We put the Blue Collar Champion back on the dyno to settle a question a lot of Cummins guys argue about in the diesel performance world. Does a bigger injection pump actually make more power, or can a smaller plunger with the right injection window beat it. We ran two pumps back to back on the same truck, same turbo, same day, to find out for real.
The truck started on a 12.5 millimeter plunger pump running an Aggressor 67-9 turbo. We dialed in the fueling first, adding and pulling fuel to make sure we squeezed everything out of it before locking in a solid baseline on the dyno.
Then we swapped in the new PDD Pump, an experimental build using a 12 millimeter DLC coated plunger and a true 215 cam, the idea being you can take almost any Dodge pump body and turn it into a modded 215 style pump with the right internals. Same timing, same turbo, same day, no other variables changed.
This ties into the injection rate theory that's been floating around the Cummins and diesel tuning world for years. A bigger plunger can move more fuel volume in a shorter window, but it also comes with more parasitic loss driving the pump and more strain on cam gears at higher RPM. Whether that tradeoff actually pays off in real power is exactly what we're testing here.
Neither pump was fully maxed on fuel during this test, which matters when you're weighing plunger size against turbo capability on any diesel truck build. We break down what that means for anyone deciding between a 12mm and 12.5mm setup depending on their power goals.
Watch the full pull to see how it turned out, and subscribe so you don't miss the next one.
Shop everything mentioned in this video at PowerDriven.com, including the DLC coated plungers and 215 cam setup used in this test.
Shop Power Driven Diesel: https://www.powerdriven.com
0:00 Intro and setup for the pump swap test
0:34 Explaining the new 215 style modded pump concept
1:08 History with big pumps and the injection rate theory
2:04 Parasitic loss versus injection pressure tradeoff
3:15 Current setup, Aggressor 67-9 turbo
4:02 First baseline pull on the 12.5mm pump
4:22 Adjusting fuel to confirm the baseline number
6:11 Removing the 12.5mm pump
6:17 Installing the new PDD Pump
7:19 Pump swap complete, predictions before the pull
8:21 First pull on the PDD Pump
10:15 Reviewing the dyno graphs side by side
11:16 Bigger parts versus smarter parts discussion
Power Driven Diesel is a specialty performance shop engaged in the engineering and development of high-performance turbo diesel technologies.
Contact Us:
435-962-9555
info@powerdrivendiesel.com
https://powerdriven.com
https://www.facebook.com/powerdrivendiesel/
https://www.instagram.com/powerdrivendiesel