Great trucks aren’t built overnight. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to build a great truck that others are envious of. We, recently, encountered John Hollingshead Jr.  “AJ” from White Hall, Maryland, the owner of this tire-melting 2007 Ram.

In the quest for more power, many times parts get broken along the way. After AJ installed his third set of injectors on this truck, he found the limit of the input shaft.

AJ has been modifying and building trucks for about six years. His current rig is certainly one that many people are envious of and rightfully so. He picked up his 2007 Ram 2500 Thunder Road Edition in 2012. The truck was an unmolested vehicle that had 92,000 miles on the odometer.

Shortly after picking it up, he started doing what most of us do, modifying and changing parts. The truck has had a few different iterations to find the right combination that give AJ the power he wants along with the drivability he needs.

While this engine compartment is beautiful, this photo was taken when AJ was running a single 66 mm and before he had polished the exhaust manifold.

Starting with a solid engine, the 5.9-liter Cummins has undergone some minor work. The stock camshaft was pulled and a Hamilton Cams 188/220 was installed. This helps get the turbocharger to spool faster. The head bolts were replaced with ARP studs and the valve springs were upgraded to a set of Hamilton valve springs as well.

By using dowels, you can do a camshaft swap without dissembling much of the engine.

To help the engine run smoothly, a Fluidampr was bolted to the front of the crank. AJ, also, opted to remove the grid heater and install an aFe Power Blade Runner intake manifold.

Taking the time to polish everything really makes a huge difference.

On the other side of the head, a Stainless Diesel exhaust manifold was polished and installed. On top of the exhaust manifold, is a BorgWarner S300 with a 66mm compressor wheel which is fed by an Engineered Diesel S400 with a billet 80mm compressor wheel. The piping for the compounds was fabricated by Firepunk Diesel.

Coming out of the high-pressure turbocharger, the compressed air is pretty hot. To, cool the air, a High Tech Turbo (HTT) intercooler was installed, but not before it received a good polishing. (The compressor covers were, also, polished.) To make sure he doesn’t run into a surge issue after lifting off the throttle, a Turbosmart blow-off valve (BOV) was plumbed into the system.

With more than 1,000 horsepower worth of air, AJ opted to install 150-percent-over injectors from Exergy Performance. Supplying the injectors with the volume and pressure needed is a tall task. The factory CP3 pump was switched out for an Arson Stage 3 and an Industrial Injection dual CP3 kit was installed with a factory Duramax CP3 mounted on top. Ensuring that everything was properly fed, an AirDog 150/150 was mounted under the cab to supply the CP3s.

If this combination isn’t enough, this 2007 Ram has the added benefit of a few extra ponies hiding in the bed in the form of liquid air. A Zex Pro Diesel kit is, also, plumbed into the engine.

With any power upgrades north of factory power, the OE-spec transmission won’t last. That is why AJ turned to the guys at Affordable Trans Service for a full transmission build using Suncoast Converters’ internals with all billet shafts. The transmission, also, features a Hughes deep transmission pan and the Suncoast torque converter is mounted to a BD Diesel Performance billet flex plate.

This setup has proven to be extremely reliable and dependable for AJ. To date, his best corrected dyno numbers are 943 horsepower and 1,571 lb-ft of torque with only fuel being fed into the cylinders. But, getting the engine to perform at this level isn’t easy, so AJ turned to Innovative Diesel for tuning.

Look how beautiful these curves display. With over 1,300 lb-ft of torque at 2,500 rpm, the torque just continues to climb until a little after 3,000 rpm where it peaks at 1,571. The horsepower is just as impressive starting at 600 horsepower at 2,500 rpm and climbing up to 943 around 3,300 rpm.

To give the truck the right look, AJ installed a Cervinis SRT10 fiberglass hood and painted the grille and headlights to match the truck. He, also, upgraded the wheels and tires and added Pro Comp traction bars to the rear for traction. To keep an eye on the vitals, a set of Isspro gauges are installed on the A-pillar.

AJ is hoping to break into the four-digit horsepower range on straight fuel. Judging by the pace at which he has been upgrading this truck, we would anticipate him to be there shortly (thank you tax returns).