Everham speaks out

[roodypoo]

Dodge's New Engine Full Speed Ahead

Richmond, Va., July 14 — Despite some apparent reservations by NASCAR, Dodge continues full-speed-ahead with its blueprint engine as it prepares to enter Winston Cup racing in 2001.

Dodge unlimbered a second iteration of the new pieces during its three-day test this week at Kentucky Speedway – what it is calling the "second phase" engine – and is not at all considering the engine it uses in Craftsman Trucks, as NASCAR occasionally has suggested.

Gary Nelson, NASCAR technical director, hinted last month at Dover that he'd rather Dodge refine its wedge Truck engine than to present a new piece.

"They've got an engine that is running currently in a NASCAR series that seems to be doing well," Nelson said, adding that, at the time, he had seen no parts for the new engine. "If they want something new, they need to bring it to us. If they want to run what they've got now, they know it's already approved."

Ted Flack, head of engine development for Dodge Motorsports, said Friday that the Truck engine was never considered. "There's no thought at all of running a Truck engine in Cup," he said. "It would take a major catastrophe for us to do that.

"I talk to him every week," Flack said, stressing that he is working closely with NASCAR on the project. "He himself has not seen the parts, but others from NASCAR have."

Flack continues to stress that the engine has been designed according to Chrysler "corporate dimensions" in place since 1955, although he will not give them out. The two most contentious of those are the 6in camshaft height (a good bit higher than that of Ford and GM) and broader spacing of the cylinder centers, allowing for much more overbore.

The result is a longer, heavier block, Flack notes. The top-end package will be much more similar to that of the GM SB2 (including the critical dimension of port height) than to that of the Ford.

The second phase, Flack said, is a refinement of the prototype, with certain components now in defined positions.

"With the first blocks and heads, we did a few things just to hurry us along," he said. "We had extra metal all over the place. If we didn't know exactly what we wanted to do, we just put a chunk of metal in."

An example is the tappet gallery. As Dodge closes on what it needs in valve cant, rocker shape and pushrod placement, it has been able to produce a cleaner casting, allowing for precise machining. That, he said, is the second phase.

The first concern is durability, Flack said. He noted that the engine was run 500 miles with three drivers (Bill Elliott, Casey Atwood, Steve Grissom) at Kentucky and held up well, although "it's not a rocket ship," he said.

As for the restricted engine, which will be used in Dodge's debut at Daytona, Flack said, "We're just starting. We don't have any engines running. But most of the guys working on it are pretty comfortable with what they've got to do with restricted engines. Our concern right now is more with mechanical durability."

Dodge also received a new set of body templates from NASCAR for this test, although it is not known how much they differ from the Taurus templates it used to get started.

Program director Ray Evernham said he was content with the progress of the project.

"We weren't here to go fast," he said from Kentucky. "We wanted to make sure the engine worked and that we had the endurance. Next we'll work on going fast. We had no mechanical problems with either car."

Evernham and Flack said the next test for car and engine will be in two weeks, either at Kentucky or at Greenville-Pickens Raceway in South Carolina. — Ben Blake, Senior Editor, RACER

found this at [url="http://www.speedvision.com/pub/articles/racing/02NASCAR/000714a.html"]http://www.speedvision.com/pub/articles/racing/02NASCAR/000714a.html[/u