Gale Talks EcoDiesel
So I managed to score a ’15 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel with the traditional crosshair grill! I love that look!
This Truck is Beautiful, but I prefer Bad Ass. Once we finish our Emissions work, it’s getting the full Banks Sidewinder built!
We do such in-depth research that we tend to buy our own development mules rather than borrow them. In other words, in doing our product development, we push the powertrain real hard to find any weak spots. Sometimes we break things finding the limits, and I’d rather break my truck than yours. I look at it this way, as Clint Eastwood said in Unforgiven, “A Man’s Gotta Know His Limits.” If you don’t know the limits, how can you possibly design a reliable power upgrade?
Finding the limits is an automotive engineering task, and Banks Power is an Automotive Engineering Company. We are experts at durability testing as well, and this powertrain is very familiar to us. For some time now, we have been selling the Banks version of this VM Motori engine design, for specialty and military vehicle use, as the Banks 630T. First fire occurred on one of our engine dynos on 4 May 2012. First fire in a military vehicle occurred in May of 2013.
We had our first fire in our engine test cells on Friday 4 May 2012, and our first impression was about the sound…this thing is sweet! The low-end response is excellent, and it revs freely, which worries me. We’ve already designed a high-rpm capable aluminum intake manifold for it but, our Banks AutoMind diesel engine controller is only good to 7,800 rpm in its current form – guess that’ll just have to do!
The Banks 630T, 3.0L V6 Turbo Diesel, has ratings up to 302 hp and 514 lb-ft and runs using our Banks AutoMind Diesel ECM. The engine architecture is the same as the EcoDiesel, but the outside dress is different in many respects. As a result, we’ve developed a number of Banks, military-specific engine upgrades that are now becoming popular in racing applications.
The Banks 630T engine is shown with our 6745E 6-Speed automatic transmission based on the Camaro ZL1 version of the GM 6L90.
At Banks, we have leveraged our knowledge of these engines to come up with our Ram-Air intake, Bullet Tuner, iDash Monitor, and Monster Exhaust For the new EcoDiesel powered Grand Cherokee and Ram 1500. We have also tested the completion’s tuning products on the dyno and on the street. The outcome of all this work is very interesting, and I’ll talk about that soon. But first, we did a test article a few months ago with Diesel Power Magazine, and they have just published it in print and online; here’s the link. I think you’ll find this interesting!
Our improvements bested the competition at that time, regardless of their advertising claims. And we have only made our numbers better since the article was written. Have a look at Diesel Power’s take on our stuff, and I’ll be back with our current power numbers and our competitive test results soon.
Gale Banks