Inside The 2015 Mustang’s 5.0L Coyote And 2.3L EcoBoost Engines

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The 2015 Mustang, in all its forms, is one of the most-anticipated and highly-hyped vehicles to come down the pipeline in recent memory. The complete redesign of the car sets it up for world-debut status, as this is the first Mustang to ever be offered outside U.S. shores, necessitated changes in the power strategy moving forward – and all the details are here.

The 5.0L Coyote powerplant has proven itself exceptionally capable since its introduction in the Mustang back in 2011. The high-winding, four-valve-per-cylinder V8 engine took the best of each of Ford’s technologies at the time, incorporated them all into one engine platform that boasted 412 horsepower and 390 lb-ft of torque, and showed the capability to handle large power improvements through the addition of various aftermarket engine enhancements like turbo- and supercharging.

Coyote Upgrades

For 2015, the 5.0L has been revised using a number of technologies designed to improve the horsepower and torque figures, along with fuel economy, without hurting performance. One of the major upgrades to the 5.0L is the addition of Charge Motion Control Plates, which were tried on previous Four-Valve 4.6 engines with varying levels of success – but mainly served to frustrate enthusiasts as the previous designs were a serious restriction, and in fact ended up on the shop floor once an enthusiast began serious modifications with an eye toward performance.

driving-2015-mustang-things-want-knowThese plates are designed to close off some of the large intake runner to speed up the incoming airflow’s velocity and boost the torque figures at low speed. The plates fold up toward the roof of the intake runner and become invisible to the incoming air when they are open. The benefit of using these plates is a 2-mile-per-gallon increase in fuel economy, and an additional 20 lb-ft of torque over the 2011-14 iteration of the powerplant.

According to Engineering Manager Brian Mazzella, “They have the same intent as the 4.6-liter engine. This time around was a real crusade of ours to design the plates to fold out of the way so they don’t pivot in the middle like a throttle body. When it folds into the runner it’s gone so you can’t see it at all and it doesn’t impede power whatsoever. You’ll notice when you get in the car, if you have any experience with the 2011 and up cars, that idle is far better – just smooth as silk.”

Also upgraded during the engineering process were the cylinder heads. In order to create a more direct air path, the intake valves were enlarged by .3mm, which results in a four percent increase.

ICE engineer (Intake, Combustion, and Exhaust) Adam Christian, says, “The valve stays in the same place and the ports got a little bigger. What happens is that septum in the port (what we call the middle of the two runners) dropped way down. So it’s almost just one port all the way down, then suddenly splits into two.”

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Christian continues, “Basically the 2015 5.0 cylinder head flows as good as the BOSS head, but in a cast form. It also received the BOSS exhaust valve which is eighth tenths of a millimeter bigger.”

Piston design has also been altered to create a stronger casting that uses a new ring package. Connecting rods used are straight from the BOSS302 program, and the valve reliefs in the piston are enlarged to accommodate the larger valves.

Boost From The Factory

Enough about the 5.0L – let’s get into the newest star of the Mustang program, the 2.3L EcoBoost engine, which boasts turbocharging as a power-adder and represents the first time a four-cylinder turbocharged engine has been factory implemented in the Mustang since the well regarded and much-loved SVO variants in the mid-1980s.

Given the current performance climate, we feel this platform will likely explode in popularity as its capabilities are exploited by the aftermarket. The engine in factory form puts out 310 horsepower and 320 lb-ft of torque, routed through the restrictive factory air inlet and exhaust.

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Once the aftermarket gets a good handle on the engine’s operating parameters, there’s no doubt in our minds that the EcoBoost will knock down 32 miles per gallon and run with the stock GT Mustang in the process. Turbo upgrades, better parts throughout – the sky is the limit with this new design.

The 2.3L EcoBoost is based on the 2.0L engine currently found in the Focus ST with a larger stroke and many other changes.

“We have been working on the 2.3-liter EcoBoost for two and a half years,” says Pete Pandolfi, Engine Systems Supervisor. The 2.3 is built off the same family of architecture as the 2-liter so they go down the same line; they have the same machine centers. The 2.3 is a stroked version of the 2-liter, but it’s basically an all new engine. It has a high pressure diecast block, steel crank, forged connecting rods, the all new three port Integrated Exhaust Manifold (IEM) cylinder head, and then really the key for this car is the twin scroll turbocharger.

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“So one important part of a turbocharged I4 is pulse separation,” explains Pandolfi. “You have to separate exhaust pulses because when you have adjacent cylinders, you get feedback into another adjacent cylinder. When you’re in blow down, it is quite common to end up with flow going back up into an adjacent cylinder. So like on a traditional single port IEM, it’s just a big cavity where you get this turbulent flow and mixing within the IEM. Separating the cylinders down to the turbo helps reduce this. In the end you get good pulse energy right at the turbine wheel of the turbocharger. You don’t get the losses that are associated with the mixing of the exhaust flow. So that is really the key to killing the turbo lag and getting great low end torque. Starting at about 2,000 rpm the power begins to come in and the torque curve just completely comes alive at 2,700 rpm and then torque peaks at 4,500 rpm.”

Our sister site, StangTV, recently completed a media drive on both platforms with a full review of all of the new car’s capabilities, so if you’re interested in learning all of the details of the complete car, head over there and check it out.

About the author

Jason Reiss

Jason draws on over 15 years of experience in the automotive publishing industry, and collaborates with many of the industry's movers and shakers to create compelling technical articles and high-quality race coverage.
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