Internet influencer Bryce Johnson claims to have a PhD in Burnout, and for good  reason. Odds are, if you’re watching this video, you have seen him terrorizing the streets of Missouri in his fourth-gen comings. His shenanigans helped to amass him over 400,000 followers on Instagram and tens of millions of views as well. But why is Bryce, and specifically his truck, so popular with the diesel truck community? In this video, we’re going to dive in and talk about who Bryce Johnson is, the full build on his Cummins, and why he and, specifically, the truck are so popular. Welcome back to Alen Diesel.
So, who is Bryce Johnson? Honestly, not a lot is known about him. All I know is that he’s a kid from Missouri, and the first time he popped up on my feed was actually on a Gab Barrel Productions YouTube video a couple of years ago. Gabe claims that he saw him racing a Mustang and was like, “I need to go be friends with this guy.” And then suddenly, he started to appear in more Gabe Feral Production videos, and his Instagram started to grow. But his social media growth really wasn’t just from Gabe. It was because every time he posted on the internet, it was something  ridiculous.
Nowadays, he is known for his insane burnouts and drifts, and for doing it in a full-size diesel truck. Switching gears, let’s dive into the truck build and talk about why it is so special. Bryce and I actually messaged back and forth on Instagram a little bit, and he actually was able to send me the full build list on his truck. So, here it is: It’s a 67 Cummins board, 20 over. It’s got Wagler rods, beans, girdle with ARP main studs, Hamilton 188/220 cam (which is ironically the same cam in my truck). The block and head are cut for fire rings. It’s got a Hamilton street head that flows 226 CFM, 110 lb. valve springs, threaded freeze plugs, Hamilton 9/16 push rods, 250% over Xtra G injectors, a 14 mil SNS CP3, a T6 comp, Steed Speed exhaust manifold, an S483 turbo (although at one point he did have compounds; I’m not sure the sizes of those), a fleece coolant bypass, a billet valve cover with dual breathers, a staging limiter, and he goes back and forth between a 5-in exhaust and a hood stack.
So, I know that was a lot of names and numbers, but let me simplify it for you. His build is basically a catalog build for around a 1,200 to 1,400 horsepower drag racing truck. And usually, the guys that you see that have this type of build are drag racers. All these engine upgrades allow the truck to handle high horsepower and high RPM for a long duration of time without hurting the motor.
Now, if we look at the suspension on the truck, it was actually reverse-leveled. I’m pretty sure he had some Carly control arms in the front. He also had a set of traction bars, and he had Yukon gears in the front and rear axle.
Now, taking a look at the transmission, this is super important. Unlike your normal fourth-gen Cummins that comes with a 68RFE or a G56, his truck had a 48RE swapped into it, which is the same transmission that my truck has. He paired that transmission with an external trans cooler, which is much needed if you’re going to be doing anything with that transmission. You have to have some sort of good cooling on it. And then, finally, he topped it off with a full manual valve body. Everything about that transmission setup I believe is key to why he got so popular, but more on that later.
And then, finally, the exterior of the truck: It was a beautiful Demonic Red, which is one of my favorite colors. It had a roll pan, it had a massive cowl hood (which I believe was custom). Often times, he would run spacers, which would make the thing look even more aggressive and wide. As far as rims and tires, he would often switch between a 24×12 American Force or a 24×14 American Force. Usually, he’d run it with some Giovanna tires—very similar to my setup. He had Rock lights on it, the Ford grille, which the Ford grille, in my opinion, is key to making your truck really look like a street truck. He had everything color-matched, and the window tint was pretty dark as well.
All right, so I’ve given you an overview on the build, but why was this truck so popular? In all honesty, there are a lot of guys that have built their truck like this—a lot of drag racers and a lot of guys that are into building street trucks. This is not necessarily an uncommon build. Well, I think it came down to three things: looks, drifting, and filming.
As we all know, on the internet, you need to stand out, and Bryce did this well. His truck looked the part. It looked like a nasty street truck. All of the upgrades I mentioned before, and how it looks, play a part in this—whether it’s the roll pan, the cowl hood, the spacers, the 24x14s, the Ford grille, everything being color-matched. He did a great job of following all the current truck trends, as well as pushing the limits on them.

The second thing that I think really helped to make him pop off is, honestly, his drifting. There’s a reason why when you see people competing with the Cummins, it’s usually only in drag racing, and that’s because that’s typically all it’s good for. A Dodge has a turning radius of a small ship. It’s not necessarily the thing you would think of when you’re thinking of carving up the canyons, if you know what I mean. But Bryce was basically like, “Oh, yeah,” he drifted his truck like it was a 240SX. He took a build that you would normally only see on a firepunk dies forum or maybe just only on the drag strip, and he actually took it into the real world and got it sideways. But he didn’t just drift; he drifted with style.
As I mentioned before, the truck had a staging limiter. Bryce was always on the limiter. He also had the full manual valve body. I want to talk for a second about this. I think the full manual valve body is one of the reasons why this truck did so well. Because when you have a 48RE, it’s a four-speed transmission. It does a great job of loading the turbos. It really gives the truck a unique sound and power band. But what’s awesome is that when you have the full manual valve body, you can actually keep the truck in the gear you want and keep it in the power band. The 48RE, in its natural state, honestly shifts way too early. But when you have a full manual valve body, it absolutely transforms how you can drive the truck.

I actually drove a very similar setup in Chris’s Mega Cab. He had a 67 that was built, 200% an S480, full manual valve body, all that stuff, very similar to Bryce’s build. And let me tell you what: It was like nothing I had ever driven before. There you go. All right, go. You get H over. Oh, my God. So, you put that in the hands of someone that knows what they’re doing and actually knows how to keep the truck in the power band. Oh, my gosh. It’s a dangerous combo. And I think that’s one of the reasons why his burnouts just had this style. There was just so much more smoke, and that was because he was able to actually get it into, like, third gear, lock, or maybe fourth gear, and actually get the wheel speed to actually get the tire smoke. So that while he’s moving, it’s not just drifting; it’s drifting with style.
Bryce usually had this thing hood stacked, which just makes for an insane sound. If you’ve not heard a 67 Cummins second-gen swap hood stack, it is deafening. But then he’d also switch it up occasionally for a 5-in exhaust, which, same thing: second-gen swap Cummins with a 5-in exhaust. Dude sounds like a Peterbilt. And then hearing that thing at like 4,000 or 5,000 RPM—I mean, it sounds so good.

The reality is, there’s a lot of people doing burnouts on Instagram. Bryce just did them better. And then, to get to my last point, the final reason why I think he did so well online is because, in a world where everything is normally filmed with phones, he actually had good filming for all of his clips. Shout-out to my boy Reaper Media, ’cause I’m pretty sure he was the one that helped him a lot with this. On the internet, it seemed everyone was filming their stuff with iPhones.