here's some info I found online:
http://atvscene.com/evaluations/yamaha- ... -14-00.htm
Yamaha based the powerplant for the Raptor on
the engine it produces for the German made MZ Baghira 660 dual sport motorcycle. The finished result is far from the motorcycle engine. In fact,
the only identical parts on the two machines are the cylinder and the cylinder head. The rest of the motor is specially built for the Raptor. Yamaha’s chief ATV design engineer "Knobby" Shiraishi saw to it that the new Raptor received some of the same technology used in the potent YZ 426F dirt bike and the R1 and R6 street bikes. For this, Yamaha definitely gets credit from us. Nice job "Knobs"!
The Raptor is appropriately named after a bad-assed dinosaur that ruled the earth in its day. In the same way, the Raptor ATV will flat out dominate its competition. The 660cc four-stroke engine uses a single overhead cam, is liquid-cooled and is the first ATV to utilize a five-valve (three intakes and two exhaust) head design. It’s kept cool by a radiator fan and a large external aluminum oil tank. Yamaha wanted it to rev like their YZ426 dirt bike, but in milder fashion, so it would offer more user-friendly power and provide the durability an ATVer will definitely need. With this in mind, they gave it a bore and stroke of 100mm x 84mm with a 9.2:1 compression ratio. They used a lightweight piston/rod combo and a unique web-shaped crank design. All this together enables the crank to spin quicker than traditional thumpers which provides somewhat of a two-stroke kind of hit to the powerband while maintaining the controllable torque of a four-stoke. High-strength valves and valve springs are used for added durability. An added bonus of the web-shaped crank and the short stroke (combined with an automatic decompression system) is that it can start easier then a traditional thumper of its
massive size. Thus, Yamaha saves weight by not needing to lug around a huge battery. The motor revs out at a massive 9000-RPM -- but maintains smooth power delivery via an engine counterbalancer. Yamaha says there is a rev limiter aboard but most riders will never hit it.
The motor is fed fuel from twin 33mm Mikuni carburetors. The motor features one tricked-out transmission that is sure to be appreciated. Yamaha uses a ratchet-type, five-speed, manual clutch transmission which is the same design that the YZ dirtbike lineup utilizes. In our testing, the tranny shifted flawlessly. Yamaha didn’t stop at five forward gears, they wisely elected to add a reverse gear to the tranny. At first, the racer in us didn’t like the whole reverse idea -- and all of it’s added weight to the motor, but after re-thinking their strategy and seeing their reverse gear ingenuity, Yamaha did right by introducing the first ever reverse gear on a high-performance ATV. The gear was integrated into the engine and design in order to keep the size and weight down. They succeeded, the whole reverse mechanism weighs a mere 5lbs. Woods racers will definitely appreciate the ability to "back out" of bad situations.