Don’t call it a Coyote: This Honda K24-based V-8 could be a 990-hp banshee

If you’ve ever been down the engine-building rabbit hole far enough, you know there’s an endless number of imagine-if powerplants. With the right tools and enough time, a builder can treat whole cylinder heads like Lego bricks, piecing together a rotating assembly to make everything work together—which is exactly what mechanical engineer Craig Williams has begun to do with this Honda K24-based build.

Williams’ creation will use a pair of K20/24-based billet heads machined by PPR Motorsport and arranged somewhat like those in a traditional small-block, in which the same basic cylinder head is used on each side. In contrast, most overhead-cam V-8s use a unique cylinder head on each bank, each with its required timing components. Williams’ arrangement does require a timing chain on the front and rear of the engine block, but it simplifies the engineering and machining process in a number of ways. By choosing to not reinvent the wheel, Williams can mimic Honda’s core design and avoid the headache of creating and validating a new set of tensioners and chains—the possible harmonic consequences of tying together four cams.

Instead of placing the intake in the valley between the cylinders, this custom motor will route the exhaust through the vee of the engine. This arrangement was necessitated by the placement of the timing tensioner bolts in the block; Williams had to make sure the bolts wouldn’t interfere with the internal oil passages. By swapping the intake and exhaust from their conventional down-draft configurations, the cams (and their timing chain setups) also swapped positions; this flip moved the tensioner to a better position on the motor.

Given that the K24’s doubled displacement is roughly 4.8 liters, the internet community quickly began comparing William’s prototype to Ford’s 5.0-liter Coyote, leading Williams to do the above overlay, which shows how much more compact his new V-8 would be. His new motor is slimmer, though the widths of the two overhead-cam V-8s are similar.

It doesn’t take long to start dreaming of the vehicles into which you could shove Williams’ powerplant. An S2000 is the easy choice, but what about a first-generation NSX? Its reputation as the poor man’s Ferrari came partly from the modest V-6 under the rear windshield—a situation that’s easily remedied with this all-Honda flat-plane V-8!

The project is making its public debut after five years of initial development work involving scanning and modeling the original K24 (bought at a U-pull-it, naturally) before designing an engine block and rotating assembly to support the K24’s heads.