Tuning the Hyundai Delta G6BW/G6BVV /G6BA/G6BAX/G6BAY

"Comprehensive guide to tuning the Hyundai Delta engine!"

Now we shall provide a guide to Delta tuning and provide tips on the greatest mods that work. Hyundai Delta make awesome project engines and with carefully picked motorsport mods like a remap, turbo upgrades and camshafts you will definitely maximise your driving fun.

Just because particular parts are popular with Delta owners it doesn't mean you should fit it, we will focus on the parts that will give your Delta the biggest power gain return for your cash.

Significant gains on the Delta can be made from cam upgrades. Altering the cam profile alters the intake and exhaust durations on the engine and can dramatically change the bhp and power output.

NB: Fast road cams normally bump the power throughout the rpm range, you could drop a little bottom end torque but high end rpm power will be higher.

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

A Motorsport cam is not great on the daily commute.

You should ideally match your engines power to your preferences so for a road car stick with a fast road Delta cam

Each engine responds better to extreme cam durations check your engine on a rolling road.

The ecu map and fuelling also will say much on the power gains you'll make.

Altering valve durations can alter the power 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 TorqueCars Video tutorial on car tuning. And be sure to subscribe and support our new channel.

Stages of Tune

Stage 1 mods: Sports exhaust manifold, Drilled & smoothed airbox, Remaps/piggy back ECU, Panel air filters, Intake headers, Fast road camshaft.

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

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

ECU mapping allows a tuner to unlock the full potential of all the parts you've fitted to your Delta G6BW/G6BVV /G6BA/G6BAX/G6BAY.

It will usually give around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but your results usually vary depending on the parts you've fitted and the condition of your engine.

It is the whole point to any engine tuning task to pull more fuel and air into each cylinder

Intake transmit the air during the suck phase from the intake filter and allow it to be sucked into the engine cylinders with fuel for the squish phase.

Structure and flow characteristics of the Air Intake manifolds can make a substantial effect on to fuel mixing and power on the Delta G6BW/G6BVV /G6BA/G6BAX/G6BAY.

Many mass produced engine intake manifold are in dire need of performance upgrades, although some makers provide reasonably well designed intake manifold.

Adding a Delta G6BW/G6BVV /G6BA/G6BAX/G6BAY larger valve kit, getting port matching and head flowing will also raise torque, & more importantly will raise potential for increasing the torque increase on other parts.

Turbo upgrades

NASP 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 G6BW/G6BVV /G6BA/G6BAX/G6BAY

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

If a car has forced induction modifications are more reliable and you will discover turbo charged engines will have many forged and stronger components.

However you will find an engines will have power limits

See where you'll find these limits and install better quality crank and pistons to cope with the power.

We see many car owners spending a lot of money on turbocharger upgrades on the Delta G6BW/G6BVV /G6BA/G6BAX/G6BAY only to see the motor literally blow up when it's used on the roads.

Big capacity turbo chargers often suffer no power at low rpm, and low capacity turbo chargers spool up more quickly but don't have the top end engines power gains.

In recent times the choice of turbo chargers is always increasing and we are seeing variable vane turbo chargers, permitting the vane angle is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end power.

Twin scroll turbo chargers divert the exhaust flow into a couple of channels and direct these at differently designed vanes in the turbo. They also increase the scavenging effect of the engine.

It is not unusual that there's a limit in the air flow sensor AFM/MAF on the Delta G6BW/G6BVV /G6BA/G6BAX/G6BAY when considerably more air is being fed into the engine.

You'll see that 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor limited power at a much lower level.

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large performance gains, although harder to install. We have this in depth look at twinchargers if you want to read more.

Fuelling upgrades and mods

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so should look at the fuelling when you start exceeding 20% of a bhp increase.It makes sense to over specify your flow rate on the injectors.

As a rule of thumb add 20% capacity when fitting an injector, this allows for injector deterioration and provides a little 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 upgrades and mods

You may need to upgrade your exhaust if your current exhaust is actually creating a flow problem.

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

Please dont run with the widest exhaust you can get you'll reduce the exhaust flow rate - the best for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.

Typically exhaust restrictions are in the emissions filters installed, so adding a faster flowing sports alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Weak spots, Issues & common problem areas on the Delta G6BW/G6BVV /G6BA/G6BAX/G6BAY

The Delta G6BW/G6BVV /G6BA/G6BAX/G6BAY engines, if regularly serviced and maintained, are generally very reliable and have few issues.

Regular oil changes are vital on the Delta G6BW/G6BVV /G6BA/G6BAX/G6BAY, particularly when the engine has been modified and is putting down more power than the manufacturer intended.

History 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

For more information 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.

We need your help improving this article, so please send us your feedback in the comments box below and pass on any tips, points or facts we have wrong or have not covered.

We really like hearing from our readers, and hearing about which mods were the most effective for them, it helps us improve our recommendations and articles to reflect current trends in modifications and ensures that our guides and tips are kept up to date.

Please Check out my YouTube channel, we're regularly adding new content...

Click to accept YouTube Cookies & Play.

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.

If you liked this page please share it with your friends, drop a link to it in your favourite forum or use the bookmarking options to save it to your social media profile.