So, you know, there's new turbos coming out,
new, you know, cam profiles, I'm sure.
I'm like, so it's not a one case fits all.
And as much as I'm sure they would want that to be like that,
so you could just pump out everything of the same.
There's a lot of custom tailoring to it.
So, but yeah.
And also the scale of things, you know,
we start getting into billet engine blocks and cylinder heads.
You know, the price tag obviously goes sky high.
And so there's definitely a factor of trying to build
a high quality part that can somewhat be affordable.
You know, when you start looking at events like UCC,
the magnitude of this event,
you're gonna see everything from a budget build
all the way to, you know, no expense spared
to try to win this thing.
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Is this where like the time before UCC,
John, where you can really, you can really focus in
on that individual attention because each person,
each truck, each setup is so different
where you guys get great feedback
on what people are looking for, what challenges are,
and then build that unique relationship
like in the time before the event, like right now.
I would say it's great to,
it's always awesome to get to interface
with your partners or customers, friends before the event,
but the work has already started a year ago.
We were kind of talking about this
before we started the podcast, but to get into something
like UCC and really show up to compete,
it takes a full year of prep.
And even then, most guys that are successful in this event
have years of trial, error, failure.
I'm trying to think of somebody who just showed up and won.
I don't think there is one.
I can name the people that I've won every year
and it's like, those trucks are proven,
the people that I've driven are proven.
You just name them.
It's LeVon, Derek, or I mean, Justin Ziegler,
Tony Burkard, myself and Josh McCormick,
all with a ton of racing experience
and all with pretty much proven platforms
that have been under development for a long time.
And then no winner has been slapped it together
in six months.
If you're wanting to call up a month before UCC
and get an engine build, it's not gonna happen.
Because it takes a long time to,
the actual assembly process is just a fraction
of the overall process.
There's a lot of prep, planning, testing.
And then obviously we have a lot of builds
going on all the time.
So there's an order of operation
that goes into these things.
But the cool thing is, I think back to the old days of UCC
and I was telling the guys the other day at lunch,
like I remember a time, I think it was 2017.
It was 2018, 2017, somewhere in there.
It was the first year the event was in India.
And I never went to the track.
I was building engines the whole weekend
trying to keep everybody running.
And like that was a huge push for us to say,
okay, we've got to approach this event different.
And we need to approach our engine combinations different.
We need to build something that can survive
what it's gonna go through at this event
and then figure out how to replicate it over and over again.
We've had seasons where we've had 12 different competitors
in the UCC event.
And I remember that year was a huge accomplishment
in all but one truck drove onto the trailer
on Sunday afternoon.
So you're putting these things literally through the paces.
Like I don't think there's an event
that's harder on a truck than this one.
Yeah, I mean, the dyno numbers we are shooting for now
that everyone's looking for is just 3,000, 3,500.
That territory is just like it's astronomical, right?
It's like, one day, I think it's the billet block
that might have to come down the pipeline for us
because it's just asking a lot out of anything else.
So it's like...
And that is the next big change for your truck
is gonna be going to a billet block.
And it's kind of cool looking around here too
because you see like four or five of them floating around
and John's like, stay away from those.
Get out of here.
I'm just like, is it on a cart already?
Start wheeling it out.
You have a bunch of slight little things over, say.
You know, you just can't give them everything
that wants to lose.
One of the, I've covered or talked with racers
with that UCC or who are participating
since the very beginning.
And one of the things that I, when I look back,
if some of them would tell me, you know,
I went as a spectator, I sat in the stands
and I decided, you know what, I wanna do this.
And so I thought of that angle to ask you a question
John, is as like, how does that process work?
Maybe they're not trying to get it a month before,
like they know they gotta take year
or they're gonna have years involved in it.
But when they call up to Freedom Racing Engines,
maybe they talk with you or someone else,
like how do you walk somebody through
putting together an engine and the money
and the time they're gonna invest in it?
I'm really curious like how that process works.
So from, you know, again, I look at the engine
that's just one piece of the puzzle, right?
So from the engine side of things,
we'll say, you Patrick told me next week and said,
hey, I really wanna get an engine built for UCC.
You know, we're gonna start stepping through like,
well, what are your goals?
Like are you going to win
or are you going to just make an appearance?
Like what is it that you want out of this?
And most people are gonna say, yeah, I wanna go to win.
We start talking through like, you know,
what is your budget?
What can you afford?
And then we're not gonna put something out there
that we don't feel comfortable with either.
And there's a lot more than just building an engine.
You know, it's having good partners
on the tuning side of things,
on the fuel side of things, on the air side of things.
And so with the years of experience we have
relative to UCC, we know what the combination
needs to look like in order to put up the numbers to win.
But it's also a bigger
I would say maybe more of like a bigger
overall ecosystem of tying together like,
hey, we want that customer to do well,
have a good experience.
So tying together, you know,
potentially like this might be a good tuning option
or these are the injectors you're gonna need.
This is there.
Or maybe if we take on the whole thing
where we spec the fuel in the air
and then kind of take it from there.
The truck side is always the variable
for us as the engine builder.
We can build you the best engine in the world.
But what is your truck?
Are you building it?
You just who's helping you out?
And I'll look to you for some of that.
You know, I think so good, good.
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Kind of goes back to building the relationships,
getting involved in the industry
and understanding who the right players are
to put together a combination that can win and then test you.
Yeah, and John kind of hit on it too.
Like, you know, you're like,
oh, I call police and tell them I want an engine.
But it's so much more than that.
Like, you know, in our group, you know,
my job is the chassis.
I am going to make everything there, handle UCC.
His job is the engine, right?
And we have the tuner.
So it's like the three of us, I think, you know,
Ryan from Hardway, you know, Freedom Racing Engines
and myself, it's like the engine, the tuning
and the truck are the biggest ones.
And they even, you know, dynamite the fuel.
Probably that's probably the other, you know, package.
But if you're going to go, you know, buy, you know,
an engine from them, it's probably best to get their input
on who should tune it, who should, you know,
put the, you know, what fuel should we use?
Cause I know Chase has his recipes
and things that are proven out.
So, you know, you might even go to them
to more than just the engine, you know, like,
what is the package that we should run?
Throughout the whole weekend,
Chase is going to be bouncing around from pit to pit,
you know, checking in on customers,
making sure everybody has what they need,
bouncing ideas or looking at problems, you know,
I'll be running around kind of doing the same thing,
supporting wherever I can.
But like I said, from the engine side of things,
the other big thing is, you know,
these types of events are usually one, not months,
but almost a year before it even happens, you know?
So if you want to buy an engine, getting it into a truck,
if you start testing in, you know, April for this event,
you're way behind.
If this was, for instance, a brand new truck,
fresh everything, because it takes time
to get laps on that combination, you know, it's a gauntlet.
So you're drag racing, you're dynoing
and you're sled pulling and typically you've got people
who are really good at two of those three things.
And that is the challenge.
We've gone through this with Greg.
Greg A, you know, a few years ago,
he'd be mad if he listens to this
and hears me telling the story,
he'd have blown one up in the parking lot
two weeks before the event.
I remember that.
But like he needed to get some of that experience
on the dyno and it happens.
You're playing on the edge of destruction
every time you go to this thing.
So it just takes that type of mindset
and effort to be successful.
Yeah, and I feel like, you know, you're talking about the time
and how, you know, a year to build, right?
I feel like the only way you can shorten that
is by having the right people, you know, in the group, right?
You know, like, sure, maybe we can shorten up
how much time we spend on the chassis.
If we, you know, one of us is a really good chassis builder
or we can shorten up the time to tune a truck to one weekend
if you've got a really good tuner, like, that's the only way
I see you can kind of collapse that a little bit.
So picking the team is just as important as the money
or the effort put in, you know.
And money will buy you the best parts you can get,
you know, it will support having the right people
in your corner.
But ultimately, everything has to click for success.
You know, the driver is, in my world, a big variable, you know.
Yep.
We've seen people with the most expensive parts on it, you know,
one goof up kind of ruins the whole weekend.
The networking is really jumping out to me
as something that's incredibly important.
It's not just getting an engine from one place,
a turbo from another, injectors from another, you know,
business, a tuner here, like, they all need to fit together.
And I think with the experience that I know
Fleece Performance and Freedom Racing Engines has had for over a decade,
even longer, to me, it's not just the price of the engine
or the price of the part that I would be paying for.
Theoretically, I was building a UCC truck and called you up, John.
I would be paying for the networking, the information
and the trial and error, which I think is probably a huge part of this,
where you could save me weeks, months, or even years with that.
And it's kind of the same thing if you were calling us up
to buy a sled pulling engine, you know,
you go through our dyno library of runs.
There's 10 years of data to back up what we're going to build
and to know, like, hey, if it doesn't make this number,
there's something wrong.
And then we also know every year we spend the entire winter
developing and finding more power.
You know, a thing, an event like UCC power is typically not the problem.
Yeah, it's just more nitrous.
You know what I mean?
Like, it's not that we need to find more power.
It's applying the power.
It's keeping the thing alive and healthy through the whole event.
You got to you got to make it through to Sunday to win.
Yes. So what is it?
You you must first finish to finish first.
Right.
And then it's also knowing knowing the limits of what you have, right?
Just because you've spent, you know,
200000 dollars on your truck doesn't mean that it's indestructible.
And that goes back to the partnerships and the in the knowledge
pool involved in your in your team.
And I always love working with people who are
like minded, who listen, who are open to
feedback and input and and really allow you to steer them.
The most difficult customers are the ones who will,
you know, spend the money and then go ask
40 different people how it should be ran.
And you can't help customers like that
because you can't listen to every single person who has an idea.
You have to narrow in and dial in your your setup.
And it takes starting small to finish big a lot of times.
Are there things that that, say, Ken, for example,
questions he will ask you or goals he will have, will.
Make it or I don't want to say force, but I'm just going to use that word
force you guys to look at something different, maybe a solution that might.
Be able to really help.
Either design a part, design an engine, like,
how does the interaction with the racers fuel the development side?
So, for instance,
Tuesday after the event, can you might sit down in my office and say, like, hey,
dude, I want to make this number next year on the dyno.
Like, I have to make this number.
Like, this is what my goal is.
And from there, we're going to sit down and say, OK, well, what you have isn't enough.
And then it really becomes a process of.
You know, a numbers game of sitting down and saying, OK,
we need to step up to, we'll say, an aluminum block, an aluminum cylinder head.
A different pump setup.
It really starts there.
You're going to plot out, like, what does this build look like?
What what can you afford to build?
Because a lot of times that that's going to be the biggest hiccup is, like,
you know, you're stepping from a $50,000 engine to an $80,000 engine,
just throwing numbers out there.
But the cost is significant when you get into,
you know, trying to change the Earth's rotation on the dyno.
You know, it's not hard to sit down and plot out, like, hey, to make this number,
we need this much fuel delivery.
OK, do we make a gear housing and a front cover that can support.
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34 team note pumps, you know, OK, if we don't, then let's sit down with
our engineering team and design that.
Do we need to add in, you know, water injection or what is this
next combination look like?
And we're going through that process right now, developing some pretty
trick stuff to where.
I have one of our engineers has been working on some some scum poor projects
for our engine shop for the last couple of months, and those parts are
starting to come off CNC machines now.
And so, like, when I say the next season starts today, it's already started.
So those those parts and pieces that we're making today will be on trucks for
next season, and that's kind of the development cycle of these high
horsepower applications.
Yeah, and, and, you know, that's brings up more points of, like, you know,
also the discussions throughout the week.
Like, you know, usually it's probably Chase and Ryan and I talking
specifics about the truck of, like, I want to make 3,000 horsepower.
How many, you know, how much what's the fuel quantity we're looking at and how
much nicer. So we're going to throw at it.
And we all just come up with a discussion, right?
You know, naturally, I'll tell you, in our group, you know, Ryan Millican
wants everything open and I want most of it closed.
Ryan wants open no jets.
I want little jets, you know what I mean?
And, and then, you know, Chase is usually somewhere in the middle.
Yeah.
And, you know, same with, like, the sled pull.
I'm kind of actually more on the liberal side for sled pull.
And I want all the horsepower and I want it to be hauling ass down the track.
And, you know, Chase will sit down to me and go, Ken, you need to treat this
like a 3.0 puller.
We're going to pull back the horsepower because your chassis is not set up to
handle it and it's just going to light the tires off and do nothing well.
You know, me not having as much sled pulling experience, I'm like, maximum
horsepower, maximum tire and let it rip.
And then, you know, coming from, like, Chase's perspective, he's like,
I'm going to set this up like a 3.0 truck that we have a ton of experience
with and we're going to get a solid pass down the track.
And that's kind of like the, you know, the back and forth that we go through
each day, just leaning on everyone's experiences.
Ryan, another one on the track, you know, drag racing is Ryan's domain.
So talking to him about ramping in nitrous, you know, and like when lockup
command is going on, you know, and he's so good at seeing that.
Oh, you know, we smacked the tires or, oh, you know, we ramped into
Harvey lost a little bit after the prep surface.
So, you know, that's kind of the collaboration that we have going on at
UCC during the week.
That makes sense with what you talked with me about before about building
the relationships Ken and like the trust.
And I think being able to sit down with both of you now while you're in
Indiana a couple of days away from the event, it all, I see how that all
fits together when you're putting something together like this, like you
had mentioned leaning on Chase for the sled pulling or Ryan for the tuning.
Because one of the things that really jumped out about our last conversation
was you said something to the effect of there's only so many passes.
I know this truck has and I don't want to push it past that in prepping for it.
So when I get to UCC, it's just I'm one and done.
So you had that perspective, which I think I would have a similar one.
I kind of operate that same way where I know there's only so many I have.
And so I have to use them wisely.
Yeah.
And that's the thing.
A lot of guys will get outside themselves or get outside of like what they can
actually do.
And that's usually when things go bad.
When when you start to run a number down the track that you've never ran before
that like you can't, you know, I in my previous career worked for
Antron like we saw this all the time when our car was running good, people
would beat themselves.
We wouldn't even have to beat them because they would get outside of what
their ability was where if they would run their own race, you know, things
would look a lot different.
Yeah.
Then it's hard not to look over the fence and see what someone else did from a
number perspective and being like, well, we can probably do it too.
Like you're saying, and then, you know, something happens that you just weren't
set up for it.
You know, UCC is one of those events.
Like we said earlier, like you have to finish all three events
inside the event.
If you don't finish, you're not going to win.
And so like you might look come out of the first day in third
place and the next day, everything changes, you know, UCC historically, you
know, there's been monster dino hits around the country at different events,
but UCC historically is, it's always an interesting dino day.
Yeah.
And I've seen it all this year.
It's going to be great.
I can't wait.
There's going to be some big numbers out there.
And it's the, it's the best day of the year to be honest with you.
It's also the most stressful.
We like to give Cody a hard time.
Cody, if you're listening, man, I don't know how you do it.
You're crazy.
I love you.
Do you, do you get nervous at all?
Can like beforehand or even like during the event?
I wasn't going to lie.
Yeah.
So, I mean, I stress, I overthink things in general.
I'm always like running in circles.
Like doing that right now.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't know.
I was running numbers on driveshaft sizes yesterday.
Like, is it big enough?
Is it, you know, like, and, but like the, the only thing that gets me like really
nervous is the dino and like that thing exploding in my kids.
You know, like, I sometimes I go to a dark space, you know, like, I'm like, yeah,
I know, let's not do that.
You know, like if this is catastrophic and that's the only thing that
worries you the most, you know, the drag racing, it's not the bad sled pulling is
nothing, but I just make sure, you know, the safety thing is probably the biggest
one for me, but like nervous from a, are we going to win this whole thing?
That's not as much.
It's just the safety thing is probably the biggest for me.
But, you know, you were pretty nervous two years ago when you won though.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, I, maybe I'm down playing a little bit before the slip.
Yeah, well, we were sitting in first place, right?
And, um, it was awesome.
He, he, he won the event and the body blew up the engine and like that.
So like, he just won the event, trucks coming off, like smoke coming out and
that's all he can think about.
I'm like, who cares?
It was like, I did an engine meant a lot to me, but I think it was just the head
gasket or something or, you know, but yeah, I remember it was.
And, um, but yeah, I, I don't know.
That's, that's another thing why I admit that I don't like the dinos because
there's a lot of work outside that engine, you know, like sure, we can get any
engine, but you know, there's a lot of custom fab and harness.
And yeah, I just know it took me a year to build everything around it.
You know, so blowing that up, like my hats off to some of the competitors that
can knock that stuff out in a couple of weekends.
For some reason, I am just a slow, I just, it takes me longer to build things.
I don't know.
Like I'd like to sit down and do it slowly and kind of meticulously.
And, um, but you know, that's another reason why I still want to create it.
Yeah.
As much as I want to go for that big number, I always try to be conservative.
Sorry.
Do you hear that dyno pull in the background?
I could hear something.
Jace down there.
Does the nervousness though, kind of fuel dotting the eyes, crossing the T's and
the preparation where maybe that gives you some, takes away some of the nervousness
if you've gone over something a few times.
So I always do everything to the best of my ability.
And I kind of, how long it's taking is kind of second that being said, I feel
like I do that because I will mess up something so simple.
You know, like, I'll do a whole wiring diagram of a motoc harness and every
pin labeled in an Excel sheet and I'll go there and I'll be making it and three
of them will be wrong.
You know what I mean?
Like, even though it's sitting right in front of me, I, I'm just feel like I have,
uh, you know, a history of just messing up something silly.
So I am constantly double checking, you know, and did we tighten that or did we do this?
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You know, another bad habit of mine is like, I like to assemble something kind
of with loose bolts and then re, then fork everything, you know, and it's like,
that leaves a bad habit.
You know, you can so easily miss something.
So I paint pan a lot of things.
So, but yeah,
it's my friend Kenny special.
Yeah.
Unfortunately, Mike Brunner won't be in attendance here.
Ken's big brother.
But my brother does, you know, a different type of racing, Baja racing.
And, you know, he comes here and he sees all the, you know, the LS block stuff
and all the V8 stuff.
And John tries to give me a hard time.
Yeah, I introduce Kenny as this is Mike's little brother.
I've probably got the good genes.
He's like the taller handsome one, you know, it's cool.
You'll have what your wife's coming out.
Are your kids coming?
Kids are not making this year.
My dad's coming out.
A couple of his buddies, same old pit crew.
I mean, we're we're not there's probably going to be four of us to work on the truck.
And then my wife, my dad and his friend.
And so we'll probably have like a party of eight, maybe something like that.
So not too big, you know, half team, half family.
Something else I thought to ask you, Ken, is like we had talked before about
where you're at in California.
What like to me, the Midwest is like the it's like the super bowl of diesel
performance, like most of the companies are there.
Most of the histories there.
Most of everything is in that region.
What's it like for you to go from one region to the other?
And like you're there with police performance and you're going to be
at the race track and there's going to be dozens and dozens of companies.
And I love it.
You know, like, well, just driving out here, I could I feel like I'm coming home,
you know, just the home.
Tell them like, get out of California, like just come to Indiana.
But, you know, just coming into this territory.
I can look at six would be a lot easier.
It always sucks to ship engines this morning.
Uh, anyways, like he, uh, so, um, I can see the shift in the culture, right?
The truck culture is getting stronger.
Like you could see all the racing is coming.
Like California seems to be downscaling in that perspective and not to be like,
but like in, especially in Northern California, our truck is probably the
biggest, baddest thing there is and there's nothing to look up to over there.
So what I'm looking towards is the people over here, you know, the fast trucks,
you know, the, you know, all the people that are on the East coast.
Thank God there's social media, because otherwise we wouldn't have like visibility
to any of that.
We'd be kind of in our own 50 year behind time zone, you know, so being able
to see the really cool pull trucks here, the technology they're using, the drag
race trucks and then especially UCC bringing it all together.
You know, it's just almost like where I'm meant to be.
But John knows I would never move out here.
He's been telling me for years and I can joke about it.
My wife gets all sassy with him.
Just imagine what we could do.
Yeah.
That's what he's like.
You could have an office.
You could be next to me.
Quicker ship times, dyno time, whatever you want.
Your engine being built downstairs.
You don't have to have any shipping shenanigans either.
Basically whatever you want.
The podcast keeps getting sweeter of what he's offering, but never happened.
I will say this, you know, outside of all the technical and the cool stuff we talk
about this week, just being around Kenny all week.
It is the most laughter I have all week because it's just nonstop.
So like again, it's fun that way where friends and customers and industry partners are here.
And you just get to hang out with all your buddies.
So it's pretty cool.
Yeah.
I think that's the part.
I think everyone, that's why you start when you first take your truck to a drag
strip, whether it's a test and tune or you put it, you know, you tuned it or whatever.
It's just that initial excitement.
I think it, I mean, we can see what it turns into, right?
It's turning into UCC and 3000 plus horsepower and potentially billet blocks.
And that evolution is just so cool to see how it, how it goes.
I think, you know, the conversation like this is, is really helpful.
I think for people that listen, because there's a lot of inspiration.
It might not be that UCC truck right away, but it might be someone saying,
I'm going to throw that fleece sheet on.
I'm going to do this tune.
I'm going to do a transmission.
I'm going to go, you know, to the drag strip and how that grows into like what
we're talking about today.
100% in the event itself has changed so much over the last 10 years.
You know, the 72 fast class this year, I'm sure you've talked about this on the podcast.
Like it is going to be bananas with that type of verse hanging out there.
And to be honest with you, we've built a ton of 72 fast engines this year.
A lot of guys getting ready to go out there and try to win a big check.
So it's cool to have those events inside the event.
There's so much going on at that racetrack this weekend.
It is the second biggest event.
And I wouldn't be surprised if it takes over as the largest event at that racetrack
to the U.S. nationals.
So with that in perspective, it's a huge, huge group of people out there.
Talk about just putting a fleece sheet.
We've got customers who have fleece parts and there's a lot of them out there just in the show and trying.
Yeah.
So I think sometimes like when we talk about ultimate college challenge or fast 72 or just racing in
general, we can kind of, I think there could be a 10 seat for people to think, well,
they just build race stuff, but you don't like there are engines that are designed that you
guys put together that aren't just for the race application.
It could be for a daily driver.
It could be for a street truck.
There's parts for that.
So you guys cover the whole spectrum of what diesel performance is.
And I think that's something that's really important, which I'm sure people that are there
that could stop by the booth or just be able to chat with you guys can get a full overview of
the product line, which I've had through doing podcasts with you guys and talking about compressor
covers and tons of different things.
But you guys really support diesel, not just at the highest level of racing, which is
in my mind the most competitive and the hardest, but all the way down to the daily driver on the
truck that's towing.
It all ties together though.
A lot of the things that we design and develop off of the race, you know, high performance
projects treat you the everyday stuff.
I could walk you through this building to show you example after example of products that were
designed for, you know, a race, high performance application that morphed into an everyday
product that anyone who has a diesel pickup truck can use and technically needs, you know,
as a problem solver part.
Yeah.
And I mean, you have tons of those problem solver parts.
I was here when a buddy of mine came up to John with an idea of like a coolant neck for a Ford,
I think.
And John was like, oh, that's a great idea.
And two weeks later, they had a prototype and like it was, I think it might have even been
cast like, like it was amazing how fast the turnaround time is.
And John is just constantly tapping in to the mechanics and the text out there.
Like what's something that breaks?
What's something that's a pain to change or fix?
You know, so the, you know, the support for replacing OEM product that's not doing so
hot is here too.
So there's a full catalog of that.
Yeah.
And obviously that's what our, that is, that is how we have grown our business to solve new problems.
But, you know, our business started though as racers trying to hunt horseback.
And we never want to get away from those routes as big as we've gotten.
And as many parts and products as we're developing, those are always things that we're
going to hold near and dear and continue to work on develop.
You know, a lot of the, it's kind of gone the other way now with a lot of our machining
technology and capability to make everyday parts.
We're able to leverage that to make low volume, but high performance
products, you know, we're looking at things totally different now than, than we did, you
know, 10 years ago when we had two vertical mills and a little wave, you know, so.
Well, it was really cool to chat with you guys today.
This was, it was a kind of a different format.
And I really appreciate this, the way we're able to chat like with you Ken being there.
You know, we had chatted recently.
So I was able to tie in like what you were telling me about getting ready for this to
a major component of your truck and, you know, fleece and freedom.
And then John, your insights into working with so many of these racers or just diesel
upgrades in general.
It was really cool to hear that, that synergy and how it all interconnect.
So Ken, like I said before, I wish you the best of luck.
Hopefully we can connect after and be able to chat about things.
And then John, I've got some, some stuff for you all bug after UCC with some
topics and some new things that we're doing, you know, with, with some of these parts.
But I appreciate both of your guys's time today and look forward to chatting with you guys here
after UCC.
Thank you.
I was, I was love coming on.
So love what you're doing for the industry, Patrick.
Awesome show.
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About this episode
Big power gets attention, but UCC success comes down to reliability, coordination, and preparation. The hosts walk through how teams plan nearly a year out, set dyno targets, and build matched packages across chassis, engine, tuning, and fuel—because “one goof up kind of ruins the whole weekend.” They also stress that the first track pass can change everything, and that winning means surviving the full event, not just making peak numbers.
Fleece Performance and UCC Competitor Ken Bruner join us from Fleece HQ! We caught up with them right before the event for a behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to win. Is it all about power?
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