Can We Unseal the Future Coyote Stock?

That is the question that a lot of NMRA racers that run this class have been asking themselves in 2016. Coyote Stock is the largest of the heads up classes in NMRA, and there is a reason for that. If solutions aren't found soon though, we may be talking about how great Coyote Stock used to be. 

NMRA Coyote Stock was the brain child of then Pure Street racer Steve Gifford & mod motor tuner extraordinaire Ken Bjonnes. The objective of the class was going to be that you have to run a sealed engine from Ford, and the internals could not be touched. This was a way to make sure that everyone was on level playing ground with the power they made. It was also a way to reduce the skyrocketing costs of running a heads up class in the NMRA. 

The first year of the class saw only a handful of competitors, but produced some great optimism within the industry. The class slowly started to grow over the last few years. Even so, there were always issues in the background. The first issue was, "what do we do if we hurt the engine?" And this came to fruition a couple of times due to oil pump gear failure. Problem is that at the time there was no rebuild/reseal process in place. That meant, if you broke the seals, that engine was no longer allowed in the class PERIOD. 

What was one to do with this engine? The first answer that the racers got was to repair the engine, sell the engine, and buy a new one. There in itself is an issue. Let's take for example that it costs $1000 to repair the engine, then you might get $4500 when you sell the engine, and it costs $6000 to buy a new one. Instead of spending $1000 on your engine, you are now out $2500 and still have to break in a brand new piece. 

In reality that was just the start of the issues. Another issue was the amount of stock that Ford had on hand of the sealed engines. What happens when they run out? Well that is pretty much what has happened at this point. As of this writing, I have heard there are less than a handful, if any of these engines left at Ford since they went to a new design. That means that unless you want to build a Coyote Stock car with a used engine, you can't even build a car for the class. 

Why not just purchase the new design from Ford you might ask. Well the answer is actual not as simple as you may think. There are multiple issues involved with doing this. First off is that the NMRA has not determined the engine to be legal for the class. Secondly, from my knowledge, Ford has not started a sealing program for these engines. Third is the cost. It is much more to purchase the new set up than the old one was. Yes, to offset the cost you could sell your current setup, but it's a sealed race car engine, you will most likely as I previously stated get maybe $4500 for it. So if the new setup costs $10k, where is the other $5500 coming from? Next is the issue of rewiring the entire car. That's right folks, the new combo requires a different wiring harness, so now racers will have to remove the old harness and rewire the new one. 

After all that you may be asking what the answer is to the whole issue. While I am not proclaiming to have all the answers, to me the answers are clear. You must as an organization (NMRA) immediately implement a rebuild procedure in correlation with a few engine builders and have a specific reseal process in place. You have had a few years to do this and now it's time to do it or watch the class die. Yes, it really is that simple and yes if it doesn't happen the class will die and all of a sudden you will see a much larger Factory Stock field.