Ford’s Team Coyote wanted the 5.0L Ti-VCT engine to be more compact in size than the 4.6L engine it was replacing. This engine is simply a smarter, well-thought-out performance engine born to perform. It was not borrowed from another car line or amassed from off-the-shelf parts. It was conceived first for the Mustang, ultimately finding its way into the F-150.
It is challenging to differentiate the Coyote block from a 4.6L block because the deck height and bore spacing are the same. However, basic dimensions are where the similarity ends between these engines. The Ti-VCT block is fresh thinking around basic Modular architecture with a much stouter block and common-sense racing cylinder head mindset. The cooling system has been redesigned to route coolant around exhaust valveseats and through the block instead of the valley, freeing up space for induction and supercharging.
The Coyote’s bottom end employs indestructible skirted six-bolt main cap construction using larger bolts than the 4.6L engine. These main caps are a perfect fit without jackscrews and wedges. They don’t move, even under extreme duty, enabling this engine to achieve a 7,000-rpm redline from the factory. The message here is that it was built with structural integrity like never before: heavier main webs, pan rails, and block walls.
The Coyote engine has a rugged aluminum block with paper-thin ductile iron cylinder liners. Because the Coyote’s iron cylinder liners are quite thin, this block must be sleeved with thicker liners for all-out racing in the 1,000 to 1,500-hp range. Modular Motorsports, as one example, offers racers the Pro Mod Coyote block with extra thick ductile iron cylinder liners that ensure block integrity. You can build one of these Pro Mod engines for the street if you’re an avid weekend racer. Bores can be taken as high as 3.700 inches to achieve 5.2L.
Improved block architecture holds this engine together. The main bearing webs are thicker and heavier, which allows for performance extremes from enthusiasts and Ford product planners. This means the Coyote block can stand up to naturally aspirated performance demands, supercharging, nitrous, and direct injection. It can be said with great confidence that this block will withstand more than 1,500 hp sleeved with the thicker ductile iron cylinder liners mentioned earlier.
The Coyote block brings advances in crankcase ventilation known as “bay-to-bay” breathing. Ford engineers located venting in the main webs designed to allow the freedom of air scavenging without hurting power. These vents are known as chimneys. The result is a more positive piston ring seal, which helps efficiency and power.
Here’s a closer look at the Coyote’s main-cap–to–block-skirt relationship. Gone are the 4.6L/5.4L jackscrews and wedges because Coyote technology is zero adjust, meaning these six-bolt main caps are a perfect fit along with larger fasteners. With a sleeved Pro Mod Coyote block from Modular Motorsports, you can hammer this bottom end with more than 1,500 hp. There has never been a stronger Ford new-generation block.
The Coyote shares the same bellhousing bolt pattern with the 4.6L and 5.4L engines, making swaps simple and easy. This block bolts right up to a 4R70W/4R75W or any TREMEC/Getrag manual transmission.
You’ve been told about the Pro Mod block in this chapter. Modular Motorsports offers racers the Coyote Pro Mod block, which is fitted with extra thick ductile iron cylinder liners that are siamesed as shown for unprecedented strength. Modular Motorsports says that the Pro Mod block can take more than 1,500 hp. These sleeves can be bored to 3.700 inches to get 5.2L displacement.
Head on, it’s challenging to differentiate the Coyote from a 4.6L block. However, closer inspection demonstrates revised cooling and oil passages. You no longer have to sweat out the valley cooling tube as you did with the 4.6L because cooling passages are now in the block.
Bore spacing is the same as the 4.6L and 5.4L blocks. However, bore size is larger via iron sleeves pressed into the aluminum block. In addition, the 5.0L embraces vastly improved cooling to handle higher compression and extreme performance duty. Note the generous cooling passages. This is a block engineered for the toughest racing conditions because Team Coyote didn’t want to have to come back years later and do it again.
One of the quickest ways to identify the Coyote block is by this webbed crosshatch valley with a slight rise in the middle. None of the 4.6L block castings look this way. The nice thing about the Coyote block is plenty of valley space for superchargers and exotic induction systems. Gone is the 4.6L’s cooling tube. The Coyote block routes coolant through the block instead of the valley.
The Modular V-8’s cooling tube down the middle of the valley is not present on the Coyote. Instead, coolant is routed through the front of the block, leaving plenty of room for exotic induction systems and superchargers. Any way you view the Coyote block, it is a vast improvement over the Modular.
Because this is a 7,000-rpm engine, the Coyote is fitted with an induction-hardened, fully counter-weighted crankshaft that’s virtually indestructible, featuring an eight-hole flange. Team Coyote elected to stay with the 4.6L engine’s main and rod journal dimensions because they have been a proven success in nearly two decades of production in every application imaginable. In addition, aluminum bearings were borrowed directly from the 4.6L engine instead of tri-metal bearings because they have worked successfully.
The Ti-VCT’s forged steel crankshaft has the same dimensions as the 4.6L with 2.652-inch main journals and 2.086-inch rod journals along with a complete counterweight package. Ford stayed with this package because it is race proven. And, the Coyote’s crank has withstood extremes of dyno testing without failure.
The Coyote’s forged steel crank has an eight-bolt flange and is an extreme-duty part. The 4.6L Romeo engines were six- and eight-bolt flanges depending upon application. All Windsor/Essex engines have been essentially truck engines and eight-bolt. Ford is extremely committed to eight-bolt in the interest of safety and durability.
Like the Modular engines, the Coyote has a powdered-metal connecting rod measuring 5.933 inches center to center and has proven quite durable in applications up to 500 hp. In fact, we’ve seen the stock rod pushed to 600 hp without consequence. However, would you want to take that chance? Anything beyond 600 hp calls for the brute Manley H-beam rod if your goal is true durability.