When friend and fellow TV personality, Ian Johnson, offered Kevin Tetz of Hands On Cars the ISV 5.0L Cummins V-8 taking up space in the corner of the shop, Kevin’s C10 project instantly became anything but a run-of-the-mill repower.

Ian (pointing at the 2016 Nissan Titan take-out engine): “Let’s put this in it.”

Kevin: “Can we make it run?”

Ian: “I think so!”

And that was that. Now, countless hours of mock up, fabrication, powder coat, paint, wiring, and wrenching later, you could say the truck known as “C-Tane” runs pretty darn good. Thanks to CTT Tuning, our 5-blade S366, and top-notch fabricating from CFT Performance, roughly 600 hp and 1,000 lb-ft of torque is on tap. Packed into a sub-3,900-pound overall package, the Pro Touring C10 has no problem getting up to speed—and never seems to run out of steam once it gets there. Thanks to the Cummins’ positioning within the truck (26-inches of setback), C-Tane also boasts a 49/51 weight bias. “I like my vehicles to handle, and this one starts, stops, and steers tremendously,” Kevin tells us.


Boost is built with the same Stainless S300 that’s been proven to support 600rwhp in Titan XD applications (and 750 to 800rwhp in Ram heavy duties). The 66mm inducer, 5-blade billet compressor wheel is driven by a 74mm turbine wheel inside a .91 A/R housing on the exhaust side. The stainless steel up-pipes that feed the turbo’s T-4 divided inlet were fabbed up by CFTPerformance, along with the 3-inch intercooler piping that routes more than 40 psi of boost to and from a bar-and-plate Summit Racing intercooler.

A Titanium series lift pump system from FASS supports the factory CP4.2 in the valley, which passes fuel on to the stock injectors in the aluminum heads. Other than the high-flow turbo system, the only other performance-related engine mod is a ported factory intake manifold. Believe it or not, the 5.0L V-8 is backed by a two-wheel drive version of the Aisin A466ND, the same six-speed automatic offered in ’16-’19 Cummins-powered Titans. But despite being stuck with the factory TCM calibration and OEM internals, the Aisin has yet to skip a beat with 1,000 lb-ft of twist bearing down on it.

In venturing outside the box, Kevin has pieced together the only 5.0L Cummins-powered Chevy C10 in existence. Trust us, in an age where the words “one-of-a-kind” are routinely overplayed in the automotive hobby, his uncommon swap represents the true meaning of what it means to be unique.

Watch this build on AMAZON PRIME

Listen to his interview THE DIESEL PODCAST