When the folks at Diesel Power Products (DPP) came on board as a DieselArmy.com sponsor, I was happy to see them. Let’s face it, I have bought products from them before and feel they are a great fit. That said, I was looking through the DPP website — again — looking for parts and found this expose´ about an ‘07 Ram that I thought you guys would also like to check out.

Suppliers of parts are known for having showcase vehicles and DPP decided an early 5.9 Cummins-powered Ram would be the right choice. Being a Ram owner myself, I like the way they think.

Anyway, to keep the build interesting, they decided that 700 horsepower and a suspension designed to make a new TRX shutter in fear would be the goal. But, something called a “pandemic” took over the country, and the Covid Cummins was born. With parts availability being an issue during that time, they decided to go through their inventory of on-hand items and pick out some well-rounded upgrades that are proven to deliver performance. DPP is filled with true diesel enthusiasts, so they were comfortable using the part they routinely recommend to their customers.

From the factory, these trucks were rated at 325 horsepower at the flywheel, which will typically net around 290 or so to the rear wheels. With a few, very simple to install upgrades, dyno testing netted 435 horsepower to the ground, with more on tap. An added bonus was the truck was substantially more enjoyable to drive, had more precise shifts between gears, and fed their need for power before the next phase of upgrades began.

Next up was a properly built suspension system. With the right system and components, ride quality and offroad performance (not just ground clearance) can be improved. For that reason, a Carli Suspension added all of the goodies needed to raise the Ram a total of 3 inches. The guys at DPP say the Ram still handles superbly on the street or when towing a trailer, in case you wanted to know.

DPP wanted to double the horsepower output when measured at the tires (not the flywheel) of the factory rating and do so with 38-inch tires. Making power with a Cummins is easy, but DPP wanted to do it and not create a bunch of black smoke in the process. They were able to accomplish that with fewer emissions output than a STOCK truck and more power than our 700-horsepower goal!

A big part of that power increase is thanks to injectors and a turbo upgrade. As larger displacement injectors are added, More air is also required. Adding a turbo is a way to accomplish that, but there are additional bottlenecks in the system. In order to remove any of these restrictions, everything was upgraded from the point air first enters into the system via the air filter, all the way to the intake plenum where it’s first ingested into the engine.

Tuning is an easy way to improve a truck’s performance and can really make a difference. But, at the end of the day, it can only take you so far. It’s been said that tuning doesn’t Actually create horsepower. From the factory, trucks are significantly detuned compared to what the injectors, pumps, and turbo are capable of. Changing calibrations of your ECM does not add power all on its own, instead, it’s done by the calibrations telling the injectors to stay open longer, for the turbo to reach higher boost levels, to advance the timing of the injection events, etc.

Diesel Power Products modified so many parts of the engine, custom calibrations were critical to fine-tune everything, and no better way than to strap the truck onto a dyno and have the custom tuner available to read the data and make adjustments on the fly to create absolute perfection. And that’s exactly what they did.

There are a lot of upgrades that went into building this ’07 Ram, and to find out what parts were used and how you can get them, check out the Diesel Power Products ’07 Ram Project page.