There seems to be a lot of buzz starting regarding the coming Hyundai Genesis coupe. Hopefully it will be a solid foundation that people can easily modify and beat the crap out of without breaking too easily. Anyhow, last week I was working on the 32 over at XS and Gary from Design Craft stopped by in a blue decked out Genesis 2.0L turbo. He already had it decked out with wheels, Stoptech brakes front and rear, custom Apexi coilovers, Turbonetics turbo, intercooler, Sparco seats, Design Craft custom roll cage, etc. It turns out its a 0-60 Magazine project car so look out for a future issue of 0-60 for details on the car (bitchin mag btw).
I have read here and there where people are claiming that the Mitsubishi and Hyundai versions of the 4B engines are nearly the same. So to clarify, here are some factual things I’ve learned from talking to Gary at Design Craft (who would probably be the leading Hyundai 4B11T expert at this point in time), Simon at Hyundai (who is a Hyundai test engineer and probably knows the most about the Genesis Coupe at this point in time), and Mo at Mitsubishi (who just knows a lot about both versions of the 4B11T and a certified car nut himself) about the Hyundai Genesis Coupe and it’s engines:
1. The Hyundai 4B11T is not the same as the Mitsubishi EVO X 4B11T. While the Hyundai 4B is similar in many ways, there are very few common parts. The block, head, pistons, rods, crank, etc. are all similar, but different. Different in that they are lower grade. Hyundai’s rods are powder sintered whereas Mitsubishi’s are forged. Mitsubishi’s pistons are made by Mahle and have a oil reservoir underneath the dish like a Porsche turbo piston. Hyundai’s cast piston is no different in strength compared to one of their passenger cars. Hyundai’s 4B block has far less webbing (this is visible from the exterior). The differences go on and on. That doesn’t mean the Hyundai parts suck. It’s just that the Mitsubishi 4B11T is way better out of the box. While the parts are different, that doesn’t mean that the Mitsubishi pistons, rods, and crank cannot fit into a Hyundai 4B.
2. The cylinder head is different enough that the exhaust manifold and intake manifold flanges and gaskets are not common. They are absolutely different so there will be no manifold and turbo swapping. This is an absolute fact since Gary tried fitting the manifolds from an EVO X. The Mitsu engine is mounted transverse and it is very likely that the castings wouldn’t work anyway. That’s too bad since the Cosworth EVO X 4B11T CNC ported big valve cylinder head will be available to the public soon. See #6 below on the cams.
3. The LSD in the sports version is a gear type LSD and not a clutch type.
4. There is an orifice in the clutch’s hydraulic plumbing that needs to be removed for performance purposes (as do many other cars).
5. The Hyundai V-6 is very similar in design to the Nissan VQ35. If you’re going to make a new V6, you’d be a fool not to copy, oh sorry uh….model your new engine after the VQ35 since it is the best damn V6 in production right now.
6. While the cams are SIMILAR in appearance, they may not be identical like the GenesisDriven blog states. The blog post states that their Korean source says, “With your pictures send to Korea, our engineer and tech dept. have confirmed its identical as 2.0 turbo Theta for those cams.” I’m not sure what kind of engineer looks at a picture on a computer screen, makes a foolish assumption, and says, “Yep, those are identical.” I don’t think I want that engineer designing my parts. Regardless, the Hyundai and Mitsu 4B11T camshafts need to be precisely measured before saying that they are “identical”. I sure hope they’re the same because Cosworth already offers the best damn EVO X cams that money can buy.
7. (added 3/13/09) The ECU is made by Siemens. I wonder who’s going to get in on the reflash crap first? Or better yet, who’s going to make a proper standalone ECU?
Since this is 0-60 Magazine’s car, I can’t quite spoil it for them and show you the whole car or engine, but here you can see that Gary has already made a T3 turbine housing fit. The stock clutch seems to be holding up for now.
Gary has worked his genius again on the cage. His cages are getting cleaner and cleaner. Those Heinekens really get him working, but he still hasn’t touched my S13 in 2.5 years now. It doesn’t seem to matter how many Heinekens I buy him.
Here’s Lanny on the left, Gary in the center, and Jensen on the right. Jensen’s a fag and couldn’t hack the mainland so now he’s back in Hawaii now.
Overall Gary is pretty impressed with the car. He loves how easy it is to work on and said, “Dude, working on this car reminds me of the Honda days.” At 15psi of boost with the larger Turbonetics turbo, it definitely has way more balls than a stock car did. He was going to dyno at XS sometime during this week so I don’t know how much power it made yet. He’s also taken it to the Streets of Willow @ Willow Springs Raceway and said how he was quite impressed with the car (and his own work to the car) even considering how heavy the Genesis coupe was. “The LSD certainly helps with the drifting.”, he said with a big ass smile.
