Ford Australia confirms Coyote V8 for Falcon

FORD Australia has confirmed the Falcon will be powered by a Coyote V8 when the existing 5.4 Boss is forced into retirement by this July’s Euro 4 emission deadline.

“We will be taking an engine from the Coyote family,” said Ford spokesperson Sinead McAlary, who declined to offer any more information on the topic.

GoAuto can reveal FPV is well advanced in developing a unique supercharged version of the 5.0-litre direct injection V8 for HSV-beating levels of power and torque. It could also be the most powerful version of the new Coyote engine in world.

While the new quad-cam Coyote V8 will be imported from Ford in Windsor, Canada, it will be substantially modified at FPV’s Campbellfield operation to run the supercharger.

The naturally aspirated 5.0-litre quad-cam engine will revealed at the Detroit motor show overnight, under the bonnet of a new Mustang to be introduced midway through this year, produces 307kW and 529Nm.

These performance numbers would not have been enough for the FPV GT to compete with the Holden Special Vehicles Chevrolet-sourced 6.2-litre V8s which peak at 325kW and 550Nm.

Left: The 5.0-litre Coyote engine in the Ford Mustang.

As reported by GoAuto in 2008, Ford considered using a locally developed supercharged version of the 5.4-litre Boss V8 for the FG Falcon program but the project was scrapped early due to cost issues.

The Australian program of supercharging the Coyote V8 puts it at odds with the direction of Ford Motor Company which is promoting turbocharging, under its new EcoBoost banner, as the way of the future after previously producing supercharged V8 Mustangs.

GoAuto understands Ford Australia and FPV decided to supercharge the Coyote V8 rather than wait at least two years for a possible turbocharged version because it could not afford to see the power figure of its GT, which is all important in the Australian muscle car market, drop back from 315kW and 551Nm.

During a pre-motor show talk enveloping EcoBoost technology, Ford’s director of research and advanced engineering, Dan Kapp, was quizzed on whether his company planned a higher output turbo version of the just revealed Coyote V8 US.

“Ford does have the capability to add that technology to that engine,” he said. “As a research team we are exploring what that means, but there are no production plans.” EcoBoost technology consists of variable camshaft timing, direct injection and turbocharging, and the naturally aspirated Coyote engine, which will be introduced on the 2010 Mustang, already has two of these features.

Without referring to the FPV supercharged Coyote program, GoAuto asked Ford advanced engineering design and development manager, Brett Hinds, if supercharging was a better option than turbocharging when it came to V8s.

Mr Hinds indicated that both methods of boosting had their advantages.

“In a true performance aspect, turbochargers do require a certain amount of time to spool up. For all-out performance, a supercharger has an instantaneous response. It is more of a racer’s approach to solving that problem,” he said.

Mr Hinds then went on to discuss the fuel economy sacrifices common with supercharging.

“Superchargers are parasitically driven – they require work from the motor. In a situation such as a 400 horsepower supercharged engine, the engine itself would have to produce 450hp just to make 400hp from the supercharged engine,” he said.

“Turbochargers on the other hand are recovering exhaust energy, they are recovering energy out of the exhaust. So to make 400hp on an engine that is turbocharged only requires the engine to make 400hp.” While GoAuto sources have confirmed the existence of the supercharged Coyote V8, which Ford Australia began working on just after the introduction of the FG Falcon in 2008, it is not yet clear if a naturally aspirated version of the engine would be available in an FPV, a Ford Falcon XR8 or whether they would both be available with different versions (ie varying outputs) of the engine.

The supercharged V8 Coyote engine will allow Ford engineers to tune the output dependent on the model’s needs. A mild tune would allow HSV’s current outputs to be eclipsed and different outputs could be relatively easily achieved which would enable the company to continue to offer an entry level GS and higher performance GT.

The massive potential performance gains from a supercharged version of the Coyote means that Ford Australia and FPV would also, finally, be in a position to consider if it could re-introduce the hallowed GT-HO nameplate.