If you are reading this, then you are passionate about diesel trucks. We all do our best to create the truck of our dreams. So, when we came across Chris Buhidar and heard his story, we knew we had to feature this OBS truck. He has been busy, as he is constantly changing his truck to fit his lifestyle. In 2006, Buhidar purchased a new truck and quickly realized that he didn’t want to spend a ton of money on performance mods that would make his truck not as fun to drive. So, he started looking for another option.

“I was looking around for a cheap beater and I came across the red OBS Ford,” said Buhidar. “It was just an old two-wheel-drive work truck. It was in Oklahoma and it had 420,000 miles on it. It was a 7.3-liter truck with grey wheels and interior. Everything was plain. The company that owned it used to drive all over the U.S. So, the truck would leave Oklahoma and go to Florida. Then drive back and head to Washington. It was literally non-stop driving all over the country. It has a billion miles on it and I bought it for $2,800 bucks,” continued Buhidar.

With Buhidar co-owning Truck Source Diesel (TSD) in San Antonio, he knew he could turn this beater into a great truck. “We used to go to the mud drags a whole lot,” mentioned Buhidar. “I lifted it and converted it over to four-wheel drive. Then we put a 4- or 5-inch lift under it,” explained Buhidar.

With the truck sitting higher off the ground and needing a little more power, Buhidar started putting together a list of goodies he wanted to add to his OBS truck. “Since it was a 7.3-liter, we put a set of good injectors, twin HPOPs, and compound turbos on it. The truck was about 600 horsepower and it ran badass. It was a truck you could do anything with. I would be at the drag strip Friday night, then at the mud drags Saturday night, and then Sunday, we would be cutting donuts in the parking lot,” smiled Buhidar.

As Buhidar started getting more involved in drag racing, he quickly realized that it would take a ton of money to be competitive. The 7.3 is a great powerhouse, but to make some serious power for competition, it would cost too much.

“We decided to put a Cummins in it. I put a 12 valve in it because they make a ton of power. We put twins on it, big injectors, and that thing sucked. I hated driving it. It was terrible,” Buhidar said as he chuckled. As we continued our discussion it became apparent that it was a bad combination of things. Mostly the truck has a short ratio fuel pedal and the pump has a short lever. So, with very little throttle, the truck would be almost wide open. He said it was like a smoke fest anytime he drove the truck.

“That lasted six or eight months and then I started building a common rail for it. When we first put it together, it was a single turbo with probably right around 800 to 850 horsepower. It ran an 11.5 at 120 mph with a 2.2 second 60 foot time. It was badass, but the sketchiest thing I have ever driven. I wanted to be the first guy to put a lifted truck in the 10s because I thought it would be cool. But after one pass, I realized why people don’t do that,” laughed Buhidar.

So, they brought the truck back to the TSD shop and tore back into it. They removed the lift kit from the OBS truck and put on stock Excursion springs with Bilstein shocks on all four corners, added a full roll cage, put some Corbeau race seats in it and really focused on making it go fast. To help with axle wrap and traction, they added a set of Calvert Racing Caltracs and swapped the wheels and tires out. They ended up going with a set of 17×10 Weld Racing wheels wrapped in M&H Drag Radials (390/40R17). To keep an eye on what is going on under the hood, a full assortment of Auto Meter gauges were installed.

While the OBS truck is mainly focused around drag racing, Buhidar does still drive it on the weekends and around town. So, he wanted to update the front end to make it look a little newer. So, he swapped out the 2000 F-350 grille, headlights, bumper for ones off of a 2005.

After having had a good race season, Buhidar wanted to continue to improve, so it was time for a full engine build. Buhidar located a ’06 Cummins engine and the TSD team tore it down to a bare block and sent it out to Duffin Engine for machine work. Once the guys at TSD got the truck back, it was time to start assembling. A set of MAHLE Monotherm pistons were connected to a set of Carillo rods and slid into the cylinders. The rods are connected to the factory crank (that was balanced) and a 14mm Haisley Machine girdle with main studs holds it all in place. A Diesel Pro’s camshaft went into the block to round out the short block.

On top, the stock head is sealed with a Haisley Machine fire ring kit and held down with ARP 625 studs. Smith Brothers pushrods control the valves which are held closed by Industrial Injection valve springs. Directing air into the cylinders is a CFM Plus intake elbow which receives boosted air via a BD Diesel Performance 6.0 intercooler.

Fuel is pulled from the tank with a custom TSD fuel system utilizing a Fuelab fuel pump and feed to a modified PPE CP3 kit. The bottom pump is an 85-percent over Industrial Injection pump and the top pump is an Exergy Performance Stroker pump. The pressurized fuel flows through a T&C ported rail and is injected into the cylinders by a custom set of F1 Diesel Apex injectors. Once the mixture is burned, the exhaust is then directed into a Steed Speed exhaust manifold. The manifold feeds a set of Engineered Diesel compounds with a mounting and piping kit that was a collaborative effort between Elite Fabrication and TSD.

If this combination isn’t enough, a healthy dose of nitrous can be injected into the engine thanks to the Nitrous Express kit. The entire setup is controlled with custom with an EFILive device and a tune by TSD. The engine produces 1,228 horsepower and 1950 lb-ft of torque.

To ensure that the power was transferred to the rear tires, the 4R100 transmission received a full Brian’s Truck Shop treatment. All of the shafts were upgraded, all the clutches and friction plates and even the valve body were upgraded. To control the shifting, a Powertrain Control Solutions transmission controller is used.

So, what does this combination do? Well, the OBS truck has a race weight of 6,750 pounds, and his best time is 9.9 at 138.4 mph. He and the entire TSD group have been able to win just about every event they have attended. But Buhidar is the first to admit that while this truck is his, he owes a lot to the guys at TSD, Brian at BTS, Don Morison at F1, Chris Beardsley at Engineered Diesel and Tim at Elite Performance and Fabrication.