Here's a report from a Duramax owner - repost from over in the Dieselstop board...
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Maybe this is the wrong forum for this, but seeing it is a general diesel topic I posted it here.
I was there yesterday for the diesel truck pulls, and I watched a little dyno as well.
I am not ragging on the Powerstroke as I like the Ford truck very much and am thinking strongly about getting one in the next couple years.
But why does the Ford do so poorly in these big diesel pulls? There were about (I did not count them) 35 maybe 40 Ford Powerstroke equipped trucks there. With about 10-12 Duramax and the rest of 172 trucks were Cummins (No big surprise there) The top 25 from the morning pull was to make the main event in the evening.
1 Ford made it and 6 or 7 Duramax. My point is, the Fords nearly all seamed to almost flow down the track. They sounded better and had a real nice pull. But almost every time they fell on there face 20-40 feet before all the other trucks were.
The one that made the main event ended up 6th or 7th with the Cummins taking all the money spots. The top 21 places were within 25 feet of the winner. All of the duramax trucks finished below that one Ford but within a few inches to maybe 10 feet.
I think mtomac was 2 feet behind that Powerstroke. It was a nice truck. And must have been putting down some real good power. He was running 6 38" mudders with I'd guess 10" lift kit.
The ATS Duramax with all there money was only able to beat mtomac by a foot or so.
But to get back to my question. What is the problem? I know super350 claims no Duramax can beat a Powerstroke, I think most of us know that not to be the case. But putting that aside. It can not all be driver. And some of them had good tires. As I stated before, most of the Powerstrokes sounded real smooth.
There was this one Cummins Dodge that sounded near stock and the tires was more for a Sunday drive then a truck pull, He ended up in the money, talk about a sleeper.
I did notice one 6. 0L He did not make the cut, but it was very strong running.
When all was said and done, there were more then 20 Cummins broke down, 5 Powerstrokes, and 2 Duramax. So with the number of total entries for each brand that is about right for break downs. Both Duramax trucks that broke ended up with the pinky size tie-rod bending.
Mike Tomac did break, but it was at the end of his morning pull, and it was hitch related, a little welding and all was good, also one of the Duramax trucks had the tie-rod straightened and welded for the main event.
One other thing, there were many Cummins that pulled that were brought in on trailers. Not that it takes away what they can do, Just that is all they are for while most if not all the Powerstroke and Duramax are daily drivers. And in several cases it was Powerstroke and Duramax bringing them Cummins in.
Sorry if this in the wrong forum.
ON EDIT: The dyno proved to much for Powerstroke and Duramax. Well not really but the top numbers were Dodge (IE: Cummins) fuel only top for Cummins was 692, Powerstroke 7. 3 441, and Duramax 503. On the Bottle Cummins a little over 700, There were no 7. 3 in this one, and Duramax at 616. I do not know the torque of any of them, However I do know that there were several Cummins and at least 2 Duramax with over 1100# on the bottle.
There were dozens more run on the dyno after I left and they are running again today.