Even though the NASCAR Ford Racing teams were granted a new cylinder head at the end of the 2003 season, the piece has not yet made an appearance in a Cup event. Reliability testing is the final hurdle as the engine builders work to ensure that the new piece is as robust as the old one. The old head, with its roots dating back to the very early 1990’s, is certainly a proven piece that shows few failures in the casting. It is this reliability that Doug Yates and the Ford engine group are trying to translate into the new part. Slowing the process, however, is the fact that the teams need to race every week, and that alone creates a considerable amount of work with which the engine builders keep up. “Yes we have been working on the new heads. That’s what we see as our future,” Doug Yates told Team Ford Racing. “To this point we’ve worked extremely hard on our restrictor plate engines and did well and we’ve worked extremely hard at getting enough engines in the system to get to the race track with this current engine. That set us back a little bit on the production of our new engine. We know what we need and it’s coming soon. The problem right now is that we’ve got a pretty good package with that engine, we’ve just got to get the new package tested and race track proven before we jump out there and have problems. The number one goal is to not have any failures.” With event points as difficult as they are to come by Yates’ approach of maintaining reliability is vital. TFR asked Yates about the option of transient dyno cells, which can torture an engine using real data gathered from a test session to manipulate the throttle and load as it would if a driver was manipulating the pedal in the car. “We don’t have a transient dyno,” Yates said of his engine shop facilities. “Some of the teams do and that’s probably a real advantage. Ford Motor Company actually has one that’s at our disposal.” Yates then suggested that some ancillary issues could arise out of the use of a transient dyno, issues that could lead a builder on a wild chase. Giving an estimate as to when the new cylinder head might make its first appearance, Yates speculated, “I think Fontana is a pretty good date for when we need to have something on the race track. That’s four or five weeks out right now.”(in part from Ford Racing)(3-27-2004) UPDATE – More on Ford cylinder heads: Robert Yates, whose organization fields cars driven by Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler, is eager to run the new Team Ford Racing cylinder heads, but the current port heights don’t fit NASCAR regulations. Ford hopes the new engine can make its debut at the May 2 race at California Speedway.(FoxSports/Sporting News)(3-29-2004)
