Meet Diesel World’s Next Project: A Cummins-Swapped F-450

A Quick Catch-Up

If you’ve been reading for a while, you probably saw our last project—Stock to Not. If you’re new to the magazine, S2N was a Marketplace find turned editorial build with the goal of making 700 WHP in our little 12-valve 2nd gen Ram. To keep a long story short, we went way further than expected, turning it into a full-blown frame-off build to showcase at the 2025 SEMA show, and it is now basically a fun weekend driver that we take to events to showcase just what Diesel World is all about. That being said, it’s not very long-trip friendly anymore with an S472 turbo and a spicy tractor engine, so it only gets used about 25-30 times a year.

New Beginnings

Insert our new-to-us 2008 F-450 King Ranch here. We don’t have a name for this truck yet, but what I can tell you is that it won’t ever be victimized by a 6.4 Power Stroke again. Catching my drift yet?

Seeing that everything we have in the stable vehicle-wise is unusable for towing, it was time to build something so we can show off more than one build when we go to shows. We have secured a 6.7L Cummins to power this 8,500-lb monster, and we’re working with Miller Built Diesel to bring the project to life; Randy’s Transmission to get a stout 5R we won’t have to worry about; Baldwin Performance to minimize and beautify our wiring; and Diesel Conversion Specialists to make this engine swap FULLY BOLT TOGETHER. Obviously, the 6.4L PS has its set of issues that we’re not willing to deal with, but DCS has been building engine kits since the mid 2000’s when 6.0 PowerStrokes came out. In that time, DCS has built a great reputation by keeping these older Ford trucks and tons of other platforms on the road with high-quality, easy-to-install parts to make any dead truck come back to life again.

The Details

I know everyone is always ready to go for big power with 6.7L Cummins trucks, but the goal for us is to have a reliable, comfortable tow pig to keep us and trucks like Stock To Not safe on the long trips we take. So, this editorial build will be keeping this engine around 600 HP. With the help of companies like FASS Fuel Systems, PMF Suspension, Fleece Performance, and Fluidyne High Performance, we are going to build a towing monster that should have no problems—no matter what the open road throws at us. As you are reading these words, we are wrenching away, getting this build ready to go. See you in the next update!

Photos by Tucker Harris