This build was never just about making a supercharged L5P Duramax run hard. At the speed target for this truck, stopping becomes the real engineering problem. Big tires increase the brake system’s mechanical disadvantage, and a heavy, high-power diesel pickup needs more rotor diameter, more thermal capacity, and better pedal control than a stock setup can deliver. That’s why this truck gets Wilwood TX6R big brakes front and rear. The 15.5-inch rotors increase leverage, the six-piston calipers use staggered piston sizing to reduce pad taper, and the directional internal vanes move air from the center out like a pump to shed heat. The two-piece rotor and hat design also helps keep heat out of the hub and bearings. The pedal side matters too. With a custom floor and firewall layout, pedal ratio and master cylinder placement have to work with the brake package, not against it. The 10:1 pedal assembly and dual master setup give the system the stroke, pressure, and front-to-rear bias adjustment needed to make this truck remove speed as hard as it builds it.
This episode centers on a practical problem: how to make Banks' supercharged Duramax-powered pickup stop as convincingly as it accelerates. The truck is being built with support from AMSOIL, Roadster Shop, and Nitto, and the immediate focus is the braking system. The team from Strange arrives with the major hardware, including very large rotors measuring 15.5 inches, and the discussion quickly frames the truck as a high-power, high-speed build that will need equally serious braking capacity.
The chassis and suspension foundation are already strong. Gale points to the custom spindles made by Kibbe and notes that the build uses a C5-based pro spindle concept adapted to a 2017 eight-lug, three-quarter-ton truck layout. That combination preserves the heavy-duty truck character while allowing a more performance-oriented brake and suspension package. Roadster Shop's chassis is described as both beautifully designed and carefully executed, and Strange's involvement ties into a long history in racing hardware, particularly with eight-lug and full-floater rear-end requirements.
Gale then explains the engine platform behind the truck. This is based on the L5P Duramax, which he describes as being close to a clean-sheet redesign compared with earlier Duramax engines. GM kept the same bore centers, but increased deck height and substantially revised the crankshaft. The main journals remain the same size, but the crank pins are much larger, which means the connecting rods have correspondingly larger big ends. Those rods are so large that they cannot simply be pushed through the cylinder bores without separating the caps.
Other improvements include better piston cooling, much better cylinder-head flow than previous versions, and greater overall engine strength. Banks tested a stock, out-of-the-box engine by taking one intended for the assembly line, removing the pickup-specific accessories, installing it in a dyno cell, and trying to destroy it. That durability program was interrupted by defense-engine work, but Gale says it will resume. Even so, they have already exceeded 1,000 horsepower on a stock bottom end with stock head bolts and gaskets. The only internal change mentioned was a camshaft.
That durability and packaging work feeds into a larger Banks plan: a line of turnkey diesel engines complete with ECU and supporting systems for custom builds. Gale describes the concept as a diesel counterpart to the crate-engine movement, but with a more distinctive identity than yet another LS swap. He argues that the market has been saturated with LS-based hot rods, while a properly engineered diesel package offers something genuinely different for builders who want a unique expression.
A major part of the program is making the Duramax easier to install in vehicles that were never designed for it. Banks is working to shorten the depth of the oil pan so the engine can clear front crossmembers commonly found in older platforms such as Chevelles. The goal is to place this engine in applications where people normally would not consider a Duramax swap. Rather than relying on used junkyard cores of uncertain history, Gale wants engines assembled with Banks components integrated into GM's production process in Moraine, Ohio. He notes that Banks has already done more than 20,000 defense engines this way. Designing parts to fit assembly-line tooling keeps costs down because it avoids tearing down a complete engine just to replace items such as the camshaft, valve springs, pushrods, or roller tappets. On this engine family, even a camshaft change can force a deep teardown because removing the roller tappets requires pulling the heads.
The truck also serves as the first showcase for Banks' broader forced-induction diesel program. Gale says this build uses a supercharger with liquid intercooling, and he points out a liquid-coupled intercooler core located in the black mock-up exhaust manifold assembly. That arrangement will become part of the company's supercharged diesel-engine offering.
From there, the lineup is intended to expand into several configurations: supercharged diesel engines, turbocharged diesel engines, and "super turbo" combinations using both a supercharger and a turbocharger, or even twin turbos. The planned range starts at roughly 600 horsepower and goes upward. In that sense, this truck is not just a one-off project; it is the first public demonstration of a modular diesel performance program built around repeatable, engineered packages rather than improvised swaps.
Once the brake boxes are opened, the hardware confirms the scale of the stopping system. The truck uses front and rear six-piston calipers. Although the calipers look similar externally, they are configured with different piston sizes and potentially different rotor-width compatibility depending on front or rear placement.
A key detail is the staggered-bore piston arrangement. Because the brake pads are so large, the leading edge of the pad naturally tends to wear faster than the trailing edge as the rotor passes through the caliper. To counter that taper, the caliper uses smaller pistons at the leading edge and larger pistons at the trailing edge. That balances pad loading and helps keep the pad from developing uneven wear. For a truck intended to run very high speed-Gale mentions gearing it for 180 mph, or at least around 140 mph-the emphasis is not only on building speed but on removing speed with equal authority.
The rotor hats are machined from forgings rather than cut from simpler stock. Strange explains that the forging gives better grain flow, machines cleanly, and produces a stronger part. They also built multiple offsets and flange thicknesses into a common blank forging so less parent material has to be removed during machining. That preserves strength while still allowing application-specific geometry.
Gale highlights another important point: the rotor assembly, including the hat, behaves like a radiator. In a factory one-piece steel brake rotor, heat can transfer directly into the steel hub and then into the wheel bearings. With this two-piece arrangement, the hat acts as more of a thermal barrier, reducing heat transfer into the hub assembly. The friction ring itself is e-coated, and while the coating wears away in the swept annulus where the pads contact the rotor, it remains on the non-contact surfaces and especially inside the internal vane passages where rust commonly forms. The coating also withstands substantial temperature before degrading.
The rotor design uses directional internal vanes, with distinct left- and right-hand rotors. Strange explains that the rotor acts like a pump: air is drawn from the inside and pushed outward through the vane structure. Many people assume the rotor grabs air from the outer edge, but the actual airflow path is the opposite. By using directional vanes, the rotor improves heat pumping and thermal dissipation.
They also chose a staggered vane arrangement rather than a non-staggered directional vane. That creates a larger air passage cross-section and more internal volume and surface area, which further improves heat rejection. On a heavy truck, especially one expected to run fast, that thermal capacity matters.
Gale adds a mechanical explanation for why oversized brakes are not excessive here. On lifted trucks running very large tires-40-inch or 44-inch tires are mentioned-the stock brake system suffers from a leverage disadvantage. The tire's effective radius becomes a long lever arm, while the rotor's effective braking radius remains comparatively short. Increasing rotor diameter restores some of that lost leverage. In other words, once tire diameter grows, larger brakes are not cosmetic; they are necessary to recover braking torque.
The truck brake package uses asymmetrical slotting in the rotor faces. Strange says the slot pattern is designed so the leading edge of the brake pad is never completely off a slot. That keeps the leading edge continually cleaned, which is especially important on a heavy vehicle doing demanding work. The slot pattern is therefore functional rather than decorative.
Attention then shifts to the pedal and hydraulic layout. The system uses a 10:1 pedal ratio with a traditional balance bar. The balance bar is not included because the truck necessarily needs race-car-style brake bias adjustment, but because it packages well and allows front-to-rear bias to be fine-tuned. The plan is to run separate front and rear circuits with the master cylinders mounted on the firewall.
The initial setup uses same-bore master cylinders, with one-inch masters identified as the right starting point based on piston-area calculations and prior applications. Because the front and rear caliper piston sizing is already close, fluid volume should not be a major issue. If additional tuning is needed, they may change one side to something like a 7/8-inch bore, particularly at the rear. The discussion contrasts this with drum-brake systems, which typically require more fluid volume and therefore often use larger master cylinders and high pedal leverage. With fixed calipers and disc brakes, the expectation is that this setup will generate plenty of pressure.
The final part of the episode focuses on packaging the pedal assembly and reservoirs inside the truck. The team plans to replace the usual plastic reservoirs with compact aluminum reservoir assemblies featuring decorative rings, which will mount on the firewall and provide a cleaner appearance. Gale appreciates both the low weight and the thoughtfulness of the design, crediting Bill Wood.
Packaging is especially important in this cab because aftermarket pedal placement can be compromised by the shape of the floorboard. On many C10-based builds, the factory master-cylinder location sits relatively low, and when a new pedal is mounted near the kicked or tapered section of the floor, usable stroke can be lost. Here, the Strange pedal arrangement gives more freedom to place the assembly higher and farther where it can achieve proper travel. The expected pedal travel at the foot pad is about three to four inches, which should provide substantial master-cylinder stroke.
The team also notes that the drive-by-wire throttle pedal can be positioned independently wherever it best fits. Looking ahead, the next phase of work includes hood hinges, steering wheel and master-cylinder bracket fabrication, driveshaft tunnel work, core-support bracing, supercharger inlet air-filter housings, oversized intake tubing, and additional fabrication around the engine package. This episode, however, establishes the core braking and hydraulic strategy that will allow the truck's speed potential to be matched by credible stopping power.