Courtesy of Engine Builder, by Evan Laux
Some of the best messages we get here at Engine Builder Magazine are from loyal readers who are appreciative of our content and get inspired by other people’s builds. Building an engine is a huge investment of time and money, and seeing people who aren’t as invested in the industry partake in a build is super cool to see.
We recently received a message from Eric Lucy of Abingdon, VA about a build he has been working on for some time.
“I hoped you and Engine Builder Mag might be interested in this 12v build my 16 (almost 17) year-old son and I have been working on together,” he said in an email. “He’s an aspiring mechanic, and I’m a full-time LEO supervisor for the town where we live. I cut my teeth building cars in the early ’90s and 2000s, doing everything from imports to classic muscle.
“I have a 2010 F-250 King Ranch crew cab as my side hustle truck and all around go-getter with a 6.4L Powerstroke diesel in it. I had it somewhat bulletproofed, deleted, EGR bypassed, etc. right away (I had a 6.0L Powerstroke before that…) but had not addressed the pistons. I was running a KEM custom tune on a Patriot tuner for towing about two years ago, towing a tractor back from Pennsylvania when one of the pistons finally blew through.”
Lucy knew that fixing the 6.4L would be expensive, and he’d always dreamed of throwing a Cummins in it, so that’s what he did. One of his friends who owns a local towing company had recently traded a used truck for a brand-new 12v 6BT Cummins long block that had been sealed in a trailer for years. He gave Lucy an offer he couldn’t refuse, and the build started right away.
