Coyote Wiring: 2nd Gen F-150 donor + Ford Racing Controls Pack

[CoyoteCobra]

The good:
The second gen F-150 has 385HP stock. That config is with however many mufflers they put on a 150, cats, 87 octane towing tune, truck intake manifold, and log exhaust manifolds. These Coyotes respond very well to modifications as it seems with bolt-ons and tuning you can get them to 425+ HP while maintaining super nice manners and drivability.

For those looking for a milder build using an engine drop out, the F-150 is an incredible value. I found mine locally with about 5k miles on it for about $2500 with all accessories. It is a practically new engine and at that price it was too attractive to pass up.

The bad:
The problem is that the F-150 has a different firing order than the Mustang/Controls Pack (302 HO vs Flathead V8) and it uses MAP vs MAF. The wiring harness on the engine is slightly different and you can't use the Coyote Controls Pack from Ford Racing in a plug and play method. Some adjustments are needed.

The not so ugly:
I've seen so many conflicting statements about how to make it work. Ford's stance is that it simply can't be done without swapping all of the cams along with phasers, chains, tensioners (really? ), and so on. I believe that would set you back about $900 in parts plus quite a bit of work with pulling the chains and retiming everything.

Some say you don't have to make a single change to anything (that's also not true), while others have said that you have to repin practically the whole harness.

There is more than one way to do it, but what I did to make it work (without changing the cams) was pretty quick and easy. It includes a few changes to the wiring harness + a custom tune that I had to get anyway since the engine is modified.

I've yet to see anyone post the easy changes online in a clear manner. If anyone else is having trouble with theirs please feel free to PM me and I can share the changes made along with pictures of how I did it to hopefully spare you the aggravation and trouble!

[eschaider]

You have obviously included yourself in the cadre of the informed but unwilling who know, but do not show or share. Congrats on your success, now do what you claim everyone else does not do and share what you have discovered with the rest of us by adding the how to discussions and pics to this teaser thread.

Ed

[CoyoteCobra]

Ed, the verbiage gave me a laugh! Cadre of the informed? hah! I don't think that my success was some sort of incredible triumph, it was just a little bit of working with the schematics and finding the missing connections.

So where are the "pics" you ask, to remediate this teaser thread? How about I go one further with a PDF walk-through that includes the pin changes, splices, diagrams, and pictures of my harness from start to finish? Unfortunately it is too large for the max attachment size on the forum. Maybe there are too many pics! I will see about breaking it up into chunks or maybe post it on Dropbox or something. In the meantime, if anyone wants a copy they can send me a PM and I can share it directly.

My build has a Gen2 F150 engine and a Ford Racing Controls Pack. I made the changes described in the PDF and documented it in hopes others may find it helpful. For the software/tune config I've been working with Ken at TuningByOz with success. He's been great to work with throughout the process.

[CoyoteCobra]

Here you go. Please note that after making the attached changes, the F-150 Coyote should fire up but I would not run it like this for more than just a second to see if it will start and idle. The F-150 + whatever modification you have made to it will need a custom calibration and the software adjustments for the HEGO, knock sensors, and diagnostics. The stock controls pack tune is expecting a stock air intake, Mustang manifolds, longblock, etc. and that is something your F-150 in a custom installation is not going to mirror. AFRs, timing, diagnostics, etc. are going to be all over the place without changes to the software.

Most software tuners should be able to figure out the sensor assignment for you and do a data log to create a custom tune. When I worked with Ken we did several lengthy data logs from a cold start to operating temp to get the base tune right. The Coyote purrs like a kitten now but I have to do more data logging and tuning with Ken once I get it on the street to make sure the tune is calibrated right under load and driving conditions.


Disclaimer: This is only meant as a guide of one way to do this. It is purely in hopes of helping others with their projects and avoiding the aggravations. The attached worked great for me and is how I solved my wiring issues, but I make no warranty, guarantees, etc. on what you do to your wiring harness, if you cut the wrong wires, short circuit something, break a connector, and so on. If you're in doubt then just don't do the attached and go buy a premade harness from someone (the only ones I found were pretty expensive for just a pinout change though).

I encourage you to verify your work (and my guide) before proceeding or connecting power to your PCM.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/upvmrwfbkk...anges.pdf?dl=0

[TomP]

Good onfo there, thanks!

Question. Is it just the cams that make the firing order different? If one were to use aftermarket cams for the Mustang would it eliminate the need to change the Control Pack firing order? What else is different between the truck and Mustang engines internally? Is the lower compression made by the pistons or are the heads bigger chambers?
Quite a few truck engines available cheap around here but used Mustang engines seem to cost almost what the new crate motors go for and the crate motor wasn't likely subjected to five minute long on the rev limiter burnouts like crashed Mustangs tend to be.

[CoyoteCobra]

Originally Posted by TomP

Good onfo there, thanks!

Question. Is it just the cams that make the firing order different? If one were to use aftermarket cams for the Mustang would it eliminate the need to change the Control Pack firing order? What else is different between the truck and Mustang engines internally? Is the lower compression made by the pistons or are the heads bigger chambers?

Different cams change the firing order. If you change the cams/firing order, you still need to address the wiring issues as the 150's engine harness does not have the connections for the IAT/MAF.

Other differences include: MAP vs MAF (which the controls pack changes to MAF), Different Intake manifold (which you should swap to a GT anyway), 0.5 compression lower via different pistons (10.5 vs 11), different timing cover/accessory drive arrangement, and a slightly smaller oil pump on 150 vs mustang. They also have a different oil-cooler arrangement. The heads are the same.

My f-150 engine also has piston cooling jets, something I had heard was removed from the 2nd gen and up engines but mine definitely still has them. Not sure if it was just the mustang that lost the cooling jets.

The 1st gen 150 has the same firing order as the 1st gen Mustang, but it's also down a lot more on power than 2nd gen 150 with even milder cams and 360HP vs 385HP stock. 2nd gen coyotes have bigger ports, bigger valves, IMRC, and supposedly a little better VCT.

Originally Posted by TomP

Quite a few truck engines available cheap around here but used Mustang engines seem to cost almost what the new crate motors go for and the crate motor wasn't likely subjected to five minute long on the rev limiter burnouts like crashed Mustangs tend to be.

Yep and most crashed f150 were probably not beat on too badly and automatic also makes the likelihood of the 5 minute rev limiter incident less likely too!

[eschaider]

Originally Posted by TomP

Good onfo there, thanks!

Question. Is it just the cams that make the firing order different? ...

That is essentially correct, Tom. Significantly there are also pin / wiring reassignments for things like IAT, MAF (I believe), MAP sensor etc. that need to be accommodated. CoyoteCobra did a very nice job of sleuthing out the various wiring / sensor translations necessary along with the firing order differences.

Ford likes to mix things up with firing orders. They have used at least three different firing orders on modular engines and they have basically three favorites that have been used over the years since the first Flathead V8. Here is a listing of the various possible firing orders for GM style (left bank forward) and Ford style (right bank forward) engines.

A couple of comments about the chart, while left and right bank forward engine configurations mix up the firing orders so to does cylinder numbering. Ford chooses to number sequentially front to back on a bank. GM and Chrysler put odd numbered cylinders all on one bank and even numbered cylinders all on the other bank. As if not to be out done Ferrari numbers their V8 engine cylinders sort of like Ford except they go big to small front to back, i.e. 4,3,2,1 rather than 1.2.3.4. That makes cylinder firing order distinctions difficult to visualize in your head. The best way is to draw out eight circles on a piece of paper beginning with the #1 hole and draw arrows to each subsequent cylinder in firing order sequence.

A couple of additional thoughts; flat plane cranks can be made with the rod journals alternating up and down crank pin to crank pin or they can be made with the front crank pin up, the middle two down and the last (back) crank pin up. The two different crank styles further complicate the flat plane crank firing orders that are possible.

The other thought that I find interesting was Cosworth's firing order change in the 90's. Although there were other significant engine developments also, the 90's F-1 engines with the new firing order became the first F-1 engines to be able to operate at 20,000 rpm (and higher). In fact it was because of this new found rpm capability that F-1 rules began to limit maximum on track in competition engine speeds.

The aftermarket has done a fairly significant amount of experimentation with GM style firing orders. Firing order changes sometimes are designed to even our heat in the block and heads, sometimes to prevent one cylinder from 'stealing' charge from its neighbor, sometimes to mitigate vibration and sometimes to gain horsepower.

By and large the power improvements have amounted to about 1% or so. Not significant to John Q. Average. To a racer in a competitive class with qualifying fields from fastest to slowest qualified within one or two tenths of a second, these differences can make the effort and expense worth while. For the rest of us mere mortals — not so much.

In the FWIW bucket the best power producing firing order traslated to the Ford cylinder layout turns out to be Ford's original Flathead firing order — isn't that interesting.

Ford has used several of these firing orders on the Coyote already which is the origin of the onerous buy parts admonition to convert certain Coyote engines to use other Coyote ECU's. For guys like us that transplant engines into cars they did not come in you need to pay attention when you do things like ordering camshafts.

If you order cams for a firing order different than your ECU is pinned for then you will be facing either a wiring harness rework or a new set of cams to work with the ECU you have. While not a buyer beware scenario it is definitely a buyer be aware scenario. An interesting parallel I like to remember from time to time is the imortal words of the Knight;s Templar to Indy as he is trying to select the 'True Grail' from the many grails spread across the table before him in the Knight's cave. The Knight's Templar admonishes Indy, "Choose wisely, he (the dead NAZI on the floor) did not ..." those words also also apply to us as we navigate through this increasingly interesting firing order landscape.


Ed