For this year’s season of Horsepower Wars, the spotlight turns to a head-to-head engine build-off between Ford’s 5.0-liter Coyote and GM’s 5.3-liter LT. Ford’s effort will be led by FFRE, while LME takes charge of Team Chevy. The mission is simple but brutal: assemble turbocharged versions of each platform, built with real-world parts that not only make serious power but also work together seamlessly to survive the demands of drag-and-drive competition.

In the previous episodes of LS vs. Coyote 3, presented by Summit Racing, Greg Acosta with Engine Labs introduced Horsepower Wars season 4 and did a deep dive into the rules, talked about the core engines being used, and talked about the build plans and parts a little bit. Episode 3 just dropped, covering the build of the Ford, so why should we care? Because you keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

The stock Coyote main cap hardware and cylinder head fasteners cannot handle the power it is going to take to complete with the LT.

Following The Rule Book

The L83 and Gen 3 Coyote will be running Holley highram intake manifolds with Tick Performance air-to-water intercoolers. Holley Dominator EFI will control both engines, and E85 will be the fuel used for testing. Both teams are required to run a 76mm F3-series turbocharger from HPT Turbo. Both must have the same 76mm billet compressor wheel and the same compressor housing, along with the same 80mm turbine wheel. But there are several different HPT turbine housing options the builders can choose from.

Shaky Foundation

The guys at FFRE are the go-to for modern Coyote builds, but the platform is going to struggle against the LT. They start with a Gen 3 Coyote block, which is arguably the strongest of the factory blocks for this platform, but still have to machine the stock sleeves for aftermarket ductile iron sleeves for extra strength. FFRE states that once a build gets close to 1,500 horsepower, it becomes necessary to live during a drag and drive event.

The entire benchtop covered in valvetrain parts just to beat a single camshaft.

Maybe Not All The Flow

Ask a Ford guy, and he’ll tell you that the Gen 2 Coyote cylinder heads being used for this competition are some of the best flowing factory Coyote heads that flow enough to make all the horsepower you could ever want out of a V8. But like the block, these couldn’t be left alone either and needed to be heavily ported to maximize performance.

Four Cams, Four Times The Price

Part of the complication with a four-valve-per-cylinder Coyote is the four expensive-to-replace camshafts and miles of timing chains. In stock form, the coyote heads outflow the stock LT heads, no question. But part of that extra airflow is massive engine bay-hogging cylinder heads that need four camshafts. The stock cams had to be swapped out here to reach the power goals, another item the Ford fan club thinks can handle anything you throw at them.

Think degreeing a single camshaft is tedious? Try doing it with four camshafts.

Stock Coyote Is A Pooch

The next time a Ford fan boy (that predictably owns something like a Ford Fusion, not a mustang or Coyote-powered anything) tries to tell you that an all-stock unopened 5.0-liter Coyote can be boosted well into the four-digit-horsepower range without nothing more than fuel and boost, please show them this video of the best Coyote guys in the business sleeving the block, porting the heads, and swapping out all four cams.

The next episode for this season’s Horsepower Wars will be back to the better half of the show as we follow LME around their facility to watch them build a 5.3-liter from a simple two-valve pushrod truck engine into a Coyote-stomper that will need crutches to walk home when this war is over.