Welcome to the third installment of Horsepower Wars LS vs. Coyote shootout. In this series we pit the modern cam-in-block Bowtie engines against the Blue Oval’s baddest overhead cam beasts. This is LS vs. Coyote 3.
Before getting too far into this year’s competition, let’s quickly run through the previous two competitions. The first LS vs Coyote was a more casual competition consisting of naturally aspirated, stock-displacement engines with a $9,999 budget. That one saw the LS3 take the win over the Coyote, with 556 horsepower to the Coyote’s 510, although with the displacements factored in — 6.2 liters vs. 5.0 liters — the Gen-1 Coyote had around 15 percent more horsepower per liter of displacement.
The original showdown that started it all nine years ago. Stock displacement and naturally aspirated with a $9,999 budget.
The second running of the series was a full-blown Horsepower Wars competition. In that one, the budget was upped to $15,000, the stock displacement limits were removed, and the teams were given a choice of ProCharger superchargers. That led to the LS not only dwarfing the Coyote with 427 cubic inches of displacement, but using an F-1X supercharger compared to the Coyote’s F-1A-94, it won the competition with 1,784 horsepower. We later retested the 427-cube LS engine with the same F-1A-94 supercharger the Coyote used, and the LS still won, making over 1,500 horsepower.
That leads us to our third running of the series. This time around, we wanted to not only showcase the latest and greatest technologies from the OEMs, but also tighten up the rules to create more parity between the combinations. The LS engine’s previous 76 and 125 cubic-inch advantages really skewed the prior competitions.
To that end, in LS vs. Coyote 3, we chose to pit the Coyote against the latest Gen V 5.3-liter engine: the L83. Both the Coyote and the L83 will be required to maintain their stock strokes, and are allowed no more than .020-inch of overbore.
Additionally, both engines will be required to use a 76mm turbocharger from HPT Turbo. The compressor and turbine wheels will be identical for each combination, but there are a few different turbine housings the builders can choose from. We’re hoping to see more than 1,300 horsepower out of these combinations, which is a lofty goal from a single 76mm turbo.
The power adder of choice for this showdown is an HPT Turbo 7680 “F3” series turbocharger. Both teams will run the same compressor wheel and cover, as well as the same turbine wheel. They will be allowed to choose from several available turbine housings, however.
So, let’s move on to the builders of LS vs. Coyote 3. Building the Coyote engine this time is Joe Irwin of Fast Forward Race Engines. He’s been at the top of the Coyote game for a long time, and you might know FFRE from their most famous racer — Brett LaSala and Snot Rocket — the quickest and fastest production block Coyote engine in the country. The combination they are bringing to the table is a tried and true one, that FFRE ships to customers on a weekly basis.
On the Chevy side, we have the reigning champions: Bryan Neelen and Late Model Engines. No strangers to this battle, they have been getting quite a bit of notoriety lately for powering Ferris Quartoumy’s Time Attack Corvette, which has set 25 track records around the globe. LME’s L83 combination is outside of their normal engine build, but utilizes all the same R&D as you’d find in any of their usual builds.
On the left is the reigning champion, Bryan Neelen of Late Model Engines. On the right is the challenger, Joe Irwin of Fast Forward Race Enigines. This should be an epic showdown between two very talented engine builders.
In a twist from previous years’ competition, once the engines have competed on the dyno, they will be shipped off to Big 3 Racing and Team Bigun, to be installed in a pair of C10 pickup trucks for the Horsepower Wars C10 Shootout. There, the two teams will have to drive 100 miles on the street before making three back-to-back passes at the dragstrip.
The LS vs Coyote 3 competition will be covered in five more episodes after this one, released on EngineLabs.com and EngineLabs YouTube channel. Then, the C10 Shootout will air on Dragzine.com and Dragzine’s YouTube channel over the course of six episodes.
Horsepower Wars would like to thanks its sponsors for making this possible including Summit Racing, Holley (Holley EFI, Simpson, etc), Manley Performance, Diamond Racing Pistons, COMP Cams, Moroso Performance Products, Automotive Racing Products (ARP), Cometic Gaskets, AMSOIL, Vibrant Performance, HPT Turbochargers, ICT Billet, ATI Performance, Meziere Enterprises, AFCO Racing, Optima Batteries, Old World Industries/Peak, Strange Engineering, SPAL, Auto Metal Direct, and Wiles Driveshaft.
The twist for this season of Horsepower Wars, is that once the engines are done on the dyno, they will be shipped to builders who will install them in one of two C10 pickup trucks for the Horsepower Wars C10 shootout.
