RKL Diesel Power Days: Dyno Fun at Its Finest

For the fourth consecutive year, RKL Diesel Performance held their annual Power Days dyno event and diesel gathering. This event was held at their shop just off the I-15 corridor in Springville, Utah. RKL is nestled in the quaint Utah county valley at the base of the beautiful Wasatch Mountain Range. This central Utah location is ideal for diesel fans from around the region.

The RKL Diesel crew was able to dyno more than 40 trucks at the event, proving that diesel performance is still alive and well in the area. The on-site portable chassis dyno was hauled in by James Brendle and his guys from Custom Auto of Idaho Falls, Idaho. The load cell Superflow dyno has proven to work well for diesel-powered trucks that need that extra load to get big singles and compound turbos spooled at the nearly 4,500-ft. elevation.

While RKL Diesel is known locally as a one-stop repair and performance shop for just about anything diesel, they’ve recently been seeing some nationwide recognition for their near bulletproof transmission builds thanks to Team Bully Dog. Anyone who follows the diesel drag race circuit has certainly heard of Jarid “Ironman” Vollmer and the Bully Dog Cummins drag truck. The 5.9L common-rail Cummins has continued to push the ET and mph records lower and lower in the Pro-Street class with multiple high eight-second passes under its belt. This is made possible by several upgrades; none the least of which is an RKL-built 48RE transmission assembled by RKL’s owner, Ryan Landfield. Specializing in performance transmission builds, RKL also offers full-service engine overhaul and turbo fabrication to take an everyday driver to the tire-shredding extreme.

Subscribe Our Weekly Newsletter

Scott’s Performance Diesel out of St. George, Utah, races this regular cab Duramax competitively on the NHRDA circuit, hence the window full of sponsor decals. Running a single turbocharger, the truck put down 661 hp on fuel only.

Smoke stack? Check. Roll cage? Check. Nitrous bottles? Check. What else does a guy really need for some Saturday fun?

What do you drive when you’re a diesel junkie to the core, but have six kids to haul around to school and soccer games? Yep… you cruise in a pimped-out Ford Excursion with a Power Stroke.

Like most dyno events, trucks were broken down into four classes: Stock, Single Turbo, Compound Turbo and Unlimited. The Stock Turbo class always has a strong turnout and has started to show total domination from the Ford camp. The 6.4L Power Stroke brought home four of the top five places with an extremely healthy LBZ Duramax landing in the second spot. In the Single Turbo class, a pair of 2006 Dodge Cummins trucks ran away with the show; one being owned by Shawn Baca who, with the help of a massive 91mm S500 turbo, put down nearly 1,200 hp on fuel only for the top spot. He was followed by the Bully Dog truck with a Fleece Performance S475 single that moved enough air to break the 1,000-hp fuel mark.

Big singles are pretty hard to drive on the street in central Utah, so the twin turbo (or Compound) class gets filled with everything from mild daily drivers to all-out competition builds. Heavy hitters Chavis Fryer (1,347 hp) and Dmitri Millard (1,070 hp), both in LB7 Duramax trucks, were the one/two finishers. Other notables in the twin class were Scott Arnold’s Cummins at 1,054 hp and Justin Askurlund’s Ram 1500 with a 4BT Cummins at 422 hp.

With today’s advancements in tuning control, the single turbos these trucks can spool and support just keep getting bigger and bigger. Case in point, Shawn Baca (lead engine builder for Industrial Injection) is running a massive S500 BorgWarner turbo off a Steed Speed manifold. With a monstrous 91mm compressor wheel and 108mm turbine, once this thing lights, hang on. The 5.9L common rail made 1,184 hp on fuel only and more than 1,400 hp on a single jet of nitrous.

This extremely clean 24V Cummins owned by Kord Brown of Ogden, Utah, runs a built RKL Diesel transmission, 62/65/14 over S478 turbo kit, VP-44 injection pump, and an Edge Comp box, all of which push this truck deep into the 12-second range on the quarter-mile track.

Since its introduction in 2008, the 6.4L Power Stroke with its factory-equipped twin-turbo system has started to dominate the stock turbo classes on the dyno. With basic tuning and other bolt-ons, 600+ horsepower is not unheard of.

The Unlimited class is where the big guns come to play with massive amounts of nitrous being injected to take already impressive fuel numbers to all-new heights. The top finishers in their respective classes—Chavis Fryer, Shawn Baca and Jarid Vollmer—all sprayed their way into the 1,400+ horsepower range with Fryer’s Duramax bringing home the grand prize cash money with a 1,480 hp run.

While the day started out a bit gloomy with threats of scattered rain showers, by mid-morning warmer temps and sunny skies brought out a rather large crowd and the RKL Diesel Power Days didn’t disappoint. If you find yourself traveling through Utah in need of a little extra power or the transmission to back it, it’s worth your time to stop in and see Ryan and his crew at RKL. DW