A New York Shop Is Giving The Ford Maverick What Ford Never Would
Ford has never sold the Maverick with anything bigger than a four-cylinder, but New York’s Tucci Hot Rods is changing that with a twin-turbo 5.0-liter Coyote V8. That’s the same engine family found in the Mustang GT, and the finished truck will debut at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas from November 3 to 6, 2026.
The V8 is already bolted in, though getting it there meant cutting into the truck’s structure. This is also the second time Tucci’s Maverick has caught Ford’s attention, and the first one ended up influencing a production trim.
Ford Gave The Maverick Everything But A V8
The 2026 Maverick comes standard with a 191 hp hybrid four-cylinder, while the optional 2.0-liter EcoBoost makes 250 hp and 280 lb-ft. That’s decent power for a compact truck with a starting price of $27,145. It’s also as far as Maverick performance has gone since the truck launched for the 2022 model year.
Ford did make the Maverick sportier with the Lobo, which adds a lowered suspension, available 19-inch wheels and a street-truck look. Under the hood, though, the Lobo uses the same 250 hp EcoBoost as other gas Mavericks. It’s a styling and handling upgrade rather than a power upgrade.
The Maverick shares Ford’s C2 platform with the Bronco Sport and Escape, an architecture built around small engines mounted sideways that drive the front wheels. That layout makes a big V8 a poor fit from the factory. Ford has given its bigger trucks halo models like the Bronco Raptor and F-150 Raptor R, but the Maverick has never had one of its own.
The Shoehorned Twin-Turbo Coyote V8 Promises An 800 HP Maverick
Tucci Hot Rods is a two-person shop in Marcy, New York, run by owner Dave Tucci and his son Dom. Their new Maverick project replaces the 2.0-liter four-cylinder with a 5.0-liter Coyote V8. In the 2026 Mustang GT, that engine makes 480 hp and 415 lb-ft, while the Dark Horse version makes 500 hp and 418 lb-ft.
The Coyote is a wide, four-cam V8 designed to sit lengthwise in a rear-drive car, while the Maverick’s engines sit sideways. To make it fit, Tucci cut away a large part of the transmission tunnel and part of the firewall, then fabricated custom engine mounts. The shop admitted on Instagram that the swap is “not for the faint of heart.”
Behind the V8 sits a ZF 8HP70 eight-speed automatic instead of the 10-speed the Coyote uses in the Mustang. The ZF gearbox is a common choice for engine swaps, and LOJ Conversions, one of the companies Tucci has tagged, sells adapters that pair it with the Coyote. Both the engine and transmission are now fully mounted.
Tucci plans to add two turbochargers to the Coyote, and the shop has tagged Hellion, which builds turbo kits for Coyote-powered Mustangs. Several reports suggest a target of more than 800 hp, though Tucci hasn’t confirmed a figure yet. Other tagged partners include cooling specialist Mishimoto and tuning company HP Tuners, but the rest of the build remains under wraps.
The Last Time Tucci Built A Maverick, Ford Took Notes
Tucci’s first Maverick debuted at SEMA 2021, starting life as an all-wheel-drive XLT with the 2.0-liter EcoBoost. Dom Tucci designed it with 3D-printed fender flares, a front lip, a roof spoiler and turbofan-style wheels. Ford CEO Jim Farley praised the truck publicly, and it won the Ford Performance award for best vehicle on Ford’s stand.
According to Ford Authority, the buzz around that truck helped Maverick designer Josh Blundo get approval to develop the 2025 Maverick Lobo. The V8 project appears to use that same widebody truck as its starting point, which gives this build a head start on Ford’s radar.
Ford is unlikely to build a V8 Maverick, especially given how much cutting and fabricating this swap required. Still, Tucci’s last Maverick helped shape a production trim, so this one is worth watching when it rolls into SEMA from November 3 to 6.
Source: Tucci Hot Rods
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