ONE of the most experienced operators of the Ford Gen3 engine believes ventilation is the critical factor to avoid future fires.
V8 Sleuth can reveal that a Herrod Performance Engines 5.4-litre Coyote has been running in a MARC II Mustang for the best part of a year, helping provide the Blue Oval with further intel.
Two fires in consecutive days for Mustang Supercars at Albert Park sparked emergency meetings and what category powerbroker Mark Skaife described as an “air crash investigation” that would follow.
MARC boss Geoff Taunton though has declared he’s never had an issue with the powerplant – and perhaps with good reason.
“We have been testing that engine for a long time with Bobby (Ervin), who is now at Rob Herrod’s, and as far as I’m concerned is the best engine builder in the world,” Taunton told V8 Sleuth.
“We struck a deal on a rebuild for the MARC II Mustang nearly 12 months ago, and they were going to be tendering for that package for Supercars for Gen3 and said, ‘would you mind if we generally put the same engine in it so we can get all that R&D?’ so we did so.
“We’re not running the restrictor but it’s generally the same engine – just they are running the restrictor to leave it to 600 horsepower and we’re running the 630-horsepower version, which is the same engine without the restrictor.
“We haven’t had an ounce of problem with that engine – not anything of any way, shape or form have we had a problem.
“But I have proper ventilation under my bonnet, good ventilation.
“So as far as the problems they’re having with the Gen3, they have sealed the bonnet up that well that they’ve created a problem.
“I can’t comment on how they’re going to fix it… they’re certainly doing something about it. They’re very clever people.
“We have exactly the same engine and we haven’t had that problem because we are ventilated under the bonnet so that situation hasn’t arisen.”
There were suggestions in the Albert Park paddock that a simple fix could be to move the Gen3 Mustang’s oil catch can from the bonnet to the boot, as is the configuration for the MARC car.
“I do know with that engine, it breathes very well and in turn when it breathes, it must go into a catch can with a proper breather, and from the outside looking in, it has just ignited the fumes,” Taunton noted.
“Because those boys, the exact same as us, we are on and off the throttle and the brake that hard in that warm-up lap, those extractors are glowing red at I don’t know, 250, 350 degrees, whatever they are.
“When they pull up and put the launch control on, it gets hotter again. So the temperature from extractors which would only be 300mm away from that catch can, put it this way, you don’t have to be an Einstein to work it out.”
Supercars is yet to confirm what measures will be taken to prevent a repeat of the fires at the end-of-month Perth SuperSprint.
Among the risk mitigation steps the category took ahead of the fourth and final Albert Park race was to conduct a single-file rolling start behind the Safety Car.
