Here is a shot of the new Mustang in Larry Larson’s MO. shop still on the chassis jig with a engine between the rails for mock-up.
The engine is based upon a 2007 Ford GT-500 engine that displaced 330 ci modular engine that now displaces 323 inches via a 3.700 bore and a Kellogg crankshaft with a 3.750 stroke. The engine design is basically the brainchild of Aeromotive’s Brett Clow, who as crew chief manages the entire engine program from turbos to tuning to engine assembly /maintenance and cylinder head port design. VT Engine and Development helped us choose a block and heads, did all the extensive machining required and educated us on how to assemble and maintain these mod engines including timing the cams.
Here is a close look at one of the heads used on t he VT engine. Notice the special built Camshaft and the “Beehive” springs from Comp Cams. The engine also uses”one-off”custom valves from Ferrea. They twist the motor 9200rpm and so far have never had a vavle train failure of any kind
Speaking of the cams, they were designed by Billy Godbold at Comp Cams with help from Kenny Duttweiler. Ours is the first Ford Mod engine that has successfully used a solid roller cam follower. Additionally our cams are probably .050” larger than any cam ever used in this type of engine. We have already turned the engine over 9,200 RPMs with no valvetrain issues, which is not possible with the hydraulic cam followers. The power provider for the 2000+ hp small block comes from a pair of turbos from Precision Turbo’s Harry Hruska. And a fuel injection system from FAST.
The ignition system on this engine is unique. Brad Waddle owner of Innovators West is responsible for designing and building the complex drive unit for the front mount distributor we decided to use. Our lack of experience driving coils instead of the tried and true distributor caused us to think less is more; let’s keep the ignition as basic and bullet proof as possible. The problem is this engine has never had a distributor. The packaging and aesthetics with running the distributor off of one of the cams concerned us so we wanted to run a belt drive. We decided to drive the distributor off of the crankshaft causing us to have to reduce the speed by 50%. MSD furnished the distributor, wires and MSD-8 ignition box.