A career as a skilled heavy equipment mechanic makes it easy to center one’s life around a passion for diesel-powered vehicles. Koby Kisner of Carmi, Illinois dove right into the deep end when it comes to diesel performance. But with big plans, which include a heavy dose of fun, he shows no sign of slowing up when it comes to racing his Cummins-powered Ram.

Everybody has something in their life that really excites them. For Koby, it’s drag racing. There is no denying that drag racing is an adrenaline rush. For most, all it takes is that single ride down the strip and you’re hooked. Fortunately for Koby, he was bitten by the racing bug.

While meeting new people and building new relationships in college, riding in several friend-owned trucks is what initially sparked his interest. “My friends from college had diesels that had a little bit done to them, and from there I became interested,” Kisner said. Shortly after his run-in with the world of torque, the search for his own truck was on.

The aggressive stance that Silver has, may intimidate those in the other lane.

After searching for the perfect truck, Koby finally found the truck of his dreams, this 2007.5 Cummins-powered Ram, but the dream truck came with a price — it was on the other side of the country, in West Virginia. This quad cab, short bed truck is exactly what he was looking for, but the distance between him and the truck was unjustifiable.

Being mindful of the distance, Kisner spontaneously drove all the way to West Virginia, and fortunately for him, the truck was as good in person as it was in pictures. Making a decision to drive that far and purchase a truck sight unseen, wasn’t easy, but Koby is sure glad he did. “I’m glad I got this truck,” Koby said. ” It’s safe to say this truck is my life.”

Necessary Cummins Upgrades

Starting out as a truck intended to stay a daily driver has changed a bunch over time. As the passion began to overflow, the truck became better and better. “It began with just a few bolt-ons and exterior dress-up mods, but my drag racing passion began to grow,” Koby explained. “Therefore, my parts list became more drag racing oriented.”

Since day one, the truck has always had a cab light out. “It has been out since I bought it,” Koby continued. “That’s one thing about this truck that everyone knows it by. I’ve never considered fixing it.”

Silver is still equipped with the factory-installed 6.7-liter Cummins engine. With the future aimed at drag racing, Koby has replaced the factory cylinder head with a stage-1 D&J Precision Machine performance cylinder head, harnessed down by ARP 625 head studs.

“This cylinder head has delivered the biggest difference in performance overall,” Koby said. With a better-flowing cylinder head, it made the spool-up time on the big single turbocharger easier. Quick lighting and fast acting is the name of the game in drag racing.

Not only is the exterior of the truck clean, but Koby has also got the engine bay cleaned up as well.

Mounted to the side of this engine, is a Steed Speed T4 polished exhaust manifold, which carries an Engineered Diesel S475/87/1.0 turbocharger. This turbo flows enough pounds of air to support more than 1,000 horsepower. With that in mind, Koby ensured his fast truck goal, by matching his other mods to meet that horsepower.

Knowing he would also need more fuel, an ATS dual CP3 kit and an AirDog 165 4G were installed to establish enough volume of fuel to the injectors. Fueling this larger turbo is a set of Exergy Performance 200 percent over stock injectors. The next priority was to get the power to the ground.

Koby enjoys the flames that shoot out of his Grand Rock Hood Stack.

Manual To Manual

Now that Koby’s engine had what it took to make all of the power he needed to race at the desired level, he reached a dilemma. The truck was equipped with a six-speed manual G56 transmission. Not that a manual transmission can’t be fast, but it’s not exactly the go-to drivetrain. What Koby did next is his favorite part of the entire build so far.

He purchased a Firepunk Diesel Comp 2 48re transmission. Obviously, the golden nugget transmission isn’t supposed to work in this truck — the computers in the truck don’t recognize it because it’s not what was equipped originally — however, adding the appropriate TCM overcame that issue. After swapping the driveline he added a custom B&M shifter and a manual-shift valve body.

The Anteater controller for the 47-series and 48-series (618) Dodge Ram transmissions takes the place of a factory PCM and gives total control over the transmission’s shift patterns.

The transmission is controlled by a Firepunk Engineering Anteater System. “This was by far my favorite part of the swap because of the in-depth customization it took to complete,” Koby said. After seeing the ratchet shifter in the truck, it’s hard to not want to have one of our own.

Koby continued his modding process by adding a set of 16×10 Raceline Wheels, wrapped in M&H Racemaster 30×14.5R16 drag slicks. For those of you who don’t know, to use a 16-inch wheel on these third-generation trucks, you must remove the braking system and install second-generation style brakes. The calipers on a gen-two Ram are small enough that the wheels will clear.

Koby has driven his Cummins-powered truck down the eighth-mile track nearest to him to a best of 7.24 at 94 mph. With that elapsed time, Koby is nearing the low 11-second mark in the quarter-mile. While still pleased with its performance, Koby plans on going even faster with his truck. What could he possibly do next?

Traction is key when it comes to consistency and dialing the truck in to run the number.

“I’m hoping to do a 6.4-liter Cummins platform build and run the 6.70 index class,” Koby said. “I want to be able to have enough power on tap for mid-six-second runs in the eighth mile.” Getting a truck of this size down the track at over 100 mph isn’t easy, but Koby strives for challenges. We look forward to seeing what he comes up with in the months to come.

It’s been five years in the making, and this truck has noticeably changed Koby’s life. He’s learned more than he ever expected to and built many relationships with people in the industry over this time period. As the truck continues to get faster, be sure and look out for him in the next few years. He’s coming!

When we met Koby, we were at Maverick Diesel for a dyno tuning session. Koby was getting the truck dialed in for the 7.70 index class.