No problems expected with unleaded fuel switch
July 29 Busch Series race at Gateway to begin accelerated switch
By Ryan Smithson, NASCAR.COM
June 24, 2006
01:45 PM EDT (17:45 GMT)
SONOMA, Calif. -- NASCAR's accelerated timetable for unleaded fuel won't cause any major problems, one engine builder said at Sonoma on Saturday.
The transition to unleaded fuel was originally scheduled for 2008, but NASCAR pushed up that date last week, saying it hopes to use unleaded fuel for all three major series in time for Speedweeks next February.
The ARCA series, which uses similar engines, will use the unleaded fuel to assist NASCAR in restrictor-plate engine testing. The unleaded fuel will make its NASCAR debut in the July 29 Busch Series race at Gateway.
Initially, engine builders were concerned about losing the natural lubrication that leaded fuel provides, but teams have found suitable substitutes.
"It was not as bad as we thought it was going to be. There is a lot of coating process stuff out there," said Danny Lawrence, an engine builder for Richard Childress Racing since 1985. "It is going to be one of those things where if you just coat the valves and some of the parts, and if you don't have excessive wear, it is not going to be bad at all."
The change to unleaded fuel has been planned for several years, but advances in coating technology were a major reason NASCAR finally mandated the change.
Speaking before the season, Roush-Yates head engine builder Doug Yates said the switch was going to be considerably easier than earlier attempts.
"It [coating advances] was not readily available, but now, I don't think it's going to be a very hard transition," Yates said. "There are some coatings that you apply to the valves. The valve seat recession was the biggest problem, and I think that we can overcome that pretty easily."
Yates had pushed for NASCAR to accelerate the use of unleaded fuel.
"That's something we need to do as a group," Yates said. "I'm glad that they're moving that way."
Still, the switch is a significant cost to teams. Lawrence estimates that RCR has already spent $250,000 in testing the new fuel -- "We really haven't gotten going good yet," he said -- and a significant portion of that money comes from simulated engine runs.
"We actually ran 600 [simulated] miles at California Speedway and that is a really hard track for something like that," Lawrence said. "We built a race motor and put it through the normal thing."
The costs of testing the fuel will rise dramatically if teams experience problems with the switch.
"If the cylinder walls look bad and the pistons look bad, we will have to do a lot of research and development to solve the problems," Lawrence said.
NASCAR's former fuel supplier, Unocal, employed teams to test unleaded fuel on a limited basis. Engine builders had problems adjusting the power levels in the motors, but Lawrence said that the newer blend, provided by Sunoco, has alleviated that.
"I have been hearing the same thing," Lawrence said. "A lot of people are not as afraid of this fuel as the old fuel. The Unocal fuel, the last unleaded fuel that they made -- we were actually testing that for them -- the more fuel you put in it, the more power you made.
"This fuel is not like that. We have done power tests on it and it is really close, power-wise, [to where] Sunoco is now. It is not going to be as bad as we thought it was going to be."
