Ask Ford fans about
the venerable Coyote motor and they’ll likely tell you that it was forged by the
hands of the Man Himself and passed down on wings of angels. While that is
surely stretching it, in all honesty, when FoMoCo released the Coyote in 2011,
it was a game changer. Up until that point, the only method to a 400hp stock
Mustang was forced induction. OK, so the 2000 Cobra R might have been underrated
at 385 hp, but that was the only naturally aspirated Mustang with close to 400
hp from the factory. That’s not to say that the older modular motors aren’t
worthy of their acclaim, but it’s no secret that prior to the Coyote, if you
wanted to make big power without dropping huge money on your modular motor, a
power-adder was the answer.
Oil pump failures
aren’t new to the Mustang
“If you plan on
significantly raising the rev ceiling or increasing the power on your Coyote,
especially with a supercharger, then billet oil pump gears are more than just
cheap insurance. They’re a must,” says Mike Schropp, Engine Development
Supervisor, Livernois Motorsports.
Oil pump gear
problems aren’t necessarily new to the Mustang world. High-horsepower,
high-revving 3V and 4V modular motors also experienced similar problems, but
generally to a lesser extent in normally aspirated form because of their lower
rev ceilings. Simply put, lightly modified modulars ran out of breath before the
oil pump gears became a problem. But failures on supercharged modulars weren’t
uncommon, as their higher power levels and increased load on the crank worsened
oil pump-killing harmonics (more on that later).
But modulars aside,
the Coyote quickly earned a reputation for oil pump problems because unlike its
predecessors, the Coyote had the capability of making enough power and spinning
high enough rpm that problems with the oil pump gears arose.
Schropp explains,
“The Coyotes spin a lot more rpm than the modulars, and big power levels are
easily reached, so oil pump problems were more prevalent.”
The problem and the
fix
As gearheads pushed
the envelope with the Coyote both in rpm and power, it was only a matter of time
before stock parts began to fail. As luck would have it, the stock oil pump
gears were some of the first OEM parts to bite the dust.
Schropp says, “We
worked extensively with the engineers at Ford to track back the
oil pump gear failures, but their testing didn’t produce such problems.”
After copious amounts
of research, Livernois realized that the problems weren’t apparent with Ford’s
testing procedures because the power levels and rpm limits weren’t nearly as
extreme as seen in the aftermarket.
“The inner oil pump
gear is lugged off the crankshaft, which means the crankshaft harmonics are
passed through oil pump gears and into the balancer,” says Schropp.
OK, so the OEM oil
pump gears can’t hang with high rpm and big power, but what about the
fix?
“We designed a
bulletproof set of billet aluminum oil pump gear replacements that feature a
computer-controlled, precision-hardened finish, are hand-deburred and finished,
and have tolerances measured and blueprinted to within plus or minus 0.0005
inch,” says Schropp.
The high-quality
Livernois Motorsports billet oil pump gears are available as freestanding gears,
or for those who don’t want to split their own oil pumps open, Livernois offers
an exchange program that allows enthusiasts to trade their stock pump and gears
for a new pump with the billet units already installed. As one might guess, as
power levels and rpm increase, so do the harmonics of the crankshaft. As these
harmonic levels increased, ultimately the powdered metal oil pump gears proved
too brittle to survive the abuse. “Back in 2011 we began seeing problems with
the stock powdered metal oil pump gears shattering, especially on supercharged
applications that utilized an inexpensive, aftermarket crank damper,” Schropp
says.
Livernois Motorsports
not only dug deeper in order to find the root of the problems, but the in-house
team of techs worked with FoMoCo to find a solution.
As mentioned, most of
the failures were found in supercharged applications that utilized inexpensive
balancers.
“Canceling harmonics
is important, so in addition to the upgraded billet oil pump gears, a quality
crank damper is also recommended,” Schropp says. “Increased crankshaft harmonics
aren’t the only problem. Some supercharged applications add so much load on the
snout of the crank that it actually causes the crank to move just enough that
the oil pump gears can bind, only worsening the problem.”
But Ford changed that
with the new 5.0. It was high revving and insanely efficient, it responded well
to mods, and it was capable of big power without boost. In fact, bolt-ons and a
tune were worth as much as 70-80 hp at the wheels. Heck, 500 rwhp or more was
achievable with a stout rotating assembly, ported heads, a Cobra Jet or Boss
intake manifold and accompanying throttle-body, and big cams that allowed the
Coyote to breathe at 8,000 rpm. Of course, an efficient motor responds well to
boost, and tossing 10 psi on the new 5.0 is a recipe for an easy 600 rwhp or
more.
But for everything
the new Coyote is, it certainly isn’t without its faults.
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