Also surprisingly stock is the cooling system, including the water pump. An air pocket forms in the cylinder heads during the coolant fill, according to John, and his cure is to drill an orifice between the outside water jacket and the cylinder head, across the top side of the exhaust seats to discharge the air pocket behind the exhaust seat. "If you could stand the engine up when filling it, this would not be an issue," he says.
Engine management is a speed- density design from EFI Technology, a respected system in professional racing circles. John says its Windows-based software is user-friendly, and it's self-learning from Lambda input (closed loop). It can apply its closed-loop memory to the default programming map, if desired, so it helps write its own software, if you will.
Durability was the goal in...
Durability was the goal in prepping the heads. The guides were allknocked out and replaced with Yates-spec bronze pieces, and the exhaustseats were replaced with Tucker Engineering chrome steel inserts. Thestock intake seat is retained. Here we see a head in the middle of thevalve job. This work also allows Robert to locate the valve centerlineand seat concentricity to his specifications.
The ignition is stock Mercury Marauder coil-on-plug "or whatever we can get our hands on." That's another way of saying most of the late-model coil-on-plug Ford ignitions are the same, so a Cobra ignition would be the same thing. Bosch spark plugs and stock '03 supercharged Mustang Cobra injectors are used. Another stock part is the half-speed, or cam-position, sensor. The crank trigger is a modified SHM or billet RYR part depending on the engine.
The stainless steel 4-2-1 headers are from Burns Stainless Exhaust. The only issue was going a bit wide to clear the external oil pump.
So Far
By our deadline, the single Multimatic Motorsports car fielded had only run the Daytona 24 Hours, finishing Fourth overall and First in class. A minor problem kept the team from the overall win, so the trend seems positive.
Indeed, the indications point to a powerful, durable sports car engine from the modular family. FRPP has to be pleased to finally have the Four-Valve step up to big-time racing and begin what will certainly be decades of development. When will it become the Winston Cup engine? "The day the manufacturers insist on it," Robert Yates says. "They would have to all walk in the door and say unanimously, 'We want it,' and then it would happen in a couple of years. You could take it to the restrictor tracks first, and help bring it along.... I think we'll see it in the next five years. It really is up to Detroit."
Winston Cup rumors say Toyota is currently providing the technology push. It's already announced its NASCAR race truck, and word is Toyota's goal is Winston Cup in 2007, with fuel injection. It's all part of a plan to win everything that runs at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, according to the buzz.
In the meantime, you can keep leading the technology way, now knowing the big boys are beginning to take your lead. 5.0
 Three transducers for the...  Three transducers for the EFI Technology engine-management system arerubber shock-mounted on the rear of the intake. At left is a MAP sensor,at center is an oil-pressure sensor, and at right is a fuel-pressuresensor. Aerospace mil-spec connectors and custom wiring are featuredthroughout the management system. |
 Let's remember that RYR Engines...  Let's remember that RYR Engines invented the "Yates" cylinder headspowering all those Windsor overachievers out there and the company isimpressed with the airflow from these FR500 castings. Straight out ofthe FRPP catalog, these heads get light casting cleanup, minimalexhaust-port roof-exit modification and an RYR valve job, of course. At"only" 7,000 rpm and with such small 38x32mm valves, a heavy, durableFerrea stainless steel, stock height valve package is used. "I can'ttell you anything about the springs," Robert says, referring to thesecrecy around trick, high-rpm valve springs these days. At least weknow the retainers are 7-degree, single-groove Stealth titanium units,and that the head's spring seat is enlarged to accept larger-diameterRYR springs. In case you think GrandAm's 0.500-inch valve-liftlimitation is weenie, the boys let out that they've packaged the modularengine to accept a 0.670-inch lift, and with such lift and full porting,these heads outflow the current WC stuff. There's real beast potentialhere. In Le Mans Prototype 900 trim, for example, this engine is legalat two-bar supercharged, without restrictors. Yikes! |
 In Special Projects, Robert...  In Special Projects, Robert has this Neven valve and seat machine tohand-build his heads. This is low rent by WC standards, and once theFour-Valve head design is stabilized, all porting, streamlining andvalve seat cutting will be done in one operation on RYR Engine'sCNC-machining centers--way trick. Robert says the valve job is worth 35percent of the flow of a cylinder head. Out-of-the-box flow is greatwith the FR500 heads, but it can change dramatically with the height ofthe valve job--where the valve seat is sunk into the chamber or port, inother words. |
 Robert has both Sean Hyland...  Robert has both Sean Hyland and FRPP experimental cams in-house. Yatesused the Ford cams, such as this one, at Daytona. These are expensivebillet cams, not composite units such as the stock modulars use. Thecomposite cams are good, says RYR, but the desired valvetrain geometryand lobe profiles aren't available in that construction. The SHM methodof grinding down the base circle and using a longer valve to get lift isalso not viable for endurance racing because of the resultingvalve/rocker geometry, according RYR. That's more of a drag racingtrick. |