Here's Why Westen Champlin's Ford Mustang Is An Insane Towing Monster

Westen Champlin's 2016 Ford Mustang now has a boosted 6.1-liter Cummins diesel engine as its heart, boasting over 2,200 lb-ft of monstrous torque.

As the perennial pony car, the Ford Mustang has been the choice for drivers looking for sports-oriented straight-line performance. Even the feature-rich 2024 Ford Mustang Dark Horse offers monstrous levels of acceleration and speed.

But this Ford Mustang belonging to content creator Westen Champlin isn't a sprinting machine but an insane towing monster with a diesel engine inside. Because of the ability to produce a great amount of torque, diesel engines such as Power Stroke, Duramax, and Cummins are still in demand among customers needing a lot of towing.

Westen's Mustang comes with a Cummins diesel engine. These diesel mills are some of the most powerful and reliable engines in the world. These engines usually power heavy-duty trucks, buses, and agricultural vehicles. Ram employs Cummins diesel in its pickup trucks, but Ford doesn't plonk these engines into its muscle cars. Thus, placing a Cummins diesel in a Mustang is an insane act – sometimes that Westen can pull off.

RELATED: This Ford Mustang Diesel Now Has More Horsepower Than The Hennessey Venom 1200

Westen Champlin has been one of the more creative YouTubers in the car world. He loves to play beyond normal with his vehicles. He isn't as insane as WhistlinDiesel, whose every vehicle purchase makes people nervous because of his destructive antics. Westen, on the other hand, is a gentle kind who can't get enough of his vehicles and tries to tinker with them whenever possible.

This definitely isn't the first time that Westen toyed with his vehicles. Moreover, this isn't the first time that he shoehorned a diesel engine in his 2016 S550 Mustang. He bought this Mustang three years to serve as a parts source for his 2017 Mustang GT. But Westen thought that fitting a Cummins diesel into his Mustang was a cooler deal. A year later, the Cummins Mustang named SmokeStang came to life.

Westen's original Cummins Mustang build featured a 6BT 5.9 liter, straight-six Cummins diesel engine sourced from a 1989 Dodge Ram Heavy Duty pickup, 230 hp of max output, and 440 lb-ft of torque. Prior to this, it was powering some farm equipment. This wasn't an easy build since Westen had to deal with multiple trials and errors before finally getting things right.

A Cummins diesel engine isn't meant for a Mustang, and vice versa. The mill was too heavy for SmokeStang, causing weight distribution issues and steering problems while cracking the transmission. When the newly born SmokeStang was finally ready to roam the world, it was wearing a Shelby GT500 hood and spewing around 1,000 hp thanks to turboboost and several modifications.

Interestingly, Westen stopped providing YouTube updates over his Cummins Mustang months ago. His more recent videos include his other Ford Mustang, which underwent an engine transplant. This Mustang blew its 1,500-hp big block engine around 10 months ago. Westen decided to replace the damaged mill with a new 2,000-hp custom-blown big block engine -- the same one used in monster trucks, alcohol dragsters, and Australian burnout cars.

The Cummins Mustang, however, made a sudden appearance on Westen's YouTube channel. This time, it was sporting a new Cummins diesel engine. According to Westen, the previous engine already has over 300,000 miles on it. It was still operational, but it was down on power. So, Westen decided it was about time to give SmokeStang a new heart – a new 12-valve Cummins engine.

Westen had the transplant done at Power Driven Diesel's garage in Utah – or around 1,100 miles away from his base. As dyno’ed the old Cummins engine was registering 600 hp of output and 1,500 lb-ft of torque on the wheel. Shoehorning the new Cummins mill wasn't a simple task, but it looked easy, especially when the Mustang was already set up for a diesel heart.

RELATED: Why We Think Westen Champlin's SmokeStang Is The Coolest Youtuber Build Ever

The look of excitement on Westen's face was very apparent while he was waiting for Power Driven Diesel to complete their job. They had the goal of making the new 6.1-liter Cummins diesel engine twice as powerful as the old mill. Following some tinkering after fitting the turbo, it was now time to know how powerful the new engine was.

On the third pull on the dyno, Power Driven Diesel recorded the Cummins Mustang registering 1,264 hp of max output and 2,273 lb-ft of torque. Since the dyno recorded the output and torque numbers on the wheel, the power that the Cummins engine generated on the crank should be a lot more. Taking into account the power lost as it traveled through the drivetrain -- at around 15% -- SmokeStang ‘s heart is producing around 1,500 hp of max output on the crank.

Of course, 2,200 lb-ft of torque is hand-down monstrous! It is more than three times the amount of torque that the Ford F-150 Raptor R pumps. To compare, the F-150 Raptor R's 640 lb-ft of torque can tow up to 8,200 lbs.

Moreover, the SmokeStang, with its old Cummins engine (torque unknown), managed to pull a 40,000 cement truck. That's around the same towing capacity as an F-450 Super Duty with 1,200 lbs of torque!

Source: Westen Champlin on YouTube, Cummins, Ford

Julybien Atadero writes from the island of Cebu covering various automotive topics including new sports cars, classic muscles, pickup trucks and SUVs. While I like peace and quiet, I love playing with my kid. When I have nothing else to do, I watch documentaries and animations.