FR100 - TOASTING THE PAST, TUNING THE FUTURE

During the past few seasons, Ford Racing Technology (FRT) has built several unique project cars to demonstrate new, soon-to-be-released Ford Racing catalog parts. Car and Driver called FRT's FR500 Mustang, the first of these unique projects, "greater than the sum of its parts." Motor Trend retaliated with an outlandish comparison between FRT's FR200 Focus and the highly rated Corvette Z06 (in which the feisty Ford prevailed on race circuit and slalom course events). So how could the future possibly top that extraordinary past? The answer is, ironically, by looking to the more-distant past.

Never one to rest on accomplishment, FRT director Dan Davis tapped his best and brightest experts, the same individuals who concocted the FR500 and FR200 projects, to come up with something genuinely sensational for 2002. With direction from Davis, project leaders Tom Berkery and Jon Giles along with their FR500/FR200 colleagues transformed an original 1953 F-100 into Ford Racing's thundering poster child of classic Ford pickup truck enthusiasm. With contemporary design touches, a new chassis, and a hot 5.0L-4V engine, the FR100 has the power and agility to run at the front of the pack, a position not unfamiliar to Ford Racing's personnel.

5.0L “CAMMER” CRATE ENGINE
"We've sold thousands of crate engines over the years to those who appreciate the convenience of factory-engineered horsepower," Dan Davis says. "We've also learned that presenting a new product on an engine stand at a car show isn't the best means of rousing their interest and excitement. Instead, it's far more effective to package a new engine in a living, breathing vehicle that can be seen and driven in order to provide an accurate look at the performance potential engineered into the new parts. We picked a classic truck as the showcase here because it's both eye-catching and something any enthusiast can relate to. The F-Series is celebrating its 55th birthday, and we've noticed a lot of our customers are building classic hot-rod trucks, so we felt that building up a '53 with modern performance and technology was the perfect project to follow our Mustang and Focus efforts."

Davis continues, "The original approach to crate engines was to make several modifications to our standard production engines before offering them to customers. That business is thriving and it will continue, but the FR100 is about to help us motor down an entirely different path. We're convinced that our passionate customers will be interested in Ford's all-aluminum, overhead-cam, 4-valve engines for their vintage Mustangs, street rods, or classic truck projects. So that's precisely where we're heading. The FR100 is simultaneously a celebration of an epic moment in Ford's truck-making past and the means of demonstrating the performance of one of the most technologically advanced crate engines any manufacturer has ever offered.

"Modern engines with sophisticated electronic controls to regulate fuel and ignition tend to intimidate even experienced builders," Davis elaborates. "Getting a computer-controlled engine to run properly in a vintage Mustang, a street rod, or a classic pickup can be a royal hassle. And the last thing we aspire to is retrograding these engineering marvels with old-fashioned carburetors and distributors. So we are stepping up to the challenge of supplying not only a truly modern crate engine but also the peripheral equipment necessary to make it run at the head of the pack. We know we're pioneers in this area, but it's perfectly clear that this is where our customers are heading, and we intend to make their journey a genuine pleasure. There's no reason why our crate engines shouldn't start and run and perform as well in an aftermarket setting as the engines in production automobiles and trucks do."

The underlying theory is simple: "Essentially we're building on the race wins and customer excitement already generated by the SVT Mustang Cobra 4.6L-4V engine," Davis says. "The market isn't huge at the moment, but there's no doubt that this is the future for tuners, project-vehicle builders, and aftermarket car and truck enthusiasts. We intend to grow with their interest in overhead-cam technology.

"The combination of five liters of piston displacement with all-aluminum construction yields an engine that's ideal for a broad range of applications. It will be a fantastic value to those who want top performance, a slick under hood appearance, and excellent driveability without the hassles attached to carburetors and distributors."

Raise the hood on any modular-powered Mustang Cobra and the starting point for Ford Racing's new crate engine is revealed in all its glory. What you don't see are the notable engineering changes to practically every major component–block, heads, pistons, camshafts, intake manifold–to prepare for life under the hood of a tuned, restored, or modified vintage Mustang, a hand-built street rod, or a performance-prepped classic pickup truck.

Andy Schwartz, the engineer responsible for the mods, provided a guided tour of the ins and outs of those alterations: "To maximize customer value, we changed as little as possible. But a change here inevitably prompts an alteration there, so the 5.0L Cammer Crate Engine is more of a cousin than a brother to the 4.6L-4V V-8 we know and love.

"A key difference in the block is an increase in the cylinder bore dimension from 90.2mm to 94mm," Schwartz says. "In combination with the standard 89.9mm stroke, that yields the 5.0 liters of piston displacement we targeted. The larger bore is provided by a new thin-wall, flanged cylinder liner, which is still a dry design (surrounded by aluminum block material, not coolant). In addition to specific machining changes necessary to accommodate the new cylinder liners, the 5.0-liter block also differs from the 4.6L-4V design in the web areas of the crankcase. We've added some iron chills in the casting molds to enhance the material properties in critical areas for added strength. One thing that hasn't changed is the block's deep-skirt configuration with six attachment bolts (four vertical, two horizontal) per main bearing cap."

Schwartz continues, "In the interests of bulletproof reliability, we switched from cast to forged pistons. Carl Schmidt, a highly respected engine-components supplier, manufactures them in the U.S. Forgings offer the best available high-temperature fatigue strength. The compression ratio is 11.0:1, and Sealed Power supplies the ring package.

"The head gaskets are engineered with multi-layer steel to work with the flanged cylinder liners. The heads themselves are different from the 4.6L-4V design mainly in the port areas. We've revised both the intake and exhaust passages for enhanced airflow. Some water-jacket changes were also necessary due to the larger ports. The shape of the combustion chamber has not been altered.

"New intake and exhaust cams used with the new heads provide 12mm of valve lift versus 10mm in the 4.6L-4V. Duration is about the same, but the cams are installed on slightly different centerlines, which change the amount of overlap. Cam grinding is handled in-house. The beehive-shaped valve springs are unique to this application to accommodate the higher lift. The major difference in the intake and exhaust valves is a relocated keeper groove. Head diameters are unchanged, though we did revise the shape of the intake valve slightly to increase airflow. Since the valve springs are slightly longer, modifications to the roller finger-followers were also necessary."

The rest of the top end is unique. "The 5.0L Cammer has an all-new intake manifold with several interesting attributes," Schwartz says. "It's a 3-piece design cast in magnesium to save nearly 10 pounds of weight. There's an upper cover that also supports the throttle body, a middle section consisting mainly of eight runners, and a lower component that supports the injectors and mates to the cylinder heads. This manifold is a compound design providing long runners for maximum low-rpm punch and short runners to optimize high-rpm output. An electric actuator controlled by the engine computer switches airflow from long to short runners at 4500 rpm. The throttle body is a standard Mustang Cobra dual-bore design. The top-feed, dual-cone-spray fuel injectors supplied by Bosch have a higher fuel-flow capacity than the corresponding 4.6L-4V hardware."

Customers will inevitably want to fabricate exhaust headers and an oil pan to suit their individual applications. To seal out contamination, the 5.0L Cammer Crate Engine is supplied with standard production exhaust manifolds and the same oil pan fitted to Mustang Cobras. That pan is very shallow in front and deep in back. Customers will be able to choose between a flywheel and a flexplate to suit the type of transmission they intend to use.

Without a hint of hype, Schwartz delivers pronouncements from the dyno room like a Sunday preacher offering thanks for a bountiful offering: "The 5.0L Cammer delivers a healthy 425-430 horsepower at 6700 rpm. The torque curve peaks with 370 lb-ft at 4000 rpm. The fuel cut-off is programmed at 7000 rpm." If this doesn't move a few Ford project cars and trucks into pole position at street meets all over America, Schwartz will eat his tattered -- but prized -- old Nantucket baseball cap. Continue