Gearheads seeking advice or even entertainment about their favorite subject online have a wide range of options these days, from Garage Monkey proprietor and wildman Richard Rawlings to button-down auto review Doug DeMuro. But those looking for more of a back-woods, seat-of-the-pants perspective on auto restoration, however, need not look much further than Kansas-based good ol' boy Westen Champlin, a jolly, self-deprecating mechanic whose quest for more power often gets him into hilarious predicaments. Still, despite his humor and shenanigans, Champlin often has to settle for backseat status every time he showcases his scene-stealing pride and joy, a Cummins diesel engine-powered Ford Mustang he fondly calls the Smokestang.
Cummins Diesel Engine Powers This Mustang
That is, if you can see it. Champlin modded a 2016 S550 Mustang with a 12-valve, 5.9 liter, straight six Cummins diesel engine that, when revved up, emits a huge billowing cloud of black smoke from a jury-rigged exhaust system poking out of the engine bay. It took a great deal of sweat equity and trial and error for Champlin to actually make this otherwise insane swap happen, given that the Cummins, designed specifically for farm machinery, was last seen in a 1989 Dodge Ram Heavy Duty pickup. In a lot of ways, Champlin's swap was akin to surgeons transplanting an elephant's heart into the chest of a hapless human.
Fortunately for the citizens of Kansas, medicine isn't Champlin's forte, and needless to say, he's had a number of issues trying to make his Smokestang a reality. The car oozed fluids with alarming regularity. The extra poundage of the Cummins created weight distribution issues for the Mustang, creating problems with braking and steering. All that power at one point popped off the exhaust, which went flying into the air. It suffered a cracked transmission at one point.
When he painstakingly tried to add a pair of Aggressor 80s turbochargers to the engine, he had to customize the mounting, only to see the turbos leak and the radiator overheat when he took his retooled Mustang for a test drive. And when he thought his pride and joy of a Ford was ready to go the distance, the engine still proved to be too much for the vehicle, which spilled a cascade of coolant out of the radiator, suffered a sticky throttle, and destroyed a drive belt. Folks who tend to mod their cars on a whim tend to live on the edge most of the time.
This S550 Is A Kansas Legend
But for all the trouble it's caused Champlin, who usually takes everything in stride and moves on with an "aw-shucks" attitude towards his builds, the Smokestang has turned him into a major celebrity on YouTube. After roughly three years since first launching, Champlin's channel has accumulated more than 2.5 million subscribers, with videos involving his refurbished Ford sometimes reaching a million views. There's no doubt that the Kansas mechanic enjoys the attention and the looks he gets from passers-by who stop to gape at his Mustang monstrosity.
Grabbing all those online eyeballs enables Champlin to treat viewers to a few other exercises of his ingenuity, such as teaching his Ford Raptor how to fly (so to speak), building a racetrack in his backyard, or removing the exhaust from a Caterpillar school bus that he slightly wrecked when driving it through a creek bed. "If that ain't redneck science, I don't know what is," said Champlin before shimmying underneath the bus to execute the amputation maneuver.
Admittedly, Champlin's way of going about things, like building his Smokestang, are as far as erudite as you can get, making it easier for viewers to relate to such a character. And Champlin is a unique character, not only in his demeanor, but in creating a vehicle so original it's a top-draw conversation piece around his part of Kansas and online everywhere else.
Westen's Mustang Even Beat Cleetus McFarland
The Smokestang has provided Champlin with several perks as well, like accepting an offer from a movie studio to film his favorite car pulling a cement truck, or taking on racer Cleetus McFarland in a diesel-ingesting drag race on a Texas strip. Champlin seemed understandably nervous, since he's a novice at drag racing compared to the more seasoned McFarland, a wise-cracking Floridian who brought with him a Cummins-powered 1965 Ford Galaxie to challenge the good-natured Kansan.
While pondering his odds, Champlin deduced that if the Smokestang could remain in one piece once it hit the 1,300-rpm mark, he would have a chance at beating his opponent. When the two gunned down the quarter-miler, the billows of black smoke between the combatants, blinded all the folks in attendance as they squinted through the haze to see who won. McFarland's Galaxie originally built up a convincing lead until Champlin edged him at the finish line.
One of America's best-known gearhead underdogs in a Ford once relegated for scrap had taken on a recognized champion and won, although he blew a head gasket in the process. For all those misadventures, you can't help but love Champlin and his prized Smokestang.
Sources: Westen Champlin via Youtube