Images: CoPart.com

The Coyote engine is no doubt a popular platform these days, especially for engine swaps. We often find ourselves browsing listings from various salvage suppliers for engine build candidates, or a great deal on a take out engine. We’ve seen Coyote engines out of F-150 pickups selling for as little as $1,800, while Mustang GT engines still demand a premium, often over $5,000. That’s why we’re so interested in this listing from CoPart.

We stumbled across the link to this listing from a friend’s Facebook post. This twisted, wrecked, and completely totaled mess, was once a 2012 Mustang GT/CS. While the car looks to have been through the wringer, with only two wheels, a tail light, and maybe the gas door, looking salvageable from the photos, closer inspection reveals a surprise.

Sitting in mangled remains of what was once the engine bay is a blown Coyote engine, dusty, but seemingly intact. What’s more, there’s a supercharger sitting atop it, either a TVS (ROUSH or VMP by our guess) or possibly a Ford Racing Whipple.

Close inspection of the photos lead us to believe the engine is undamaged externally. We have no way to know if the internals were damaged by it running upside down, or through some other calamity. What we see appears to be some broken engine mounts, the transmission (we’re not sure if auto or manual) could in theory be salvageable as well.

The wreck is currently up for auction. The carcass offers nothing else redeeming, and we can’t be sure the engine is 100-percent salvageable. Still, with a current bid of $325, and less than a week to go, this could be a gamble that pays off. Someone might walk away with an engine, transmission and a couple of wheels. On the used market away from the wreck, that could easily net a few grand for the engine and trans, and a couple hundred for the wheels and tires. If the engine is viable, then it would make a great swap candidate with a Ford control pack, or an AEM Infinity. Don’t want to risk it? The block, heads, and even the blower, could all be used and rebuilt as cores, saving big money on a high powered engine build.

Would you gamble on this salvage auction. What would you drop it in?