Everything You Need To Know About "5.0 Coyote Modifications"

How to modify and upgrade the Ford 5.0 Coyote

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the Ford 5.0 Coyote engine!"

Forums like the one at TorqueCars are frequently getting messages requesting info on how to improve the 5.0 Coyote from people wanting to know what are the best 5.0 Coyote modifications. So let us look into Ford 5.0 Coyote modifications and outline the best modifications on this great engine and point out some potential pitfalls along the way.

Car Tuning Tips will examine the options for your 5.0 Coyote tuning and report on the greatest modifications for your car. Ford 5.0 Coyote are popular engines and with a few sensible uprated parts like ECU maps, turbo upgrades and camshafts you will substantially improve your driving fun.

When talking about the ultimate parts for your 5.0 Coyote engine, we are going to focus on the ones that give the best power gain for you spend.

Improving air intake on the 5.0 Coyote

You need air and fuel for an engine to work. If there is not enough fuel then it will run lean, if there is a lack of air it runs rich sapping power which risks damage to the 5.0 Coyote. We'll pick up on fuelling later in this article but for now we shall look at air supply.

So the primary aim to any engine upgrade project to pull air into your 5.0 Coyote but this has a knock on effect with the air flow sensor.

It is common that there's a limitation in the air flow sensor (AFM/MAF/MAP) on the 5.0 Coyote when a lot more air is being pulled into the engine.

We note 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor sapped power at a much lower level.

Air Intake manifolds take the air from the filter and allow it to be drawn into the engine cylinders with fuel for the squish phase.

The shape and flow rate of the air Intake manifold can make a substantial effect on to fuel atomisation on the 5.0 Coyote.

It's not uncommon that intake are in dire need of aftermarket tuning parts, although a few OEM provide fairly well optimized intake.

Fitting big valve kits, doing a bit of 5.0 Coyote port enlargement and head flowing will also boost bhp, this will raise potential for a better bhp increase on other upgrades.

5.0 Coyote performance cam tips.

Each engine responds better to different cam durations check your engine on a rolling road.

The ecu map and fuel pump and injectors also will make differences on the torque gains you'll make.

A longer valve duration can alter the torque band and on most engines the exhaust and intake durations do not need to match, although most cams and tuners use matched pairs there are some advantages to extending the intake or exhaust durations.

Altering your 5.0 Coyote cam will make a dramatic difference to the engine torque. Choosing a higher performance cam profile raises the torque accordingly.

NB: Fast road camshafts usually raise the performance across the rev band, you could drop a little bottom end bhp but the high end rpm power will be lifted.

Motorsport camshafts, raise the high end rpm power band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

A Race camshaft makes it harder when in heavy traffic.

You should ideally optimize your bhp range to your usage of the car so for a car driven daily stick with a mild fast road 5.0 Coyote camshaft

Stage 1, 2 and 3 mods for the 5.0 Coyote

Before we break the best tuning upgrades down into stages of tune, let's list the most effective tuning upgrades for you.

1. Suspension Upgrades - always improve your cars handling
2. Brake Upgrades - Even before adding power improve those brakes
3. Intake - make sure the intake is not restricted, use filters and intake upgrades to improve this
4. Exhaust - as with 3 ensure there is not restriction in the exhaust, cats are the usual bottleneck
5. Tunes - remapping, piggyback ECU's and aftermarket ECU's can all make decent gains
6. Fuelling - when you've increased power you'll need to match this with more fuel
7. Turbo upgrades - Improving the intake with a large turbo and better flowing intercooler will be the biggest power gain you'll see (but one of the most complex).

This video guide to tuning cars is a great starting point to work from in your project.

Stage 1 5.0 Coyote parts:

Fast road camshaft, Panel air filters, Remaps/piggy back ECU, Intake headers, Drilled & smoothed airbox, Sports exhaust manifold.

Stage 2 5.0 Coyote parts:

Ported and polished head, induction kit, high flow fuel injectors, Fast road cam, fuel pump upgrades, Sports catalyst & performance exhaust.

Stage 3 5.0 Coyote parts:

Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Twin charging conversions, Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Competition cam, Engine balancing & blueprinting.

ECU flashing allows a tuner to release the full potential of all the upgrades you've done to your 5.0 Coyote.

You will typically expect to see gains of approximately 20-30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but the outcome usually rely on the upgrades you've carried out and the condition of your engine.

Turbo modifications on the 5.0 Coyote

To get a turbo working on a NASP engine there is a lot involved, from lowering compression ratio to improved fuel supply and mapping, so we have found a great guide to helpavoid the common pitfalls or end up with an unfinished project because you were not told what you were getting into by doing this on the 5.0 Coyote.

The more air you can get into an engine, the more fuel it can burn and uprating the induction with a turbocharger upgrade makes superb power gains.

When the engine has a turbo already fitted tuning mods are giving better power gains and you'll see that turbo engines are built with uprated components.

There are common areas of failure for every engine, with some being extremely strong and some just sufficiently able to handle stock power

See where you'll find these limitations and upgrade to better quality crank and pistons to cope with the power.

There are many mechanics spending a lot of money on turbocharger upgrades on the 5.0 Coyote only to experience the motor explode when it's been completed.

Bigger upgraded turbo chargers often experience low end lag, and small turbo chargers spool up really quickly but don't have the peak rpm torque gains.

We are pleased that the selection of turbochargers is always improving and we now see variable vane turbochargers, permitting the vane profile is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end power.

Twin scroll turbochargers divert the exhaust gases into two channels and push these at differently profiled vanes in the turbo. They also increase the scavenging effect of the engine.

Beefing up the air intake by adding a supercharger or additional turbo will help you achieve very large bhp gains, although more complex to install. We have this feature on twinchargers if you want to read more.

Tips about fuel supply on the 5.0 Coyote

Don't dismiss the need ramp up the fuelling when you are increasing the bhp and torque - it makes the car more thirsty. Experienced tuners recommend to over specify your injectors flow rate.

The rule of thumb is to add another 20% when specifying an injector, which takes into account injector deterioration and provides a little spare capacity should the engine require more fuel.

Don't forget that different fuel grades will usually require different settings, a high octane fuel will burn more efficiently than lower octane fuel for example. A car will trim fuel supply to keep within the ideal air fuel mix but at the extreme ends you may need to adjust your injector capacity, or the mapping or you'll get flat spots and potential lean or rich fuel issues..

Recommended 5.0 Coyote performance exhaust upgrades

Only look to boost your exhaust system with an upgraded one is if the existing exhaust is actually creating a restriction in flow.

On most factory exhausts you'll find the exhaust flow rate is still good even on modest power gains, but on a serious tuning project with a big boost in power you will certainly need to get a better flowing exhaust.

Sports exhausts balance the flow of gases through the engine.

But if your exhaust pipe is too big, ie: it's over two and a half inches diameter, you will lose a lot of the exhaust flow rate and end up sapping power and torque.

Usual exhaust restrictions can be located the filters installed, so adding a higher flowing race alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Decats (NB:catalysts reduce harmful engine emissions) is illegal in most countries and regions.

Faults issues and things to look out for on the 5.0 Coyote

Like most engines an 5.0 Coyote, should have few issues if it gets properly serviced and looked after.

We cannot stress enough the need for oil changes with the correct grade of oil on the 5.0 Coyote, failure to do this will exacerbate engine wear, on a tuned 5.0 Coyote this is more important than ever and close attention should be paid to your maintenance schedule.

If you are interested in learning more or getting impartial tuning advice for your 5.0 Coyote why not pop over to the forums at TorqueCars where you can chat about 5.0 Coyote tuning options and read about others projects who may be planning to do similar modifications on their 5.0 Coyote.

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This entry was posted under Makes and Models. Tags: engine, Ford
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