Smoke’n The Drag Strip

When you take a peek under the hood of Tyler Bean’s Dodge, you’re going to see anything but an ordinary engine. Under the hood his engine pops because of the powder-coated blue finish as well as a lot of modifications to the Cummins engine. The powder coat work was done by Jason Carter with Molded Metal Industries.

“I picked this color because it looks different at different angles,” says Bean. “It took five coats of powder coating to get this look.”

This cosmetic upgrade is the perfect finish to his 2004 Dodge. Bean, of Woodbury, Tenn., has spent the last three years turning his truck into a street legal drag machine. He first upgraded the CP3 pump so the fuel pump is performing about 120 percent over stock and added 200 horsepower Flux 4 injectors. One of his future upgrades will be to install a dual CP3 kit. With this upgrade, Bean’s truck will hopefully achieve an increased level of efficiency and reduced EGT while providing enough fuel to make over 1200 horsepower. This is achieved with constant optimum fuel pressure allowing for better atomization of the diesel fuel, resulting in a more complete combustion and full burn.

For the turbo, Bean went with a single S468 T-4 with downpipes from Stainless Diesel with ATS H11 head studs. The reason he went with this head stud kit was because it was built for extreme applications and works well with his larger turbo. If you don’t have the right head studs on your tuck, boost pressure above 45 PSI can lift the heads, causing a head gasket blowout. These head studs can be installed without removing the heads as long as the torque sequence is followed. With his turbo and fuel setup, he reaches about 62 PSI.

Added Touches

Bean called in Lavon Miller at Firepunk Diesel to build his Fire Pump tranny. He finished up his mods with a Fire Pump transmission, F1 Diesel valve springs, Air Dog 150 system and BDP sump and most recently, a water methanol kit for fuel economy and EGT control.

Search Party

When Bean first went looking for his next truck, he considered both Dodge and Ford for his build. He had owned a Power Stroke when he was 16 and put a lot of money into building it. The downside for him was when it topped out at 450hp on the dyno. This was definitely a consideration when he was in the market for his next project truck.

“I like the way Dodge looks, they are a pretty clean truck;” says Bean. “Ford’s may be stronger but horsepower wise, you can’t beat a Cummins. They just hold up better.”

He tracked down the white 2004 2500 Dodge Cummins, which was completely stock at the time he bought it. After the engine modifications, he started doing some cosmetic upgrades as well.

“This is a drag truck, but I wanted to keep it street legal. I didn’t want to lift it and put on mud tires because that’s what everyone else does,” says Bean. “So I lowered the back end and put on street Nitto 420s. I think it looks a little better and they are a lot cheaper to replace than mud tires.”

To finish off the look, Bean went with 20-inch EMF Reeper wheels and a roll pan that's painted white to match the truck to really make it one-of-a-kind. Plus his friend hooked him up with traction bars from a John Deere combine. In the near future, Bean plans to paint his mirrors and door handles gloss black.

Besides the truck itself, Bean’s next passion is drag racing. His latest dyno numbers came in at 814hp with 1500 pounds of torque.

“I don't have quite enough fuel for 1200 horse though,” laughs Bean.

He heads out to the strip with this daily driver a couple of times a month. This past May, he placed fourth in TS Performance Outlaw 12.0 class with a time of 11.97 seconds.

“I was pretty excited to get fourth at TS Performance. I was running against about 30 trucks and I ran a best time of 11.97 at 114 mph, which is a little slow,” says Bean. “But with the heat and humidity it was hard to get your truck to run right. I've also run a 7.47 at 95 mph in an eighth of a mile track.”

Bean works for his uncle at Beans Diesel in Woodbury, Tenn., as a mechanic. He built the OBS fuel system and all the sumps right there at the shop. His truck performs so well with these parts because the team at Bean’s Diesel has been researching combinations for years. They know what works and what doesn’t. The dyno numbers always lets them know how they’re doing.