Ford Variable Valve Timing On A 5.8 ... Possible?

So I've been sitting back and fantasying about a project that I will call Craptane. How much reliable power can be made on 91 octane gas? This would be a money is no object project and include never before tried ideas like variable valve timing on a 5.8. Just wondering if it is possible to retrofit Ford's VVT on a 5.8 somehow. I certainly won't be trying this, but it is fun to think about.

It would be badass, but I don't see anyway that would work, you would have to put coyote heads, wiring harness and ECU on a 5.8, but I don't think coyote heads will work with a 5.8. Needless to say I don't think it's a possibility.

Deck heights on the 5.4/5.8 are much taller than the 5.0/5.2, so heads, intake and valvetrain components are not going to swap over with factory parts. It would be a very expensive, custom endeavor. But why? The bigger engines are not lacking in the torque department.

Just need a 5 axis CNC machine and about $50,000.


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Anything is possible with enough $$. As stated, it would be a completely custom build. I'm sure one of the top shops like Kinetik or Fischer could pull it off with enough time and money.

If money is no object, why bother with the 91 octane? put some boost to it, run E85 and make more power than God. The VVT thing would be extremely difficult if not impossible. You would have to make a mechanism and if I'm not mistaken there are solenoids controlled by the PCM to control it. You would have to make all that plus write code to control it.

Would it be possible to stroke 5.0 to 5.8?

I could see this if it were made to be all mechanical and have no engine management involved. If you could make a centrifugal device to attach to the front of the cams that could retard the cams as RPM increases to shift the power/torque higher.
This would involve modifying the front cover and valve covers to fit the centrifugal mechanism.
MIGHT be possible.

redline said:

Would it be possible to stroke 5.0 to 5.8?

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Not possible, 5.4/5.8 stroke is 105.8mm Vs 5.0/5.2 stroke which is 92.7mm. This is why 5.4/5.8 blocks have a taller deck height, to accommodate the longer stroke.

While this is a cool idea I'm not really sure the complexity of making this work justifies the cost and time for the results.

Also don't a lot of the high HP 5.0/5.2 guys mod there cam phasers/VVT to be locked out?

merkyworks said:

Not possible, 5.4/5.8 stroke is 105.8mm Vs 5.0/5.2 stroke which is 92.7mm. This is why 5.4/5.8 blocks have a taller deck height, to accommodate the longer stroke.

While this is a cool idea I'm not really sure the complexity of making this work justifies the cost and time for the results.

Also don't a lot of the high HP 5.0/5.2 guys mod there cam phasers/VVT to be locked out?

Click to expand...

Yep, for max effort they aren't needed. They certainly help with drivability though.

Thanks for the discussion. I love sitting around and ruminating about stuff like this, and then I get frustrated because I don't have 20 million sitting around for my own research facility to develop it .

The solution is to throw a few thou at a bigger supercharger.

Order a tall deck Billet MMR Coyote block.
Make a 7.0L TiVCT Coyote, boost it with twin 88s and make all the power.
Seriously though, the Coyote is still based on the Modular platform and I’d have to look at the head bolt spacing, but the bore spacing is the same. Coyote heads on the 5.8, custom timing chains to adapt the Coyote VCT and custom intake. All ran by factory Coyote ECU.
Definitely not cost effective, but cool bench racing.
-J