Tabla de contenidos para January 2018 en 8 Lug

CHAPTER CLOSED My journey as 8-Lugeditor comes to a close with this issue. It’s been one heck of a ride—one that I will always look upon fondly. This issue marks my 40th,and to say that time has flown is quite an understatement. As they say, time flies when you’re having fun, and, as we all know, playing with trucks is fun. The experience has helped me grow in ways I couldn’t have even imagined. Putting out a monthly magazine is actually quite a feat, and holding a finished product in my hand always amazes me. Playing with trucks isn’t rocket science, but publishing a magazine kind of is. You have text and pictures, of course. For those, I’d like to thank all of my faithful freelancers who have diligently scoured…

A BRUSH WITH GREATNESS If you’re gonna spend hard-earned cash on a slick set of wheels, don’t let them get caked in brake dust and road grime to the point they’re unrecognizable. Brush Hero can help, providing gentle scrubbing power ideal for polished and painted metal surfaces. Using the standard pressure of a garden hose, Brush Hero spins to cut through brake dust and gunk, and it is available with interchangeable heads for tougher jobs, like scrubbing barbecues or cleaning off work boots. Brush Hero 888-550-4376 • brushhero.com TAKE A BITE Mickey Thompson is bringing its signature design to the Sidebiter Lock wheel lineup. With a machined lip, cast-in beadlock, and satin dark finish, the Sidebiter Lock is available in nearly two dozen different configurations in sizes ranging from 15…

Every once in a while, a feature crosses our desks that just leaves us jaw-dropped and scratching our brows. This specimen certainly counts as one of them—introducing Quinn, owned by Pete Alongi of Addiction Offroad in San Antonio, Texas. We all know Texas serves up full-blown, bigger-than-life custom trucks, but this takes that stereotype to the extreme. The Suicide SquadHarley Quinn–themed wrap by Wrap Stars of Spring, Texas, acts as a crazily detailed façade that conceals the otherwise obvious massive body mod: the six-door conversion. Upon closer inspection, several other substantial body anomalies arise so that the resulting vehicle looks like something that doesn’t exist: a six-door Ford Super Duty dualie SUV. Try buying that off a Ford lot! What we’re actually looking at is an ’05 Ford Excursion, while…

LB7 Duramax injectors are largely throwaway items. Very few people rebuild them, simply because the cost of a new body is less than the effort of rebuilding it. Performance increases are handled by way of the nozzle and needle. Dynomite sets itself apart from the competition via the way it enlarges the nozzle orifices. There are two common methods of creating the microscopic holes needed to inject high-pressure diesel. The first is electro discharge machining (EDM). EDM is a process by which an electrically charged wire burns a hole through metal. The second is Extrude-Honing, during which a small abrasive is used to create or enlarge a hole. Most factory nozzles are created using the EDM process. However, the companies that build injectors for the OEMs use highly advanced machines…

Florida favorite for more than a quarter of a century, Slamfest always attracts a large group of enthusiasts, thanks to its great collection of vehicles and weekend of nonstop fun. For the last few years, the show took place in an alternate location, but this year, it returned to its old stomping grounds: the Florida Fairgrounds at Tampa. The perfect venue for a car and truck show, the site has acres of outdoor display space along with air-conditioned indoor spaces, which were pressed into service twice on Saturday during brief, 10-minute rain showers. The sun came out for the rest of the weekend, and the activities never stopped. The Corn Hole Tournament and Car and Truck Limbo contests on Saturday were fun for participants and spectators alike. On Sunday, Red’s…

WHAT’S NEW FOR ’18 RAM HEAVY-DUTY PICKUPS There isn’t really any significant news for the ’18 Ram 2500 and 3500, but there are changes, nevertheless. These include the offering of the Limited Tungsten (the uber-luxo Ram), a standard backup camera, a remote exterior switch that turns on the bed LEDs, and a slight refreshing of the Sport’s appearance. CUMMINS BEATS TESLA TO SEMI MARKET Heard about how Tesla wants to get in the electric semitruck business? Cummins quietly swooped in, and Tesla got served via the AEOS, a full-electric Class 7 Urban Hauler Tractor that Cummins had already developed. It’s got a battery pack rather than the 12.0L and can run about 100 miles on a single charge (300 miles with extra packs). There’s talk of solar-panel roofing and regenerative…

To engrave can be defined as cutting, carving, or chasing text or a design on a hard surface such as metal, stone, glass, plastic, or wood. Its usage in a sentence could sound something like this: the silversmith engraved the ring with the customer’s initials. If someone were to claim to undertake engraving a Super Duty truck and many of its various components, we’d call him crazy, a liar, or a dreamer. If he actually pulled it off successfully, we’d call him Hank the Engraver, and we’d affectionately refer to the engraved Super Duty as Aluminati. Hank Robinson, owner of Hanro Studios in Avondale, Arizona, really rocked the custom truck scene at the 2016 SEMA Show by engraving a ’16 Ford F-150 named Freedom Blues during show hours. Like a…

KT Joy grew up in the great state of Montana, a state where just about anyone and everyone owns a four-wheel drive—including KT’s family. “For as long as I can remember, my father always had a truck he was working on,” KT says. “Needless to say, I was a daddy’s girl from the start. I joined him in the shop every night and was immediately hooked.” It was a family affair for KT, growing up helping her brother and father with their builds. When KT was able to start driving, she knew she wasn’t going to be satisfied owning anything but a big truck. “When I was 16, I worked at a pizza parlor, saving every dime I made to put a lift and a new set of wheels on…

Landon Willis of Oakdale, Louisiana, has always looked up to his father for inspiration. “My father always pushed me to accomplish the highest goals possible,” he reminisces. Landon took that inspiration and built for himself one wicked ’16 Ram 2500. After months of research and on the advice of many colleagues, Landon hit the go button and purchased the brand-new Ram 2500 6.7L Cummins diesel truck. This was Landon’s first diesel, and his initial plan for Monkey Bizness was to build it as a work truck. By day, Landon is an electrical and instrumentation superintendent, so the truck would be used to transport tools, supplies, and parts to his employees. As the summer of 2016 hit, Landon had a desire to fulfill a lifelong goal by doing some upgrades to…

For those playing along at home, this issue finds us wrapping up our LB7 Duramax short-block build. Last time around, we dropped our trashed engine off with the skilled hands of L&R Engines in Santa Fe Springs, California. The block was disassembled, cleaned, and machined before heading to assembly. L&R’s resident Duramax expert, Frank, then installed the crankshaft, camshaft, and associated hardware. Our build continues as we prepare the rotating assembly for installation. PRODUCT PROFILE: Automotive Racing Products 800-826-3045 arp-bolts.com BD Diesel 800-887-5030 dieselperformance.com L&R Engines 562-802-0443 Mahle Motorsports (Clevite) 888-255-1942 mahlemotorsports.com Pacific Performance Engineering 714-985-4825 ppediesel.com Sinister Diesel 877-662-6644 sinisterdiesel.com…

QUEST FOR MORE ■ YEAR/MAKE/MODEL:’04½ Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD ■ OWNER:Cody Hood ■ HOMETOWN: Navarre, Florida ■ ENGINE: 6.6L Duramax V-8 ■ TRANSMISSION: Built Allison 1000 five-speed ■ ODOMETER: 213,000 miles ■ FUEL ECONOMY: 18.3 mpg ■ MODIFICATIONS: Danville Performance 65mm turbocharger, AirDog lift pump, EFILive by Adrenaline Truck Performance (ATP), Volant intake, Cognito leveling kit and control arms, 20x12 Hostile Alpha wheels, color-matched mirrors and door handles ■ OWNER SAYS: “I plan on doing cam, pistons, and rods, and studding it when I return home from deployment, eventually pushing more horsepower out of it.” GEARHEADS UNITE ■ YEAR/MAKE/MODEL:’04½ Dodge Ram 2500 ■ OWNER: Jacob Pruitt ■ ENGINE:5.9L Cummins I-6 ■ TRANSMISSION:NV5600 six-speed manual ■ ODOMETER:130,000 miles ■ MODIFICATIONS: Valair clutch, 5-inch exhaust, ARP head studs, AirDog 150-gph lift pump, Bosch…

If there is one thing Asa Bynum loves, it’s vehicles! Asa buys and sells automobiles for a living, so when he bought his ’16 Ford F-250 King Ranch, he immediately saw it as a roving billboard for his company, Ray’s Auto Sales. But like any automotive gearhead, it was hard for him to leave his truck stock. Asa had been following truck builds managed by Cris Payne on social media for quite some time, and although he knew the cost, time, and effort involved in building a show truck for SEMA, he decided it was time to transform the factory Ford. Along the way, Asa had several people tell him he would never make it into SEMA, which only motivated him to prove them wrong. Once the build was rendered,…

While there are hundreds (if not thousands) of great truck shows all over the country, very few inspire reactions like the SEMA Show in Las Vegas. As one of the world’s largest trade shows, SEMA is the Holy Grail for some truck builders, particularly small businesses eager to make a splash on the Sin City scene. That’s where Jeff Cleer and Voodoo Customs come in. The business’ aim is to connect owners with parts manufacturers and help them build amazing trucks, so he knew he had to create his own showstopper to prove his mettle. After picking up his ’16 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD LTZ Z71 in May of 2016, Jeff and his team set about preparing the showroom-fresh truck for its 2016 SEMA Show debut. And so TikiMax was born,…

The ruby is a blood-colored gemstone and is considered one of the four precious stones in the world. The red color is caused mainly by the presence of the element chromium, and it’s a color Vince Camacho Jr. has always admired. As a child, he would separate his toy trucks and make sure the ruby red ones were always in front. When Vince was in high school, he began working for his father at a successful construction company. As he became more educated, his work ethic and expertise grew tenfold. He purchased a truck to make hauling equipment and navigating the rough terrain of a construction site a little smoother. Once behind the wheel of a truck, he realized this is where he would be going forward. As years went…

If you want to make your diesel go fast, there are only two things you need to make it happen: more air and more fuel. Of course, that’s entirely oversimplifying the situation, but you get the picture. No matter which diesel engine you have, the limiting factors are the same: the factory turbo can only flow so much air and stock injectors so much fuel. Once you’ve maxed those out, it’s time to upgrade. Our LB7 Duramax already had the turbocharger improved by converting it to a Fleece “Cheetah,” and we’d upgraded our stock CP3 to a 42-percent-over unit from Industrial Injection. With a goal of putting 650 hp to the ground, stock injectors weren’t going to cut it. For this, we turned to the experts at Dynomite Diesel Products.…

If we were to oversimplify how power is made, we’d say this: As more pressure is created in the cylinders, more torque is delivered to the wheels. That pressure can be a result of increased boost pressure, fuel, a combination of both, or the resulting combustion event. As simple as that may be, it still holds true that as power increases, so does cylinder pressure. Knowing this, you’ve likely already upgraded from factory head bolts to studs and may have even fire-ringed the heads. However, a lesser-known evil lies in the fact that the fuel injectors can actually become dislodged from the head under extreme circumstances. Two options exist for preventing this failure: billet hold-down clamps and screw-in injector cups. By far the most effective is the latter, and the…