If there was one thing this year at Gateway Diesel Wars that stood out, it was all of the trucks. Trucks from different area’s with different styles rolled in to hit the strip! One that really stood out was this F-350 owned by Nick Brueckner.

Riding high is what this truck does, but don’t let it fool you, it leaves in a hurry!

We stopped and caught up with Nick to get some details about his badass pick up truck and the story behind it. We wanted to find out about the engine choice and the scope of the entire build.

Not everyone has a passion for diesel at first, but all it takes is one day for the light bulb to come on and it’s off to the races. “I purchased the truck in early 2013, because I was getting ready to turn 16,” said Nick. “I’ve always wanted this body style Ford.”

New to the streets, he acquired this 1995 F-350 equipped with a 7.3-liter Power Stroke as an old farm truck that was beat up and beginning to rust out. He purchased this truck with the intention to just fix it up and make it nice.

In high school, it’s hard to get an income that can feed this crazy hobby of ours, but Nick penny pinched until he could afford to do some things he wanted to. “I put an aftermarket exhaust system and a tune on the truck,” Nick explained. “It then opened up a whole new hobby for me.”

As years went by, Nick graduated and got himself a better paying job which allowed him to improve this truck more and more. Knowing it would be the first part that would lay down on him he purchased a built transmission for the truck. “I knew it was going to need it,” Nick said. “I went ahead and had a local shop build me a transmission which was upgraded with billet shafts, valve body, and triple disc torque converter.”

Happy with what he’s done so far, went ahead and decided to continue this build. “After a year I bought a Borg Warner s369SXE turbocharger, Adrenaline high-pressure oil pump, FullForce 238/100 fuel injectors, and Smith Brothers pushrods,” Nick explained.

Unfortunately, after all these modifications were done, he drove the truck again to realize that the engine had a dead cylinder. Thanks to Dynamic Diesel, they rebuilt the engine block along with a set of Cyro treated connecting rods and delipped and ceramic coated Mahle pistons.

He has put some serious brass into this truck at this point and expects to see between 550-600 horsepower out of this setup. We love seeing this style of a build because it’s not the desired engine platform to start with.

This truck doesn’t just run great, but it looks beautiful. Rolling on 20×12 American Force Independence wheels wrapped in Firestone Destination MT’s. “I purchased these wheels simply because I like their style,” Nick explained. “They offer the look and simplicity that I enjoy, also nobody in my area has this style wheel and I wanted to be different.”

These polished wheels from American Force give that “WOW” factor to even someone that isn’t an enthusiast like we are. Nick explained, “These wheels clean up, and look brand new every time I clean them, and the wheels I have had in the past didn’t give this kind of shine.”

For more information on American Force’s wheels and to find a set for your truck, be sure to check out its website.