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Customized Fuel Pumps Boost Torque/Horsepower
Tell Forest Cunningham what torque range or power you want from your diesel engine. If it can be done, he will customize your fuel pump to give it to you. Cunningham started working on Cummins diesels 30 years ago and now works with all brands. With rebuild customers across 6 states, there aren’t too many engines he hasn’t worked on.
  “All the parts are out there,” he says. “Ninety percent of parts used, even by tractor and truck pullers, aren’t custom machined. You just have to know what fits what and how to calibrate it.”
  That’s not to say that Cunningham doesn’t machine parts when needed. Currently he’s working with a farmer who wants to boost his 300 hp Steiger tractor to more than 1,100 hp.
  “He sends me the parts and tells me what he wants,” says Cunningham. “I had to use parts from an engine that develops close to 2,500 hp and machine them to fit his fuel pump.”
  Cunningham likes the older mechanical systems for their versatility and ease of customization. Older engines also aren’t required to meet today’s emissions standards.
  “You can change the injection timing and/or the torque curve to produce a stronger, more fuel efficient system,” says Cunningham. “For off-road uses, with new electronic control EGR engines, we have to delete the EGR system to help improve fuel efficiency.”
  Cunningham is hard to argue with when it comes to what is good for engines. He’s the regular mechanic for a lot of over-the-road truckers who put hundreds of thousands of miles on each year. He describes engines with 400,000 miles on them as “babies”, especially compared to Howard Clayton’s 2000 Dodge Ram 3500 that was featured last year in FARM SHOW (Vol. 35, No. 2).
  Cunningham services the pickup every 10,000 miles. It had 1.7 million miles on it at the time of the article. Soon after, major work had to be done. Cunningham rebuilt the engine, replacing pistons, cranks and bearings.
  “Clayton’s truck now has 1,850,000 miles on it and is running fine,” says Cunningham. “I think he’ll get tired of driving it before it gets tired of running.”
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Cunningham Performance, 13555 N. Frink Rd., Hallsville, Mo. 65255 (ph 573 881-4867; www.c-hamperformance.com).


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2012 - Volume #36, Issue #3