FR9: Ford’s Historic New NASCAR Small Block

Hours after Carl Edwards took the checkered flag at the season-ending Ford 400, Ford Racing engineer David Simon and Roush-Yates Engines employees were already back at work on a major project: an all-new Ford NASCAR engine for 2009. Code-named “FR9,” it’s the first purpose-built NASCAR racing engine to ever come out of Ford Motor Company.

As with any race engine program, the parts and pieces eventually find their way into other forms of racing. The “Yates” Cylinder Head developed in the early 1990’s is very popular with today’s Mustang drag racers. Ford Racing’s C3 and D3 NASCAR cylinder head is finding its way to the drag racing market too.

With “Pro 5.0” founding father Brian Wolfe at the helm of Ford Racing and Doug Yates looking outside of NASCAR for new business, the FR9 could be between the frame rails of a Mustang Outlaw drag car in a couple of years.

In the 1960s, Ford had a lot of success building racing engines off mainstream production blocks and heads. The “FE” engines were competitive from the start, powering such drivers as Ned Jarrett and David Pearson to championships. During the 1970s, when NASCAR mandated a 358-cubic-inch limit, Ford’s “Cleveland” V-8 engine was called into duty.

To say that Ford Racing has done a lot over the years with the current production-based racing engine is an understatement. In 1991, Ford switched from the Cleveland-based small-block V-8 to the venerable 351 “Windsor” engine. Other than minor cylinder head updates over its 18 years of service in NASCAR, the basic Windsor block configuration has remained unchanged. Chevrolet, meanwhile, has launched two updated engine packages, and there have been brand-new engine programs from two other manufacturers, Dodge and Toyota, who have entered the ultra-competitive series

To get the inside story on this historic race-engine program, we visited the Roush-Yates engine shop in Mooresville, North Carolina. Over two days, we toured the impressive facility and visited with David Simon and Doug Yates.


David Simon and Doug Yates of the FR9 Team – in front of their crown jewel.

New Engine Development FR9 was Ford Racing’s first opportunity to develop an engine that wasn’t constrained by mass-production engine dimensions.

In July 2007, Ford Racing and Roush-Yates Engines sat down together and assembled the new program. The first step was to determine the best possible engine dimensions, working within NASCAR’s requirements for any new engine submission. The NASCAR engine “box” is fairly tight, and manufacturers don’t have a lot of leeway in design parameters.

Per NASCAR regulations, “FR9” is a 90-degree V-8 that displaces 358 cubic inches and retains the classic two-valve pushrod technology. But there were a lot of innovations on the table, so the engineers designed a variety of key technical advances into FR9, including front and rear engine-plate mounts; a new head bolt pattern that improves gasket seal and strengthens cylinder bores; and a new coolant-flow design that reduces hot spots at critical locations in the block and heads.

Other updates include special in-block oil feed passages, improved fasteners and pre-formed sealing components that allow technicians to disassemble and assemble the engine faster.

“With FR9, we now have the opportunity to change valve angles and other aspects of the engine that we’ve never been able to change before,” said David Simon. “It was a huge opportunity for us to research the optimum setup for these engines. Some [things] you can change, and some you can’t.”

Simon explained: “You see things like valve angle and it’s very tight. Do you want to be at 10 degrees or 11 degrees, or somewhere in-between? In other cases, for things like spark plug position, it’s not regulated – so we went and did an optimization loop on spark plug location and discovered some things. Now we have a new spark plug location relative to the current engine, and we found it made quite a difference.”

The new engine’s power potential begins where the old engine’s maximum left off. The FR9 even requires preparation time. It took more than 100 hours to prepare an R452 block casting for build-out. The new engine block takes less than an hour. The prep process consists of engine bearing installation, followed by a final honing before it’s ready to assemble. The new engine will save Roush-Yates customers a lot of money on engine-lease programs, simply from the ease in prepping the block.

Doug Yates has been very hands-on in the development of the FR9 engine. From someone who has done it all – from breakdown room to engine tuning – Doug is excited about the project. “When I started working in 1990 right out of college, the engine was making 650 horsepower,” said Yates. “The same block architecture today makes 900 horsepower. That’s pretty amazing, considering it is carbureted, not to mention all the carburetion rules.

Now they have a chance to design an all-new engine, and it’s really exciting to be a part of the development. In 40 years, somebody is going to look back and say, ‘Those guys are pretty smart,’ or, ‘Maybe they should have changed something here,’ or all of the above.”


The Roush/Yates facility where the lion share of the development occured.

Doug is still impressed with the performance of the Cleveland- and Windsor-based engines, but he embraces the opportunity to help design a dedicated race engine for Ford. “It has taken 40 years to understand not just what we needed from an engine standpoint, but from an application standpoint,” said Yates.

“If we were to go and hire a company to design the engine, they would not have that understanding of the needs of the team, the series and the sport. This is our moment in time where we can say we’ve worked all these years to make this product the best for our teams. Now we hope to go out with it and win races and help Ford Motor Company.”

Below is the official “press release” from Ford on the FR9:

Ford Racing and Roush Yates Engines will debut the new “FR9” engine during the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

DEARBORN, Mich., January 22, 2009 – Ford and Roush Yates Engines already enjoy a reputation for producing some of the best power and reliability in the sport, but its latest NASCAR-approved engine has raised expectations to an even higher level for 2009.

Code-named “FR9,” this new piece is the first purpose-built NASCAR racing engine to ever come out of Ford Motor Company. Its design has been spearheaded and developed by Ford Racing engineer David Simon, and famed engine builder Doug Yates, along with input from legendary Ford Racing engine engineer Mose Nowland.

“This is an exciting time for us to say the least, especially with the way our two companies have worked so well together on this project,” said Yates. “I’ve never had the opportunity to work on a NASCAR engine with a clean sheet of paper, but that’s basically what we’ve done and I’ve enjoyed every second. We feel we’ve got a piece that will not only be better than what we’ve got now, but will give us room to grow.

“With the exception of a few cylinder head changes through the years, we’ve had the same engine since 1991 and have been able to squeeze out every ounce of power and speed possible,” continued Yates. “What’s got me so excited is we’ve won races and championships with an engine many consider old, and this new piece is definitely a notch above, so we’ve got a lot to look forward to for years to come.”

There are three key differences between “FR9” and the current engine. First, the cooling system has been re-worked and will allow teams to optimize the amount of tape they can put on the front grille and improve downforce. Second, the valve train has been improved, and, third, the production and assembly of “FR9” will be much easier than today’s model.

Another thing is for certain, this isn’t your father’s 351 because “FR9” does not retain any of the original production 351 dimensions as the current model.

“Our main priority when we started this project was to get the bones of the engine right. We wanted to make sure we had the proper layout, the right block structure and that the overall skeleton of the engine was correct,” said Simon. “Even though we’ve been working on these engines for decades and know a lot of things about them, there was still a lot we didn’t know. In that case, we went and did some testing to get the answer.”

That data driven philosophy for designing the engine was crucial for building an engine that would not only be reliable and efficient, but powerful as well.

“It was a completely different mindset and approach to making power,” recalled Simon. “We did not finalize any part of the engine until we acquired the data that told us what was going to be our optimum setting or optimum dimension. The key to all of this in the first phase of our development was to produce as much power through the design of the engine as possible and to make sure we had the very best layout, the very best dimension, and the very best combination of dimensions that we could within the framework of the rules.”

Since taking over as Ford Director of North America Motorsports in August, Brian Wolfe has had to learn a lot in a short amount of time, but he’s been impressed with how well “FR9” has developed.

“Before taking over this job, I worked in powertrain development at Ford for 26 years, and it’s always great to see a new product,” said Wolfe. “To see the way everyone has worked together on this project is extremely gratifying and I know when “FR9” is ready for the race track, we’re going to be spending a lot of time in Victory Lane.”

Just when “FR9” is ready for competition remains to be seen, but a tentative target date is the second-half of the 2009 season.

“We’re not going to rush this engine into competition until we’re 100 percent sure it’s going to meet our strict standards,” said Yates. “We don’t feel a need to rush because our current engine is still strong and that gives us the luxury to take our time and make sure we do “FR9” right. I know we’ve got a winner here, and I can’t wait to see it on the track.”

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