Ford has been keeping details, and even photos of the Voodoo engine for the coming 2016 GT350 a closely guarded secret. Today, we were able to get our first look at the Voodoo engine under the hood of a GT350 prototype, by carefully freezing a video Ford released of the car with the hood open during cold weather testing.

To the casual observer, this might appear to just be a Coyote engine with the covers removed. That was probably the point,and the reason why the video slipped out without any fuss from Ford Performance. Closer inspection reveals some subtle differences, and we have to admit we need to see the genuine article in person to delve deeper, but here’s what we can discern from the images we captured.

Coolant overflow tube routes over throttle body. This could be for any number of reasons, but likely because the engine is using somewhat different coolant routing, at least on the top side than the Coyote.

Shorter air intake tube. The air intake tube is considerably shorter than on a stock ’15 Mustang GT due to the air filter housing design.

Open air filter housing. This shouldn’t be a surprise, as Ford did something similar with the GT500. The open box allows more air flow, especially to the cone shaped filter.

No sound tube. There’s no sound tube on this GT350, or at least none that we can see in the photos, or a provision for one in the intake tube. It’s quite like the GT350 is loud enough already.

Integtated IAT. Something we noticed was the absence of a separate intake air temperature sensor (IAT). The GT500 used a separate IAT, where the Coyote’s is integrated into the MAF. We can’t see the side of the air intake tube that faces the engine, or other locations on the intake, so we’re not 100-percent sure. It stands to reason the GT350 is naturally aspirated and will not use a separate IAT.

Routing of air intake tube is different. The air intake drops down to box the air filter housing on the GT350. On a Coyote powered GT the tube routes up to the filter housing. There are two possible explanations that we see here. The first is that the GT350’s filter housing may be further forward, positioning it lower in the car. This would differ from the air filter housing that is placed closer to the strut tower on the GT, and could possibly be located in a higher position.
The second possible explanation is that the Voodoo engine’s intake is using longer, taller, or higher placed runners. This could place the throttle body higher than on a GT, and be the reason for the difference in the appearance.

Intake runner size appears to be larger/thicker. This is one that’s extremely difficult to judge in the photos. The Voodoo intake runners appear to be larger and thicker than the Coyote. This appearance could be because there’s no intake cover on the Voodoo, and parts of the runners are concealed with the standard Coyote engine cover.

Oil filler cap in a different position. The oil filler cap is further back on the cam cover, indicating there’s something different. This was likely moved do to differences in the valve train configuration, or possibly even differences in the cams between the Voodoo and the Coyote.

Engine appears smaller in size. It could be that without a bunch of covers to dress it up, that the Voodoo engine appears smaller in external dimensions than the relatively large Coyote.

These are the differences we were able to discern from the images we captured in the Ford video on winter testing. What differences can you spot? Sound off in the comments below.