Major Misconception in Diesel Performance. - A Long Over Due Rant
 

This is my opinion based on my experience, your free to have yours , i have my own

Ive been to a lot of diesel performance shops , A lot and i can tell you this , no innovation comes from the ones who keep there nose in the books with spick and span shops , its been along time proven to me that the best way to learn and to develop is to do it , not talk about it, if it don't work you don't give up you try something else! Then once you have a proven design you can listen to all the people who are not even on STEP 1 tell you how you don't know what your doing and laugh your ass off.

Ive personally talked to a lot of the Biggest names in Diesel Performance and guess what they dont know crap I asked them all the SAME QUESTION , its the mechanic that's getting paid next to nothing who works for them that knows what they are doing.

Want an example?

EEP Dave Mitchell was being made fun of at his shop... just a little ribbing ..... they told him he couldn't even dill a manifold for a pyro .. he jumped up on the truck and drilled right into the divider between 1-3 and 4-6 cylinders and junked the manifold.

why do you think he quit pulling , he was competing against all the guys who built his truck and repaired it for him. could you imagine fixing your bosses truck that your going to compete against? if you win then you didn't do good enough job on his truck !

Ive been around a lot more than you may think , i never claim to know the ins and outs of Performance. but i do know who to stay away from and so much corruptness and misleading by those who are "respected" in the business.

I do my best to ensure our little piece of this industry is Corruptness free , it should show at every turn.

And as for the Question , a little shop you never heard of that dont want more work because he cant handle the work he has , told me .. i tried it and it worked perfectly , i had a major hang up in my Re-Bomb no one knew what it was.

There is a HUGE Misconception in Diesel Performance , Ask Gale Banks what a Cummins Head is Torqued to i bet he has no clue , he has a department for that!

Whats Funny is how a local boy with a little greasy garage and minimal money beat KURT HAISLEY at the NADM event this month , what resources does Kurt have at his disposal ? now what about this guy who lives down the street from me ? Explain that! And no he didn't break, it was a nice pull but not enough.

Money Don't impress me , Actions do and ill root for the little guy who has busted his knuckles every night after work in his garage to kick the ass on the track of someone who has a waxed up truck that had a team of 5 mechanics building it for him and he just takes the drivers seat and the glory.

If you want my respect in this industry i dont want to hear you talking about what you can do , i want to see it being done.

There are so many talkers , talking out there asses that the only way to separate bull shit from truth is to see it.

Don't set back and tell us how awesome you are , show us.

The True Hero's in Diesel Performance Innovation , Have No Name.

Thanks Chad that's the eye opening truth

Good rant. I agree with most of what your getting across here. Except you cant be angry that the big names in the industry have no clue. They are big names because they started a business. they are business men not mechanics. everybody has a trade they are good at. and lots of the people that have the skills and the know-how in the industry dont have the skills to start a business. thats just how the world works. you do your job and others do theres. the big names are what got our industry popular and competative so i don't care if they are the worlds best mechanics. they did there part now we are here doing ours.

Understood and Agreed

and the sad thing about it, only the people with money will be on top.:td::td:

True this sport is WAY over priced some things that sell for 500 only cost 20 to make that's ridiculous

I agree it is sad that's how that works out, but at the same time if you were in their shoes wouldn't you be in first place too? you can't fault them for having money and resources you build a successful company you should reap the benefits, but it's people like us that know the small guys and the guys that compete with a fraction of the investment, and I can guarantee you they are going for the same thing as the big guys, they want to be able to pay to have a "pit" crew to fix the truck when it breaks at the pull or the track, but it's the guys that don't have the ability to afford those things that keep the sport alive and run their products on our trucks, so because of us they have a business and because of them our "sport" hobby is liveable

Hey DM, that little shop that nobody has heard of that knew the answer to your question, that wouldn't be the one that adjusted your valves would it? It wouldn't suprise me if it was, I haven't been able to stump him, even with my most absurd "theoredical" questions, he usually looks at me like I'm an idiot but they tells me why it won't work.:tu:

Yes it was Kenny McCabe 740-342-5007 (yes its memorized :D ) , Ive seen trucks at his shop Jeff Garmon Sent up from GA for Kenny to Fix because they Couldn't ... believe it

I just hope he gets a chance/gets talked into pulling his summer, I relly want to see him hook that thing:jump:

If you can sit there and name of list of who is who in Diesel performance , I called everyone of them and got to talk to the main man personally. Spent alot of money following there advise just to go back to how i had it on my own, then talked to kenny and got me on track then bombed the hell out of it Again, I bombed it when i first started getting into diesels , then de bombed it and put EVERYTHING stock back on and started over

wow that was well said and saidly true

:tu:

Nice. I agree. I also know quite a few guys that are on top of the PSD game that don't know a damn thing about tuning, turbos, fuel, NOTHING. It's sad that lil ole 350hp me knows lots more than guys with 700+...

Money is nice, but I'd rather experiment with my own pile that send it off to be worked on.:c:

In 50 years of being in business I guess Banks knows a bit of forced induction.
He may not know about the torque specs of a Cummins, but thats what manuals are good for.
But he may know that multilayer head seals are not to be retorqued...

With a Diesel saturation of 3.6% in the US, I do not wonder about missing knowledge. The market demand is still growing.
Compare that to a european saturation of over 50%- if you can't swing your butt around a diesel you are out of business.

Relax and calm down, the diesel market and knowledgeable mechanics in the US will grow slowly and steadily as fuel prices rise..

There seems to be a bias built into a lot of people these days against BIG ____ (you fill in the blank). Big oil, big companies, big business, etc. The truth is, without a few of those big businesses, most of the parts we take for granted would not exist.

That doesn't mean that the small shop or lone technician hasn't figured out some stuff -- of course he (or she!) has. That's basic hot-rodding. Someone does all the hard work, figures out how to make power, then someone else comes along and mass-produces the parts so that everyone else can get in on the game without having to re-invent the wheel.

I figure it takes all sort of people to have a great trade, be that diesel or some other venture. It takes inventors, innovators, those that know the insides of the system better than anyone else, the users, the money people who fund projects that they don't even understand, and yes, even the advertisers and wanna-be's.

If you have a great local tech who really knows his diesel business, so be it -- good for you! Bet he learned from someone else who learned from someone else, etc. Also bet he buys some parts from some of those big names, and is glad he can get them for a reasonable price. I can't imagine the cost of casting a one-off exhaust manifold, but I know that I can buy one from a big manufacturer who makes them by the thousands, and who has amortized the costs over all those parts. Same for turbos, injectors, etc.

I also think the "bigger" guys loose touch with what is going on. Its the same as any industry. The smaller guys are the ones that have the time to actually help someone, even if there is no money exchanged. The "big" companies want your money first, then they might help you. Most smaller companies/ shops know that people will remember someone that helped them and in return buy something later. Its real customer service. :c:

I agree with DM's original post entirely, however i'm going to state what some others have stated before me, if not for the big companies none of the stuff we do would be feasible, like a friend of mine, he's building the worlds first Compound-Twin turbo duramax, and no I didn't say that wrong, 4 turbo's, now a guy like him is small and trying stuff no one else has fathomed of doing, however it doesn't mean he's going at it blind, he's getting help from many different companies and people like ATS, Garrett Turbochargers, Vibrant Performance, Dynomite Diesel Performance, and the shop he's building it at G&J diesel (Dirtymax dragster), and Idaho Rob, so i completely understand where DM is coming from, the true innovation takes place at small shops, but the big companies make the parts that make it possible for us to tinker with things

I've seen that truck and it's just plain cool. You should have him post pics on here too. I seen them over on duramaxdiesels.

We're not just talking diesel performance here either - I think this goes for anything in life. I've seen countless musicians who claim to be great but can't do squat or have no fans or respect, athletes who have mom and dad's money being pumped in to get them all the best gear and training and they'll never make it. The guys who start from the ground level with 0 respect and work day and night through blood sweat and tears and no budget are the ones who if they make it, they make it big. Always root for the underdog!

There is nothing I like more than being able to beat the guys who pay someone else to build their truck. I built my truck with the help of a few select friends and my own two hands, out of my own pocket. Like I named the truck...it was built ONE PIECE AT A TIME. I've owned it for 6 years and its never been dropped off to someone else to have work done. I've had a machine shop go through the head, and a professional go through the 6 speed tranny, but I pulled them both and took them to these folks to get it done as it was outside my capabilities.

I love when guys show up to the track with their built trucks that they paid some shop big money to build for them, and put a good 10-20' on them. You know they are gonna be on the phone on the ride home calling up the shop and telling them it needs more.

Its much more rewarding to me to know that I built it myself and I take a lot more pride in it. Its also priceless to see the look on people's faces when they ask me who built my truck and I tell them I did.

u need to start telling them a name, and giving them ur number, and see if they call you lol

Its just like wheeling in moab and in new mexico when i was in high school. the top of my windsheild said " BUILT NOT BOUGHT!!" i was a 15 yr old at the time but guess what i turned every nut and bolt on that thing and could fix every inch of it, but you always have the guys who have the money to have someone do it. I have more respect for a man/woman who can do it themselves even though they may not have the nicest ride vs. the guy/gal who has no clue on whats going on. I agree with DM whole heartedly and thanks for this thread.:tu:

we have some young guys on here thats doin a great job building there trucks. 12valvetater is one and dan klein is another i can think of. a bunch of good talent.:jump:

i see how it is tony leave me outa that list :tttt:

your old now ed. you are past 20:jump:

Not to be a dick, but is a compound twin turbo setup really that earth shattering?

Big companies start as small companies that are good at what they do. Yes it is really cool to see the projects that come out of peoples garages. However, to be realistic, most of those guys borrowed ideas from other areas and applied it to their project. It still took some skill and a lot of engineering to do it but not necessarily "new". THe guys who do create the "new" stuff are usually the engine and car makers themselves. Designing new stuff takes lots of time and R&D which takes lots of money. It takes a big company to be able to devote the resources to do that. Small companies do really well at making niche products. They find something a few people want, and then they build it. Sometimes they don't get all the kinks worked out before they put it on the market. Sometimes big companies don't either.

Like it or not, Its the big boys and their big money that drive innovation. New ideas and products that trickle down to us once the price has dropped a bit. Big companies and small companies are both needed to keep the sport progressing.

Customer service is another matter entirely. That needs to be judged more on a case by case basis as opposed to a "big shop" "little shop" thing.