New Ford flat plane crank engine

[twobjshelbys]

Originally Posted by olddog

So, if the flat plane crank shaft is easier/cheaper to manufacture, allows more RPM, better breathing, thus more power, then why hasn't racing teams been dropping flat plane cranks in every block ever raced? Why don't I see advertisements for a flat plane crank and matching cam for every push-rod V-8 ever made?

Until now I never heard of the term flat plane crank. I thought I was well read, but obviously not nearly as much as I arrogantly thought. Anyone else caught off guard on this?

Most FPC engines (and they've been around for a long time even in consumer applications) are small displacement. FPC has dynamic balancing issue that increase with displacement. Voodoo is the largest FPC engine so far. There are many "warts" to keep it from vibrating. Some are on the engine, some are external to the engine. Look at photos of the underside of the GT350 and you will see weights on the exhaust aft of the catalytic converters.

The FPC also sacrifices low end torque for higher RPM operation. That's good for a track car.

Early articles in trade magazines (ASE) indicated it was unlikely that a FPC crate engine would be available.

However, Ford announced a few weeks ago the Voodoo parts (block, heads, etc) to build an engine using the standard 5.0 Coyote crankshaft, and that engine showed up as a crate engine in the past week or so. More info:

http://www.stangtv.com/features/pri-...e-engine-a52xs