Banks is no stranger to diesel records: He already owns the FIA World Record for the fastest diesel pickup ever, a 217.306 two-way “flying mile” run that took place at Bonneville on October 19, 2002. The secret to clean, smoke-free diesel performance, Banks claims, lies in producing a more efficient combustion process in the cylinder that burns all the fuel in the engine, rather than dumping unburned fuel out the exhaust as thick black smoke.
The engine itself started life as a production-line 6.6-liter Duramax V8, just like the engines powering thousands of GM pickups. The in-house engineers and machinists at Banks Power modified valvetrain and cylinder heads and added a BankSpeed intake, increasing intake port flow by 25% at peak, exhaust port flow by 55%, and keeping a high intake swirl to ensure effective combustion. Banks added twin Honeywell/Garrett racing turbochargers blowing into custom 321 stainless tube exhaust headers, with custom-designed wastegates and a Banks Nitrous system to help spool up the turbos and provide clean, smoke-free staging. A high-performance Bosch fuel injection system is electronically regulated to deliver enough fuel to produce upwards of 1000 horsepower with just a single fuel pump calibrated to 1800 bar fuel pressure.
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