Horsepower Wars LS vs. Coyote 3 has come to an end, and the LT and Coyote threw the proverbial gloves off and went to the 12th round in the ring (the ring being Westech’s dyno room), and the winner has been crowned by a margin of just 19.5 horsepower with both making over 1,400 horsepower.

If you are new to Horsepower Wars and the LS Vs. Coyote seasons, we take GM’s popular pushrod modern V8 and pit it against Ford’s 5.0-liter Coyote and let them duke it out on the engine dyno to see who can beat the other in one measurement and one measurement only: horsepower. Season 1 had a naturally aspirated battle between an LS3 and the Gen 1 Coyote with a budget limit of $9,999, which the LS easily won. The second season upped the limit to $15,000 and introduced boost via ProCharger’s centrifugal superchargers. The LS didn’t just wipe the floor with the Coyote this time; it chucked it off the 35th floor of the Nakatomi Plaza.

For Season 3, Horsepower Wars moved to single-turbo builds with no specific budget limiting either team. The 5.3-liter L83 was used for the GM side and was built by reigning champion Late Model Engines. The used pickup truck aluminum block received a 0.020 overbore to clean up its worn cylinders and was topped with LME’s top-notch CNC port work to the stock cylinder head castings. The Coyote was built by FFRE, who built the Coyote engines for the famous Snot Rocket green Mustang you’ve seen on social media. They went with a Gen-3 Coyote block that was sleeved and o-ringed, and topped with mildly ported Gen-2 Coyote heads and Comp Cams camshafts.

The Turbocharger

Per the rules, both teams were required to run HPT Turbo’s F3 7680. Interestingly, this isn’t a turbo they offer off the shelf; it is a custom hybrid combining a 76mm compressor side with the 80mm turbine side from their 7880. This combo made for a mid-frame turbo that could handle both teams’ lofty horsepower goals. These identical turbos also pushed air through a Tick Performance Intercooler mounted on top of Holley high ram intake manifolds and controlled by Holley Dominator EFI.

The Final Dyno Results

Who won? For the first time in LS vs. Coyote history, the Coyote got the win. The LT’s final dyno run resulted in 1,400.3 horsepower at 31.9 psi of boost, while the Coyote was able to eek out 1,419.8 horsepower at 29.1 psi of boost. For those that like to keep score, that’s 4.264 horsepower per cube for the 328.6 cubic-inch LT and 4.619 horsepower per cube for the 307.2 cubic-inch Coyote.

Hindsight 20/20

Could anything have been done differently during testing to help the LT match the Coyote’s output? Maybe. After both engines were broken in on the engine dyno, they switched to AMSOIL 15W-50 synthetic racing oil to handle the beating high cylinder pressures can dish out. The L83 kept this thick oil during all dyno runs, but the Coyote switched to 5W-30 and eventually an even thinner 5W-20 that proved to not only help out with some issues they were seeing with the 5.0-liter’s hydraulic valvetrain, but added almost 40 horsepower.

Also, the LT hit its magical 1,400 horsepower number on the 21st dyno run, while the Coyote was tested almost twice as much, with 40 pulls being done before hitting a mere 19.5 horsepower higher. The rules did not state that there was any limit on dyno pulls, tuning, or oil changes, so nobody cheated here. But we feel that maybe if the LT received a quick lube swap to some thinner AMSOIL like the Ford and was tested a little longer, it could’ve closed that gap or even maybe taken the crown for three Horsepower Wars wins in a row.

The Price

The first two seasons of LS vs. Coyote had a budget limit in place. But for season three, there wasn’t an official budget. This go around was to see what two engines could do with a matching turbo and similar OEM displacement, since the LS and LT engines have the natural benefit of more cubes for cheaper, making the Coyote compete against a 5.3-liter V8 seemed more fair to the Ford crowd versus the bigger engines.

But it is important to note that while the parts list we calculated for each engine was close, it didn’t include a true final total, as we didn’t have the core engine prices on hand for the LT and Coyote blocks or heads, nor the machine work for either engine. At the end of the day, the Coyote was still a little bit more expensive than the LT to build, which should come as no surprise to those who build these engines. So if you’re keeping tabs on which makes the most horsepower per dollar, GM’s pushrod V8s still seems to come out on top.

It Isn’t Over Just yet

We could go back and forth all day with different “what if” scenarios to make whichever side pump out more power. Both teams could’ve squeezed out more power with some super fine tuning, both engines could’ve been tested at the exact same boost pressure, the Coyote could’ve received more port work, the LT could’ve switched to a thinner oil, both could’ve very easily taken advantage of a bigger turbo, and the list go on, and on, and on. At the end of the day, the super close results speak volumes for both LME and FFRE with the two boosted monsters seen here.

But the fun isn’t over! Each one of these engines will be going into a pair of Chevy C10 trucks for our C10 Shootout with Drag and Drive rules to see how they perform at the dragstrip outside of Westech’s dyno room. Stay tuned!