Ford's 5.2-liter "Voodoo" V8 powered the 2015–2020 Mustang Shelby GT350 and GT350R. It is a member of Ford's Coyote / Modular engine family, but with one famous twist: a flat-plane crankshaft.
Layout90° V8, two banks of four cylinders
Displacement5.2 L (5,163 cc); bore 94 mm × stroke 93 mm
Valves4 per cylinder (32), DOHC — 4 camshafts, chain-driven
CrankshaftFlat-plane (crankpins 180° apart), forged steel
Output526 hp at 7,500 rpm · 429 lb-ft at 4,750 rpm
Redline8,250 rpm · compression 12.0:1
Fuel / sparkPort fuel injection · coil-on-plug ignition
Firing order1-5-4-8-3-7-2-6
- Every engine like this does four strokes per cylinder: suck in air and fuel, squeeze it, burn it, push the burnt gas out. Then repeat.
- Pistons slide up and down in the cylinders. Connecting rods link them to the crankshaft, which turns that up-and-down motion into spinning.
- The crank drives the four camshafts through timing chains at half its speed. Cam lobes open the valves that let air in and exhaust out at exactly the right moments.
- Air enters through the air box and throttle into the intake manifold in the "V"; injectors add fuel; a spark plug lights the mix; hot gas leaves through the headers on the outside of each bank.
- Oil (pumped from the pan) keeps metal from rubbing on metal, and coolant (pushed by the water pump) carries away heat.
- The flat-plane crank makes the two banks take turns firing, like two four-cylinder engines sharing a crank. That helps it breathe and rev to 8,250 rpm and gives it a raw, high-pitched wail instead of the classic V8 burble — at the cost of more vibration.
The flow in one sentence: air and fuel go in, get squeezed and burned, push the pistons down to spin the crankshaft, and leave as exhaust — eight cylinders taking turns, about 33,000 times a minute at redline.
About accuracy: the big numbers (bore, stroke, 100 mm bore spacing, rod length about 150.7 mm, deck height 227 mm, 90° bank angle, power, redline, compression, up-down-up-down crank, firing order 1-5-4-8-3-7-2-6) come from published sources below. Everything else is simplified or approximate: shapes are built from simple pieces; valves are drawn straight instead of tilted; the roller finger followers are simplified; the chain and accessory-belt routing, the water pump, alternator and air box positions are only typical; the front timing cover is left off so you can see the chains; headers are shown 4-into-3-into-1 as Ford described, but their exact bends are invented. The engine runs in heavy slow motion, and valve timing is illustrative (real cam timing is variable). Ford numbers cylinders 1–4 on the passenger-side (right) bank and 5–8 on the driver-side (left) bank; firing orders differ between engines, even within Ford's own V8 family.
Sources: Wikipedia "Ford Modular engine" (Coyote and 5.2 L Voodoo sections); MotorTrend, "Flat Out: An In-Depth Look at the Ford Shelby GT350 Mustang Engine" (June 2015); Car and Driver GT350 output announcement; AutoGuide GT350 engine interview with Ford engineers; HowStuffWorks "How Car Engines Work". Built entirely from code-generated shapes and textures with Three.js. Conceptual explainer only — not a repair or build guide.