This is some rather big news for the Cummins enthusiasts out there. The super-popular 5.9-liter Cummins engines come equipped with an intake manifold that is capable and reliable for a good amount of horsepower, torque, and boost pressure. For years now, the competition vehicles that use this engine knew their limits, though. They needed something better.

How can we force a ton of air into this cylinder head and get the most out of our performance? When you’re drag racing, sled pulling, or dynoing your truck in competition, the extra horsepower you can gain from an intake manifold could be the difference in winning or not. A few thousandths of a second faster, a few inches farther, a few more numbers on the graph, whatever it may be, when you’re competing, every bit counts.

So what is something better? A side draft intake manifold. A side draft replaces the intake plenum on your engine and allows you to force even more air into the cylinder head. This is the only way to get the most air possible into your engine. Yes, a factory location manifold that is larger than stock will help, but this is the best way. The bad? You have to remove your cylinder head, you have to mill the plenum off, and you have to drill and tap the head for the new manifold.

While this yields great results, this is a serious job. If only there was a way to get a side draft manifold without the drilling and tapping, without the head removal, and without the time down. Well, now you can. BD Diesel Performance has just introduced a competition intake manifold that will allow you to get those same results but in a bolt-on installation.

How? Instead of removing the head, you can just remove your intake manifold and your grid heater plate, and directly bolt this down to your head. This allows the air coming in from your intercooler to streamline straight into the head without any restrictions. This will distribute air evenly throughout the engine where each cylinder is fed with clean, unrestricted air. The opening area of the factory intake is about 9-square-inches. When you upgrade to BD’s competition intake manifold, that area climbs to 40-square-inches.

This does come with some medications. Since this is going to force a new landscape for your high-pressure fuel lines, new lines will be provided. All you will need to buy to work with this kit is a 6.7-liter Cummins fuel rail. If you’re running injectables, these manifolds come ready with auxiliary ports and are designed to work with dual CP3 kits.

This kit includes plenum, hardware, extension harnesses, charge pipe, CV hose, and new fuel lines (excluding fuel rail). This fits the 2003 to 2007 Dodge Ram trucks with the 5.9-liter Cummins engine. For the 2003-2005 trucks, use part number 1041580. For 2006-2007 engines, use part number 1041581. Everything included is $1,995 US ($2,639.00 CAD) regardless of the year.

Stay tuned as we have a full installation prepared in the future on our competition-use 5.9-liter engine. For more information about BD Diesel, head over to their website here.