UPDATE: Banks Supercharged Diesel Shows Off Water Injection

UPDATE: Banks Supercharged Diesel Shows Off Water Injection

Mike Magda
March 8, 2014

httpv://youtu.be/upSeQfRgkx0

Update: Banks Power just posted another video demonstrating more dyno testing on the supercharged Duramax. In a very rare view, the intake throat of the Whipple supercharger is exposed so that flow patterns from the twin water-methanol injectors can be observed. The closeup of the Whipple internals while the engine is running also offers a earful of supercharger whine!

A big V8 diesel with dragster-style supercharger and zoomie headers?

It not only looks cool, it sounds like no other Duramax with those open pipes and blower whine.

Image/s missing.

This beast comes from Gale Banks performance shop and will power the company’s Sidewinder 276-inch-wheelbase top diesel dragster. The video above shows and early startup and break-in, but it’s just a teaser of the fury yet to come. Banks is looking for 1,500 horsepower at an incredible 6,500 rpm.

The previous Sidewinder engine was a twin-turbo setup that fed the air charge into an imposing Boss Hoss intake manifold. The new 427ci engine is based on a Duramax LML block. Internals include a billet crankshaft, Carrillo rods and Mahle pistons. A 7-stage dry-sump system handles lubrication and scavenging. The LML cylinder head castings received a full Banks CNC port job and are topped by a custom billet intake that supports a 4-liter Whipple twin-screw supercharger. Fuel is fed to the injectors via twin pumps that are belt-driven off the crank. Shots of nitrous and water-methanol are available, as needed.

Note the 7-stage dry-sump pump and the imposing front drive system that turns twin fuel pumps, the oil pump and the supercharger. Supercharger overdrive is about 3:1.

More information about the engine if forthcoming as testing continues and dragster is prepped for Top Diesel competition. But for now you can enjoy a totally different sound from a competition oil burner!

The previous Sidewinder engine was a twin-turbo Duramax.