Hyundai Delta Tuning

"All you need to know about performance parts and tuning the Hyundai Delta engine!"

The Delta V6 engine family has been used in various Hyundai and Kia vehicles. We look at Delta tuning and provide tips on the best modifications for your engine block.

We cover tuning tips for the following engine codes.

G6BW/G6BVV /G6BA/G6BAX/G6BAY 

Hyundai Delta are awesome to work on and with the optimum tuning parts like a remap, turbo upgrades and camshafts you will noticeably maximise your driving opportunities.

We review and look at Delta tuning and show the optimum modifications for your Delta engine. Hyundai Delta are awesome to work on and with the optimum uprated enhancements like a remap, turbo upgrades and camshafts you will enhance your driving pleasure.

History, Power & Specs of the Engine

G6BW/G6BVV

• 2.5 liter version with 170 hp @6000 rpm 170 lbft @3750 rpm

G6BA/G6BAX/G6BAY

• 2.7 liter version 165–172 hp @6000rpm 181 lbft @4000rpm

The Delta engine was used in the following models

• Hyundai Grandeur (1998-2005)
• Hyundai Sonata (1999-2005)
• Kia Optima (2000-2006)
• Hyundai Santa Fe (2000-2006)
• Hyundai Coupe (2001-2009)
• Hyundai Tiburon (2003-2008)
• Hyundai Trajet
• Hyundai Tucson (2004-2009)
• Kia Sportage

Best Delta parts

Just because a upgrades is popular with Delta owners it doesn't mean it is good, we will highlight what we regard are the ultimate upgrades that will give your Delta the best power gain for you spend.

The camshaft profile plays a big part in the engines power output so camshaft upgrades make quite a large difference. The intake and exhaust durations will alter depending on the chosen camshaft profile, so large torque gains are on offer for camshaft upgrades.

Fast road cams usually raise the power across the rev band, you could sacrifice a little low end torque but high end rpm power will be higher.

Motorsport and race cams, raise the high end rpm power band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

On a daily driver you need to optimize your torque band to your usage of the car.

I would be surprised if you have found a Competition cam is a pleasure to live with when driving around busy urban areas. This is because a competition cam causes a very lumpy idle, and makes the car more prone to stall or jerk along in stop start traffic, sadly though many ignore this and end up ruining a perfectly good car and having to revert back to a fast road, or OEM cam profile.

Each engine responds better to extreme camshaft durations so view each engine as unique.

The engine timing and fuel pump and injectors also have an effect on the torque gains you'll achieve.

A longer valve duration can alter the torque band and on most engines the exhaust and intake durations do not need to match, although most cams and tuners use matched pairs there are some advantages to extending the intake or exhaust durations.

Please watch our video which covers the 5 principles of tuning your car. Be sure to keep up with our latest YouTube content and subscribe.

Best Engine Mods for your car

1. Engine Tunes - engine tuning/remapping provides the most advantage in terms of cost savings,  aftermarket ECUs, and piggyback ECUs are all alternatives.
2. Fast road cams are one of the most significant mechanical changes, but they must be installed by someone who knows what they're doing and they are not always easy to source but you might find a local firm to regrind a stock camshaft.
3. Intake and Exhaust - Note that on their own these mods will NOT ADD POWER in most cases, but they can help enhance power after other mods by removing the restriction.
4. Upgrades to turbochargers and superchargers - forced induction is the most efficient approach to increase air supply, allowing you to burn more fuel and make more power. It is one of the most costly upgrades but provides the best gains.
5. Head work - The goals of porting and flowing the head are to get air flowing into the engine while removing flow restrictions and turbulence.

Typical stage 1 mods often include: Panel air filters, Sports exhaust header/manifold, Intake manifolds, Fast road camshaft, Remaps/piggy back ECU, drilled & smoothed airbox.

Typical stage 2 mods often include: Ported and polished head, fuel pump upgrades, induction kit, high flow fuel injectors, Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, Fast road cam.

Typical stage 3 mods often include: Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Engine balancing & blueprinting, Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Twin charging conversions, Competition cam, Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger).

A remap should help to fully realize the full potential of all the tuning parts you've fitted to your Delta.

(In some cases, as the factory ECU is locked flashing is not an option, so an aftermarket ECU is the route to take, and many of these will outperform factory ECU's but make sure it has knock protection and that you get it setup properly.)

It will usually give you around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and 15% on NA (naturally aspirated) engines, but you mileage will vary depending on the tuning parts you've done and the condition of your engine.

Feeding air and fuel into the Delta engine is the whole point to any tuning task.

An intake manifold will channel the air from the intake filter and allow it to be fed into the engine and mixed with fuel.

Structure and rate of flow of the Intake manifold can make a substantial effect on to fuel engine efficiency on the Delta.

Most plenum chambers are in desperate need of performance upgrades, although a few manufacturers provide reasonably well designed plenum chambers.

Adding a Delta larger valve kit, getting port work and head flowing will also boost bhp and torque, this will afford you an improved bhp and torque increase on other upgrades.

Turbo upgrades

NA (naturally aspirated) engines need quite a lot of work when you add a turbo, so we have a separate guide to help you take into account the pros and cons of going this route on your Delta

The more air to get into an engine, the more fuel it can burn and uprating the induction with a turbocharger upgrade makes massive power gains.

When the engine is turbo charged upgrades are simpler to install and we find turbo engines use more solid components.

However you'll find engines have limits

Discover these restrictions and install better quality components to utilize the power.

We've seen tuners spending a a stack of money on turbo upgrades on the Delta only to have the engine throw a rod just after it's been completed.

Large capacity turbo units tend to suffer a bottom end lag, and low capacity turbo units spool up more quickly but won't have the peak end torque gains.

In the last 10 years the market of turbochargers is always developing and we now see variable vane turbochargers, where the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end power.

Twin scroll turbochargers divert the exhaust flow into 2 channels and push these at differently angled vanes in the turbocharger. They also improve the scavenging effect of the engine.

It is common that there is a limit in the air flow sensor MAF/MAP on these engines when a lot more air is being pulled into the engine.

Going up you'll find 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor was restricting bhp at a much lower level.

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large bhp and torque gains, although more difficult to install. We have a twincharger bhp and torque adding guide if you want to read more.

Fuelling

Don't overlook the need to pay attention to the fuelling when you are increasing the bhp - it makes the car more thirsty. We would recommend you to be generous with your injector capacity.

The accepted safe increase is to add 20% when specifying an injector, this takes into account injector deterioration and gives some spare capacity should the engine need more fuel.

We think this one is common sense, but you'll need to match your fuel injector to the type of fuel your car uses as well.

Exhaust

Only look to upgrade your exhaust if the existing exhaust is creating a restriction.

On most factory exhausts you'll see your flow rate is still ok even on modest power gains, but when you start pushing up the power levels you will need to get a better flowing exhaust.

Sports exhausts increase the flow of gases through the engine.

But if the exhaust pipe is too big, ie: it's over 2.5 inches bore, you will lose a lot of the exhaust flow rate and end up lacking power and torque.

Typically exhaust restrictions can be located the catalysts installed, so adding a better flowing race alternative such as a sports catalyst pretty much removes this restriction, thanks to it's larger size and surface area, and will effectively raise the performance to levels you would expect without having a catalyst installed, but keeps the car road legal.

Weak spots Issues & problem areas on the Delta

The Delta engines are generally reliable and solid units, as long as you follow the manufacturers service schedules, and use a good quality oil to ensure longevity. Few problems should happen as long as they are regularly serviced and maintained.

Carbon build up in the head, particularly around the valves which will sap power or create flat spots, this is a larger issue on direct injection engines but should be looked out for on all engines. We have tips on removing carbon build up.

Some of our members have had issues with flat spots or glitches after applying mods and upgrades or tuning, this is not usually related to this engines design, so instead see our article on diagnosing flat spots and problems after tuning which should help you get the bottom of this issue.

Regular oil changes are vital on the Delta, especially when tuned and will help extend the life and reliability of the engine.

If you would like to know more, or just get some friendly advice on Tuning your engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Hyundai, Kia. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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