The Artecona family is a family that is passionate about a lot of things. Edgar Artecona (the father) is a typical Texan. While raising his kids he would take them everywhere with him, whether that was to the track, the deer lease, or work.

Amalee Artecona isn’t your typical girl in her early 20s. She has a great relationship with her parents and sure loves the color pink, but just like the boys, she enjoys getting dirty. When she was a junior in high school, her father Edgar told her that they would build her first car (just as he did with his son). He expected that she was going to want a 70s muscle car, or something along that line. To his surprise, her response was, “I want a Bubba truck!”

They researched leads around the country for a 3rd generation Dodge that offered a solid foundation. What they found was a Tan 2004 Dodge 2500 that had been a work truck during the summer and a plow truck over the winter. At 280,000 miles the truck was in need of some love, but everything was there and the truck was solid.

“I’m real picky and like everything to be done right and look good,” said Edgar. He and his daughter tore everything down to the bare frame. Once torn down, Edgar taught Amalee how to sandblast and then left her on her own to blast the entire frame. Once completed, they moved the frame into the shop where Amalee strengthened it by welding reinforcements.

After the backbone of the truck was done, they mocked up the suspension and made their own track bars. “I might have gone a little overboard with 3 links in the front, but it works really well,” said Edgar. Amalee and Edgar made custom brackets to mount their Summit Automotive billet aluminum traction bars to the axles. To date, the truck has never had any axle wrap or hop no matter how much power they have put down.

The front differential houses an Eaton Elocker while the rear houses a Yukon Gear and Axle locker. Both differentials have a 3:73 gear ratio and Randy’s Off Road axles. The front hubs were also swapped out for a set of Warn locking hubs. To ensure that Amalee was as safe as possible, a set of SSBC brakes were added to the front and rear of the truck. They help bring the BFGoodrich 275/65R17s beadlocked to 17-inch Raceline Wheels to a stop.

Once they had a rolling chassis, it was time to work on the powertrain. The 280,000 mile engine block was sent to Smith Machine in Fort Worth, TX. A few of the cylinders had new liners installed and the block was bored .020”. The crank was balanced with rods out of a 12-valve and custom Scheid Diesel pistons. Once they got everything back, Amalee and her father started assembling the short block.

The crank is held in place with ARP studs that also hold down an Industrial Injection Gorilla girdle. To top off the short block, a Hamilton Cams 200-220 camshaft was installed. On the top end, a Hamilton Cam head was sent to Joker Fabrications up in Wisconsin. There they cut the intake manifold off and ported and polished the runners, machined o-rings in the heads, and custom fabricated a side inlet sheet metal intake manifold.

Once the head and intake were complete, they were sent back and outfitted with over-sized valves, Hamilton Cams springs (connected to Hamilton pushrods) and heavy duty rocker arms. The head is held in place by 12mm 625 ARP studs.

On the exhaust side, an ATS exhaust manifold feeds exhaust past the Tial Sport wastegate and into a GT4094. It then directs it into a GT4508 and out the 5-inch exhaust and up through the 8-inch MBRP stack.

With the turbine wheels spinning, the compressors suck in fresh air and compress it up to 95 psi. The boosted air is then sent through an ATS intercooler and directed into the cylinder head. Just before it is fed into the head, it is met with a water/methanol mix supplied by the two stage Snow Performance kit. The truck is plumbed for nitrous and while they have a Nitrous Express kit they haven’t finished the installation because they run too fast for their Super Diesel Class that Amalee competes in. “We spend more time pulling power out of the truck than we do trying to add it,” said Amalee. Once the air and water is compressed in the cylinders it is met with fuel being injected by a set of Dynomite Diesel 180s which are fed by a PPE Dual CP3 kit running Industrial Injection’s CP3s.

The engine is tuned with a Smarty SSR and makes 960 horsepower and 2000 ft-lbs of torque. Behind the engine a Diesel Performance Converters (DPC) triple disk converter with a 2400 stall transmits the power back into the 48RE which was fully built by Firepunk. The transmission features full billet shafts and custom valve body work as well as upgraded clutches.

Once the powertrain was installed in the frame, the body was their next major focus. Amalee and Edgar did the body work and paint prep themselves. While they did send the truck out to have it professionally painted, Amalee helped by painting all of the extra parts to match the PXR 2008 Black. With how great the truck was looking, they added a few more upgrades to the exterior.

The old hood was swapped out for a carbon fiber hood with a vent to help remove heat. The front and rear headlights were replaced with Recon lights and Bushwacker fender flares were added to give the truck a little more of an aggressive stance.

Moving to the interior, the truck features custom leather seats, headliner, and head rests–all in black with pink stitching to boot. To monitor what is going on under the hood, a set of Auto Meter gauges were mounted to the a-pillar and over the rear view mirror. To control the nitrous, water/methanol, fans, and other accessories including a switch panel were installed.

As a final touch, when they got the truck up and running, the truck was taken over to Dallas Air Brush to have their “Save The Racks” logo air brushed on the tailgate. Amalee’s mother is a cancer survivor and went through her battle during the 3 years it took to build this unique truck. As a tribute to her mother, others that are struggling, and to help bring awareness, they integrated the breast cancer bow with the 17 point rack from a buck that Amalee shot when she was 14.

With the truck done, Amalee is truly proud of her contributions to the project and appreciates all of the help, guidance, and love she receives from her family. She is also thankful to Kevin Morrisey who is the family’s mechanic and friend–he spent a lot of time showing her the ropes while they built the truck.

While she is in college, she has another vehicle to drive daily. Her truck is regularly driven on the street, hooks to a trailer a few times a year, and is right at home on the drag strip. Amalee runs in the Super Diesel class which has an index of 11.90. So, they pull a fair amount of fuel out of the truck to get the 7,300 lb hauler to run at 11.90.

Don’t under estimate this pink jewel, as there is a beast under the hood ready for action. Be sure to check out Diesel Army’s exclusive gallery of Amalee Artecona’s 2004 Cummins below: