THE CUMMINS RANGER
JOHNNY MONTESINO'S SUB-5 SECOND CUMMINS POWERED RANGER DRAG TRUCK
JOHNNY MONTESINO’S SUB-5 SECOND CUMMINS POWERED RANGER DRAG TRUCK
Looking at Johnny Montesino’s ‘08 Ford Ranger drag truck, it’s easy to think that it was born and bread as a finely tuned race truck, but truth be told it started its life as a humble Ford Ranger pickup truck that endured much of its life as a pool service truck. Back then it was purchased for only $100 and transformed into the amazing race machine that you see here. The gasser engine and Ford transmission have been replaced by a Cummins diesel and TH400 transmission while the chassis has been cut, tweaked, and caged to make the truck both strong and safe for flying down the 1/8-mile drag strip in less than 5 seconds to compete in the Pro Street class.
CHASSIS
Work on the truck started with the chassis, since a Ford Ranger is not known to be a strong chassis from the factory, it needed a lot of help here. Montesino dropped the former pool truck off at Chassis Engineering to begin its
transformation. While there the build team stripped the factory suspension and running gear off the frame to make room for race worthy components. They also chopped off the rearmost section of the frame for a back-three-quarter of sorts rather than cutting the frame at the back of the cab as typically done with a backhalf chassis.
The roll cage ties into the factory frame rails as well as the cab throughout the truck to strengthen the entire assembly and meet sanctioning body safety requirements while retaining the original steel body parts and panels. Up front the build team integrated a set of Strange Engineering coil-over struts with AFCO springs and Strange 4-piston calipers clamping down on 13-inch diameter vented rotors to support and stop the truck. In the rear they fabricated a multilink suspension to position and control the Competition Engineering 9.5-inch rear axle assembly. Penske adjustable coil-over shocks and AFCO springs tame the rear while allowing for adjustability for braking handled by Strange 4-piston calipers and 11-inch diameter rotors. Big and little rolling stock consists of skinny 4.5/28.0R17 M&H Racemaster drag tires wrapped around gold anodized 17-inch 5-spoke Weld Racing Alumastar forged
aluminum wheels up front and huge 33.0/16.0-15 Hoosier drag slicks wrapped around 15x15-inch double-beadlock forged aluminum Weld Racing Alumastar wheels with a polished aluminum and gold anodized finish in the rear.
To tie everything together Montesino had the team at Signature Metal Fab handle the tin work throughout the truck including the interior, body and bed cover. He also sprinkled bits of carbon fiber from Oldskoolfab throughout the build including the dash and door panels for the fully functional original steel doors. The interior was treated to a Kirkey aluminum racing seat with Racequip 5-point harnesses to keep him safe and secure as he blasts down the drag strip. He keeps the truck pointed straight ahead with Flaming River steering components through a Grant steering wheel and relies on a Precision Performance Products shifter to actuate the gear changes.
At the time we shot the truck a large Chiseled Performance PT 2000 waterto-air intercooler rode shotgun to keep the intake charge cool, but he has since removed it and opts for additional nitrous injection to tame intake temps while making more power.
CUMMINS
The crowning jewel of the truck is on display for anyone to see in the form of a 6.7L common rail Cummins that occupies the engine bay. As the owner of The
Diesel Garage in Miami, FL Montesino is the perfect one to build his own race engine so of course he did. Starting with a stock 6.7L Cummins, he tore it down for a performance rebuild featuring a set of Wagler Competition Products connecting rods swinging a set of custom modified Mahle Oem-style pistons through the stock cylinder bores and Cummins crankshaft maintaining the original 6.7L displacement. The modified short block was also treated to a Hamilton Cams camshaft to actuate the valves in the stock Cummins cylinder head that caps the block and is secured with ARP studs.
The intake charge is channeled into the cylinder through a billet aluminum machined Wagler Competition Products intake manifold with custom Tigwelded aluminum boost tubes that run to and from the cab mounted Chiseled Performance water-to-air intercooler. For more oomph Montesino also gives the Cummins a healthy shot of nitrous oxide. On the exhaust side of the Cummins a Stainless Diesel exhaust manifold sends spent gasses directly to a large Garrett GT55 95mm turbo charger that uses stainless steel tubing to direct the exhaust out of the engine bay through the front of the passenger fender. Fueling starts with a Waterman mechanical fuel pump that pulls plenty of #2 from the rear mounted Signature Metal Fab aluminum fuel cell, then hands it off to a pair of 12mm S&S Diesel Motorsport CP3 high pressure pumps. Both the Waterman pump and S&S CP3S are mounted to the D&J Precision Machine billet aluminum front cover. A set of 500 percent-over S&S Diesel Motorsport injectors are fed by the pair of CP3S.
TUNING
To control the potent 6.7L Cummins Montesino turned his attention once again to the team at S&S Diesel Motorsport and installed their stand-alone Bosch
ECU and DDU 9 digital display. The standalone ECU gives him complete control of the engine as well as all the rest of the truck’s electronics with tuning handling by fellow Floridian Ryan Milliken at Hardway Performance. Despite running a stock block, cylinder head, water cooling, and a single turbo they were still able to squeeze around 1,250 horsepower and
1,800 lbs-ft of torque (without nitrous) out of the Cummins to reliably propel the 4,000-plus pound Ranger down the 1/8mile in 4.88 seconds at 147 mph.
The Cummins engine is backed by a Rossler TH400 transmission that is built to handle the power and torque of the diesel race engine. A zero-drag Suncoast Converters torque converter with a top-secret stall speed is used to link the engine to the transmission through an SFI approved billet Suncoast flexplate that is contained within a Browell bell housing for additional driver safety. Power from the trans is handed
off to the Chassis Engineering rear axle through a Precision Shaft Technologies carbon fiber driveshaft while gear selection is handled by a Precision Performance Products air enhanced shifter that receives pressure directly from the nitrous bottle through a regulator.
As with most racers Montesino is continually striving to go faster so he has sent the Ranger back under the knife to become “Ranger 2.0” with Signature Metal Fab Racing handling the chassis work and Montesino handling the sheet metal work at his shop The Diesel Garage. When you see Ranger
2.0 hit the strip it will be a regular cab with a more aggressive back-half to the chassis and will be propelled by a new Cummins that features a dry block and Wagler Competition Products cylinder head clocking in at an estimated 1,650 horsepower with 2,000 lbs-ft of torque. The combined weight reduction efforts are expected to remove over 1,000 pounds from the total weight and combined with more power leaves Montesino hoping to run 4.00-4.20 1/8-mile ETS while competing in the Pro Mod class due to the lighter weight. So, keep an eye out for Ranger 2.0 but you better be sharp because it will be smaller and quicker!