Fast Forward Race Engines started to build custom drag racing engines, which in the past decade has been transformed into batch engine work for other stores. This 2,000-horsepower GT500 is one of the best-selling short blocks, and we have all the details.

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If you grew up in a certain era, then there is a high probability that you had a big wheel when you were a kid-or you are jealous of the child with wheels. Remember those? Of course Joe Owen can. Unlike most of us riding in lanes or dead ends, Joe remembers riding his big wheels through his grandfather's engine workshop, dreaming of running faster because of all the engines he could see.

Joe's grandfather ran the Custom Engine Service in Hialeah, Florida, where his father also worked as an engine manufacturer. According to Joe, they are mainly engaged in offshore rowing.

"MerCruiser is one of the engines they make," Irving said. "They basically have a remanufacturing aspect of a store, and then they also have a custom aspect of a store. My father works there and is an engine manufacturer, so I grew up around racing engines all my life. I was about six When I was seven years old, I would ride one of the three big wheels through the assembly room."

These early influences made Joe understand that he also wanted to one day become an engine manufacturer. In fact, Joe said that his only job is to work in the mechanical workshop or the engine workshop. "This is almost the only thing I have done," he said.

In 2009, Joe and a business partner opened his own engine shop, Fast Forward Race Engines. In the early days, Fast Forward Race Engines, located in New Port Richey, Florida, mainly provided customized drag racing engines for heads-up courses. However, after about six years of drag racing, this store began to do contract work for other stores.

"For about 10 years, we have been performing Induction Performance 2JZ with 10-12 engines running in batches at a time," Irwin said. "Once we started to do this, we saw that it was a bit profitable and it was a bit easier to go through the store because it was a multiple, and then we moved in that direction and started looking for a platform where we could do multiples.

"Now, we produce 2JZ engines for Induction. We have made a lot of Coyote engines. We have also made some GT-R VR38 and VR30 things. Now it is mainly batch work, but still high-horsepower things. Everything is more than 1,000 horsepower. The high-horsepower products, it is only batch operation, rather than individual customized products."

Regardless of the type of engine being manufactured by Fast Forward Race Engines, all work is done in-house, because the workshop is a complete mechanical workshop equipped with a manual Sunnen machine for honing and a T&S 1000 four-axis CNC machine for sleeve machining and gearing. Block work. This Florida store has 6 employees who work in a 5,000 square foot space. facility.

Ford Coyote and GT500 have proven to be one of the most effective engine platforms. According to Irwin, Fast Forward has built these for several stores, and one of their recently completed GT500 short blocks, which can handle more than 2,000 horsepower.

"We did a lot of short block construction," Irving said. "This has a billet main cover, a new GT500 cylinder block, a Manley 300M rod, a 10:1 compression Manley flat top piston, and a Trend TP1 wrist pin with DLC coating.

"This short block deal can reach 2,000 horsepower or more. We recently asked Brett LaSala of FL2K to use this short block to drive at 201-202 mph. We have another customer who won with the same short block in FL2K I took the Outlaw Street course. I think he drove at 198 mph for 7.0 seconds. This is a very good product."

In order to make this GT500 short block as strong as possible, a lot of quality work and components are required. It all started with the obstacles Fast Forward Race Engines got from Ford Performance.

"We remove the block and then completely remove the burrs," he said. "We filled the coolant intersection between the cylinders with two-part epoxy. Then, at that point, we used it as a sleeve."

Joe said that they honed the female hole in the CNC machine to get the actual press they wanted. Then, they took out all the sleeves, measured one every six points, and then divided by 6 to get an average. This is how the store handles sleeves in batches.

"Basically, all we have to do is take away all our sleeves, and we will divide them into the same size because they are not the same size," he said. "We will get as many of the same size as possible. Then, after getting bored with the sleeve, we will leave about 0.001˝ in it, and we will actually hone the block to get the precise pressure we want. This is One thing we do in different ways.

"The second thing we did was that we did not use Loctite to fix our sleeves-it was all done on a printing press-we installed all four sleeves in one heating block at a time. Most people do it at once One or two, so they can line up the apartments. Four of us do it, so we have a mounting board that I made."

After the blocks were cooled, they used torque plates to fix the sleeves, and then the store decorated the blocks.

"We decorate it, we hone it, and we use it for stainless steel O-rings," Owen said. "We still use MLS washers, but we only left 0.003˝ O-rings. After the block gets the final machine work, it will be line-honed with the ARP main bolt. Then, it will perform the final cleaning, and then the block Will enter the assembly room."

Owen said that every set of rods and every set of pistons used in the workshop fits the pins. The crankshaft in this special construction is a Ford Performance Boss crank, which will be balanced by two Mallory—one 1-inch Mallory on the front and rear.

"Once the engine enters the assembly room, we leave it in the assembly room for at least four hours, and then we start measuring it because we can see the temperature difference through the workshop and the assembly room," Irving said. "After that, we started to use King XP bearings for bearing clearance cleaning, and filed our Total Seal rings, namely AP top ring and Napier seconds. Then, our assembly work. These things are quite simple, but the difference lies in how we Make the casing."

As mentioned earlier, this GT500 is usually made with short cylinders, but if Fast Forward Race Engines are to build long cylinders, Joe said that most people would choose Gen I, Gen II or GT350 cylinder heads.

"Usually, we use Manley or Ferrea valves," he said. "These are the only two valves we will use. We also use PAC valve springs. For cams, some long blocks have after-sale camshafts and some do not. We are in the 7.0s and have factory cameras in them. If we use For the original cam, we will weld the lobes to the cylinder of the camshaft, the core, because the lobes are pressed on the core and they tend to move and loosen. We will actually weld the lobes to the core We also let people get a set of customized COMP cams and similar things, so this option is pending."

Regardless of the choice of internal components, Irving pointed out that almost all of these engines are single-turbocharged or twin-turbocharged engines.

"Some people use Whipple blowers or VMP blowers, but most of them are twin turbochargers," he said. "Everyone is conducting mandatory induction. We will not make any products that are not mandatory induction."

Able to produce 2,000 horsepower or more, this is a short block that Fast Forward Race Engines plans to manufacture for a long time in the future.

"This is our new agreement. I think moving on next year, we may not build anything except these coyotes," Irving said.

This week the engine was sponsored by PennGrade Motor Oil, Elring – Das Original and Scat Crankshafts. If you have an engine you want to highlight in this series, please send an email to [email protected] Engine Builder editor Greg Jones

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