Monster-Ram Improves Duramax
Scrolling through a Duramax L5P forum, Bradley Conroy stumbled across a thread discussing the Banks Monster-Ram. In the post, an L5P owner explained that before installing a Monster-Ram, his truck suffered from a shimmy at highway speeds. “I recall the guy explaining the feeling like an unbalanced tire,” Bradley recalls. “It caught my attention because I had noticed the same thing in my truck. It wasn’t anything that concerned me, but I was always kind of curious about what was causing it. Around 74 mph, I’d get a slight shimmy. On the forum, the guy had written that when he installed the Monster-Ram, the shimmy went away. I was inspired by his post and ordered one. This past Saturday, I installed it. I headed up from Syracuse on Sunday to visit my daughter at Utah State. The round trip was about 120 miles. The first thing I noticed was responsiveness. Throttle response was noticeably sharper. The second thing I noticed was that the shimmy was gone! I don’t know how the Monster-Ram relates to the shimmy, but I know that the truck hasn’t shimmied since.”
The reason Bradley’s shimmy had disappeared is thanks to the Monster-Ram’s carefully engineered anti-surge geometry. The Duramax L5P’s Borg Warner turbo has an anti-surge feature that prevents airflow from reversing direction, sending powerful pulses out of the turbo’s compressor and backward through the intake tube. Bradley likely felt what we’ve coined “silent surge,” which can often be felt but not heard. If surge is powerful enough, the entire truck will bounce like a bucking bronco when boost drops and power is lost. When developing the Monster-Ram, we improved upon GM’s anti-surge geometry, resulting in smoother response with no surge. And, with a slightly larger outlet and a smooth organic shape, the intake elbow increases air density into the compressor. This results in a lower shaft speed, and less time to reach the ECM’s target boost. In other words, better throttle response!
Inside the truck, Bradley has a dual iDash Stealth Pod holding an iDash DataMonster and an iDash SuperGauge. The iDashes allow him to adjust his Derringer tuner and PedalMonster throttle response controller on-the-fly.
Under the hood, he has Ram-Air Intake, Boost Tube Upgrade, and MAP Sensor Relocation Kit, in addition to the aforementioned Monster-Ram turbo inlet. Out back, the Silverado sports a Ram-Air differential cover and a 5” Monster Exhaust with the patented zero-backpressure SideKick tip.
“I’m big on Gale Banks, he confesses. I really appreciate his engineering. He puts so much into R&D and testing. From what I hear, he won’t give birth to a product until it’s absolutely ready. Sometimes it upsets customers to wait, but I can tell you first hand that it’s worth it.”