Competition Banks Sidewinder - World's Fastest Pickup Truck

[Peter Campbell]

Well with the quick change rear drag racing is a possibility. Congrats on the record. Congrats on twisting apart a pinion gear at the high end!

 

[PeterT]

Nowell,

Good to be back. I’ve been around but haven’t really had enough time available to watch the forum and contribute.



Just as we have always preached, the key to success with this engine is airflow. As you know, you gotta get the fuel in to make the power, but the only way to get enough fuel in without having too much temperature is added airflow. When we got this engine from Cummins, it had already been tuned by them, and we measured 393 horsepower on our dyno. Our first step, and the largest chunk of power improvement came from porting and polishing the cylinder head, along with a special sidedraft intake manifold. We also used a new camshaft design and used a Holset variable geometry turbocharger. The injectors for this engine are obviously rather new, and we have been using three different levels of injectors in this program. The first level injector is what I will call stock, level II roughly 30% larger, and level III roughly 50% larger. We used the two higher levels of injectors as a means to shift the entire fuel program to meet our needs (the fueling program in the computer is not stock). By the time we had completed our modifications, we made over 700 horsepower and in excess of 1200 lb/ft. This was all done with EGT's that were lower than what the engine made when it came from Cummins.



The first runs at the salt that gave us an average of 182 MPH were run on the level II injectors, and the fastest runs (top speed 222 top record 217) were run with the level III injectors. Our data shows that the truck was producing in excess of 1300 lb/ft when running the top speeds (and when the pinion broke!).



Regarding engine RPM, we ran it to 4000 RPM before shifting, peak power occurs around 3300.



Peter Treydte

Banks Power

 

[HVAC]

Sidewinder Performance

Thanks for addressing my questions Peter.



It appears there may be a few components developed for the sidewinder project that will become available to the general public. Can you clarify this. The intake would sell IMO. Will you offer the head porting/camshaft? How about the ex. manifold.



I can appreciate the effort you put into airflow in an effort to make power and keep the egt's down. For a long run like would be required at B'ville, to much fuel would window the pistons. Like your predecessor discovered We have debated the relationship between boost and airflow volume. By porting the head, camming, ex/intake manifold improvement we theorize that boost levels would be lower (less restriction). However, the volume might be the same as an engine making more boost without the airflow improvements. Can you comment on this relationship and can you share with us what boost levels you acheived under full throttle during the speed runs?



I haven't seen this addressed and I just have to ask. Why did this project utilized the Cummins engine rather then the lighter and possibly higher rpm Power Stroke engine? And specifically, do you /Banks feel the 5. 9 I6 Cummins engine has more potential for developing big power then the V8 based PSD? And your welcome for putting you on the spot

 

[wxman]

Rich and Peter,



Congratulations on setting the record with the Sidewinder!



Did you keep track of your fuel mileage when you drove the truck to and/or back from Bonneville?

 

[Snow man]

I have a question for Peter,since the Banks Dakota runs within stock Cummins EGT limits at 700Hp,I am thinking your not getting any smoke at full throttle,and this is a totally streetable combination that is much cleaner (sootwise)than our current ISB/12V. If you can have 700hp,and clean exhaust,/cool EGT's with a single turbo,wow. How bad is smoke/response off boost,and do the stage 2,and 3 injectors smoke a lot when its spooling?. You guys did a great job,I am most impressed by the fact that its running stock EGT #'s with an HX40 at 700hp,

 

[HVAC]

Turbos

Snow Man, I think they are running a larger turbo (HX55) during the speed runs. At 4000 rpm shift points you can drive a larger charger. That means cooler air and big volumes from a huge compressor.

 

[PeterT]

Nowel,

We definitely plan to make the cylinder heads and intake manifolds available to the public, but it is still difficult to say when that will be. We have to work out the logistics of core exchange, machining, etc. The camshaft is also intended for public consumption, but we are still testing a variety of grinds. There is a possibility of doing an exhaust manifold in conjunction with a turbo, but that has not been discussed as much at this point.



The simplest way that I can think to describe the relationship of boost vs. restriction is to relate it to one of the products that we sell, the High-Ram. When you have a restriction to airflow, some of the upstream boost will be lost to overcome that restriction. When measuring boost before and after the inlet casting, with 22. 5 PSI at the inlet end, we measured 20. 5 in the intake plenum with the stock casting, indicating that 2. 0 PSI was lost just to overcome the restriction of the casting. Replacing the stock piece with the High-Ram, keeping the same 22. 5 PSI on the inlet side, we measured 22. 0 in the plenum, a loss of only 0. 5 PSI. The less restrictive piece has less pressure loss. That means that more air volume gets to its destination in the cylinder. This illustration assumes that we are controlling the boost pressure being introduced to the intake casting. In a real world situation, boost will be equalized by the control of the wastegate (actually by the speed of the turbo), so reduced restriction with equal boost means that more air gets to the engine. If we were somehow able to control air volume, then yes, less restriction would mean that less boost would be required to deliver the same amount of air. I don’t know the exact boost levels that were run at Bonneville but estimates are between 45 and 47 PSI.



Why did we select the Cummins over the Power Stroke? There are lots of reasons. Perhaps the biggest one is that when the idea was presented to people from both Navistar and Cummins, the Cummins people were more interested in playing and offered support. Beyond that, the inline configuration of the Cummins is ultimately easier to package, the bottom end is extremely stout (ours is virtually stock) and we knew there was a lot of potential in the engine. Actually weight is not a huge issue when you are running speed runs, aerodynamic drag is your biggest concern. Weight is a greater factor when you want quick acceleration, as in drag racing. We do have plans to make some big power numbers with the PSD, but probably not in a vehicle similar to this one.



Wxman,

Because the preparation took us right up to the last minute, and we were very focused on just getting to the salt flats, fuel economy was not tracked. We will be accumulating that data during future runs.



Snow man,

I actually didn’t say that we ran within “stock” EGT limits, but we did make all of our high horsepower dyno runs and our speed runs at EGT levels lower than the race prepped engines that we received from Cummins were making. Running at full power and full boost, the engine makes virtually no smoke, even with the biggest injectors. There is still some tuning to do to get it completely smoke free while accelerating, but it is doable and that was one of the goals of this project. This was done on a single turbo, and Nowel is almost correct, it is based on the HY55.



Peter Treydte

Banks Power

 

[HVAC]

Almost Correct.

WOW! There is such an animal as a HY55? Wunder what the hyll that turbo was spec'd for? So the turbo for the speed runs was NOT a VGT?

 

[HVAC]

Single Entry

OK, if your using a HY55 it would be a single entry. That would explain the squirrely 4-1/2-1 ex manifold. No pulse effect necessary at high rpm.

 

[RKohn]

Betcha Nowell can still beat'em in the 1/4

Thanks for the info Peter, impressive stuff. I'd like to see the shoehorn that you used to pack all that stuff under the hood.



BTW - You've gotta put a techie into marketing, I almost dozed off reading Rich's press release. It was almost like reading a Motor Trend review.

 

[HVAC]

I'll Give Em A Go

RKohn, I'll give them a race. They have a lighter rig to my greater horsepower. I'm not bashfull about the smoke you see:-laf :-laf



RKohn, put your money on me. Their sixpak transmission is no match for my racematic

 

[John Berger]

I'm kinda impressed

Puts new meaning to the expression "Eats Fords and sh!ts Chevvies". That lil ol 6 banger just keeps impressing. My truck will run much better now. The adrenalin rush is probably worth 10 extra temporary ponies. :-laf



Congratulations on the record.



I like this part of the post the best: Driver Don Alexander cautiously made his first licensing run at 172 MPH.



172 mph!!! Cautiously!! Yeah right. :-laf :-laf That would have won him the pole at Darlington.

 

[StakeMan]

Re: I'll Give Em A Go

Originally posted by HVAC

RKohn, I'll give them a race. They have a lighter rig to my greater horsepower. I'm not bashfull about the smoke you see:-laf :-laf



RKohn, put your money on me. Their sixpak transmission is no match for my racematic

I wonder what it would do if it had a racematic?

 

[PeterT]

Nowel,

The turbo is a VGT based on an HY55 frame. I have no idea what the original use for it is, but I do know that its only production use is confined to Europe.



Rkohn,

I am the Tech guy for marketing. I have been kind of quiet on this forum lately, but I like to contribute when I have time.



The Sidewinder will definitely appear at some drag racing events, and I am sure we would be happy to match against anyone. Right now the truck is getting prepped to go to the SEMA show in Las Vegas, and after that I think we are planning to run the Silver State Classic.



Peter Treydte

Banks Power

 

[PeterT]

By the way, there is more info available about the turbo on our website at Sidewinder Turbo info



Peter Treydte

Banks Power

 

[HoleshotHolset]

Cams/intakes/heads - yet another vendor realizing the restrictions that our stock parts place upon us. The fact that some people have been able to crest the 600+HP level on stock valvetrain parts is nothing short of amazing.



Good work!



I hereby retract my previous "Boo!" statement, although it is the Halloween season... . so it's still appropriate.



Matt

 

[JR2]

Congrats on the runs, world land speed record with a diesel no less. . very cool



Now Peter if you will answer one silly question for me... how did you get the old style 24v valve cover (Red no less) on the new style engine with its ugly plastic lid?



JR2

 

[Snow man]

Peter,any plans to convert the truck to an auto for 1/4 mi runs?If so,do you plan to use the 47RE,or possibly the GM 4L80E .

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Originally posted by JR2





Now Peter if you will answer one silly question for me... how did you get the old style 24v valve cover (Red no less) on the new style engine with its ugly plastic lid?



JR2

I agree with JR2, some of us have been wondering about the tacky plastic cover on the valve cover.



Peter I have another question regarding the intake manifold & head: The new ISBe still has the intake cast integral with the head, correct? I assume you cut the intake off and machined the surface then drilled/tapped it to bolt on that slick-looking Big Hoss Intake.



Oh baby I'd love to have one of those on my next rig



Vaughn

 

[PeterT]

Hey guys,

Actually the pictures that show the red valve cover were taken when we had an early mock-up engine in the truck which had the earlier 24-valve head on it. That valve cover, as you know, does not fit on the new engine. We are in the process of replacing the ugly plastic cover with a fabricated aluminum one.



Peter Treydte

Banks Power