Power at Play: ATP Trucks Dyno Day

With the arrival of the warm days of summer and the completion of their winter projects, truck owners know it’s time to play. True diesel junkies can hardly hold back their desire to find out just what their long nights, busted knuckles and hard-earned cash have brought forth in power gains. This past May, the crew at Adrenaline Truck Performance (ATP Trucks) of Meridian, Idaho, found themselves in this exact situation. ATP had recently completed its move into an all-new facility and had just finished up the installation of an in-house chassis dyno, so what better way to settle a winter’s worth of trash-talking around the shop than with a dyno competition?

Alligator Performance of Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, made the trip down in what they referred to as their “parts chaser” only to bring home a third place trophy in the Single Turbo class at 579 hp and 1,104 lb.-ft. of torque.

It may not look like much from the outside, or even on the inside, but don’t be fooled. Under the hood of this old school Suburban you’ll find a nasty LBZ Duramax powerplant running compound Garrett turbochargers and plenty of fuel to push them. This truck has a monstrous 931 hp and 1,586 lb.-ft. at the rear wheels. Owner Chad Klocke originally built this ride to compete in a magazine’s Power Tour and has put more than 40,000 miles on the odometer driving it all over the country.

ATP Trucks owner, Rod Coddens, has made a name for himself tuning Duramax trucks across the country via EFILive. He’s always been willing to push his personal trucks to the limit if it meant offering a better product to the customer. With the help of his wife and close friends, some of whom have since become employees at ATP Trucks, Coddens has been able to turn his business into one of the leading Duramax performance shops around. ATP has more recently expanded into the Cummins and Power Stroke markets as well. Their first ever dyno competition went off without a hitch and brought in some big-horsepower trucks and a few diesel performance vendors. Better still, the Dyno Day made for a great excuse to be out enjoying the good weather and talking trucks with fellow enthusiasts.

The Stock Turbo class, sponsored by High Tech Turbo, had the largest turnout with 17 trucks in total, most of which were in the 450- to 480-hp range. First place prize money ($300) went to Shane Dirks, whose LB7 Duramax put down 523 hp and 974 lb.-ft. of torque. Second place went to an LMM Duramax owned by Ken Briggs with 514 hp. Another notable in the Stock Turbo class was the early 1980s 6.2L non-turbo GM diesel owned by David Martin that ripped off a monstrous 66 hp and 135 lb.-ft. of torque. The Duramax crowd showed their support, as they knew that old 6.2L was where present-day GM diesel and Duramax have their roots.

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With numbers that strong, it was no surprise that Liskey’s Dodge also took home the overall horsepower trophy and an additional $1,000.

Fusion Bumpers sponsored the Single Turbo class. Cheyne Buekes of BD Diesel dominated the dyno with his 2.6 inducer sled pull truck and managed to pull down a 709-hp run. While they had a little trouble spooling the big S400 turbocharger on the rollers, BD showcased their true sportsmanship and love of the industry by refusing their first place $500 cash prize. They instead passed it on to the second place truck, a 6.7L Cummins owned by Trishel Liskey that turned out 598 hp. Due to this gesture by BD Diesel, the second place prize money ($250) was awarded to the third place truck owned by Chris Rosscup whose LB7 Duramax put down 579 hp.

Ryan “Moose” DeBois has been a solid performer on the track along the NHRDA circuit for a couple of years now. With near perfect reaction times and an extremely consistent truck, he’s always a top contender. On the dyno, his compound-turbo Cummins broke the 800-hp mark, placing him third in the Twin Turbo class.

As one of the event sponsors, BD Diesel made the drive down from Canada and had their 2.6 inducer competitive sled puller on display. The big S400 single turbo had a little trouble getting spooled on the dyno, but still managed to pull down more than 700 hp to take home the top spot in the Single Turbo class.

The Twin Turbo class seems to always have a great turnout these days. The right compound kit can offer near-stock spool-up times with plenty of air to support big power on the top end. Sponsored by Dynomite Diesel, $750 first place money went to Pat Liskey, owner of nearby shop, Big Twin Diesel. Their 5.9L common-rail Cummins turned out an unheard-of 1,494 hp on a fuel-only dyno run. With numbers that strong, it was no surprise that Liskey’s Dodge also took home the overall horsepower trophy and additional $1,000. Liskey generously split this and handed half to each of his two employees, who had donated their time to strap trucks to the dyno all day. Second place and $250 in the Twin Turbo class went to Chad Klocke’s retro 1972 Suburban packing a nasty 931-hp LBZ Duramax under the hood.

To the untrained eye, there are just two turbos in this picture. However, on closer inspection a third can be seen hiding back under the cowl. What the photo doesn’t reveal is the fourth turbo found down low in that engine bay. Pat Liskey of Big Twin Diesel built this one-off quad turbo setup that’s proving to be quite effective with quick spool-up and enough air to support his 1,200-hp dyno runs.

The highest horsepower for the day went to Pat Liskey with Big Twin Diesel’s twin-turbo common-rail 5.9L Cummins. Like his other quad turbo truck, the fabrication found under the hood is nothing short of a work of art. How they found room to install an air-to-water cooler between each turbo and still get the hood to close is quite the achievement. Even more impressive were the near 1,500-hp fuel-only numbers the truck put down.

ATP Trucks had also worked feverishly before the event to gather gift certificates, product prizes and apparel from supporting vendors and companies to hand out as 50/50 raffle drawing prizes. This benefit raffle let ATP Trucks collect more than $850 in cash, which was donated to the local Meridian Firefighters Association’s Burn-Out Fund. This fund helps assist families in need after being impacted by fires and other disasters. With more than 30 trucks to spin the rollers and smiles on the face of every attendee, the first ATP Trucks Dyno Day was a big success. It’s a good bet that with their love of this sport, Coddens and his crew have this event again and it’s likely to continue to grow in popularity and size next year. DW

Running a freshly built engine and a pair of S400 BorgWarner turbos under the hood, Brock Catmull’s LLY Duramax managed to squeeze out more than 750 hp on the rollers. After later looking over the dyno charts, the power curve showed some additional load or fine-tuning on the wastegates that will most likely add another 150+ horsepower.

Rob Coddens, owner and lead EFILive tuner at ATP Trucks, has pushed “Max’d Out” to being one of the most consistent and fastest Super Street trucks in the country. As a previous E/T and MPH record holder with the NHRDA, some major changes were made over the winter and its “break-in” tune still managed to squeeze out 1,177 hp on fuel only. Coddens tells us that once the motor setup and tuning are dialed in, 1.400 hp should help keep this truck as a top contender at the track. Photo by Nate Shrum

At one of the top Duramax shops in the country, it only seemed natural to find plenty of trash talkers on hand. There’s nothing like a little dyno time to settle some Cummins, Power Stroke and Duramax brand bashing.

Chad Hall, the owner of Alligator Performance Diesel, brought his brand spanking new 2015 LML Duramax out to compete in the Stock class. Running a DPF back exhaust system, Deviant Race Parts resonator delete kit and Edge Evolution tuner, it rolled to a solid 416 hp.