Hello,

Summer came around and hot air from the vets as well. I've booked a gas refill and they said there is a leak from the radiator. Called up one store and they said they want £519 for replacement of a condenser and refilled gas. Is that actually worth it?

Also is it easy enough to do it yourself?

Thank you.

These are REAL quotes from real people this last decade. Their identities have been hidden to protect their innocence and dignity.

"What’s the most common tiburon engine swap that you guys know about?"

"What can I do to get the most power out of my little beta 2? If not a beta 2 then what swap can I do? And if a swap isn’t possible, it is."

"Anyone ever think about swapping and procharging a tib?"

"Has anyone out there succeeded in swapping the BK 3.8 into a little Tibby?"

"I was just wondering what type of engine swap people did?"

"The LS is too over done so without the smart ass remarks what do you guys think about a Subaru boxer engine swap?"

These are all questions you've seen time and time again. It plagues every corner of the automotive enthusiast community with no end in sight. The short answer is "No" you don't have the fabrication skills or money to get the job done. Every swap is possible, but nearly nobody will execute it properly. The 0.0001% of you that do execute it generally spin their wheels for 5+ years to complete one.

To date I have seen half a dozen completed swaps running and driving under their own power. Among those were Sigma 3.5, Mu 2.7, LS, K series, 4G6X/G4JS, 1JZ, 6A13TT and a 6G75. Those that are currently incomplete or gave up because of something that went wrong were a Ford Terminator V8 attempt, countless LS swap attempts, handful of Sigma/6G74/6G75 attempts, Opel inline 4 RWD attempt, SR20DET attempt, BMW V12 attempt and the list goes on.

Let's discuss some of the success stories and what is known about these swaps.

Libre Racing 4WD 2.0T Beta 2 Rally Car

John Buffum's Libre Racing 4WD 2002 Chassis w/ 2007 FL2 body

Source: https://gemclassiccars.com/cars/john-buffums-multiple-championship-winnig-hyundai-arriving-soon/

Thanks to a recent interview and this new photo dump, we know a fair bit more than we did 20 years ago. Most of the old knowledge on this car was coming from the rumor mill and at the time all we knew was that it had a 2.0 Beta 2 turbocharged on a Mitsubishi drivetrain. The car was braced heavily with a tube frame roll bar to support the 4WD drivetrain and rally suspension mount points. If you scroll through the photos you'll see that the Beta 2 is mated to an Evo 7-9 transmission with an adapter plate and connected to a rear differential from a similar Evo. Why a beta 2 and not a 4G6X? John says this was the only way Hyundai would sponsor the build if it was powered by a Hyundai motor. In the interview John says the front suspension is Mitsubishi based they used a 4 link rear Subaru setup adapted to work with the Evo rear diff. The rear knuckles and linkage are not plug n play either... meaning it requires significant customization to support it on this chassis. Dream on guys, this ain't happening! With the asking price of $50,000 probably taking a significant loss on the original build costs not accounting for any Hyundai sponsorship in this endeavor. Your average Tiburon owner can't afford this kind of swap! You may have seen this car listed on BaT recently with a final bid north of $16,000 but the reserve was not met. I'm guessing that bid was NOWHERE near the reserve price.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2002-hyundai-tiburon/

LS1 RWD Drag Car

GK or GK/FL body on Dragster Tube Frame Chassis

This is a completely custom tube frame chassis with a Tiburon body set on top. This was built by a professional, not some backyard mechanic on a shoestring budget and an oxy-acetylene torch. Your harbor freight booger weld 5000 flux buzz box and monster claw decals won't even come close to completing this project. This was recently sold in Australia on Facebook marketplace which is the only reason we know it exists. The current owner may be able to chime in on specifics of this car someday.

1JZ RWD Swap

Denron777's 1JZ RWD Swap Drift Car

Source: https://www.instagram.com/denron777/

The builder of this car is located in Eastern Europe. Not much is known about the build other than it's got a 1JZ and no front sway bar. What we can assume is that significant bracing was added to support the rear end, trans tunnel, and custom front steering setup to work around the OEM steering rack delete. When you install a longitudinal engine you have to delete both the OEM steering rack and sway bar to accommodate the transmission tunnel. The front knuckles, if repurposed from the original car, were flipped so that a front mount steering rack could be used. Presumably the front steering would have been all custom for drift purposes. Even if you could afford the 1JZ/2JZ and supporting transmission/rear-end, I don't think your granddad's booger ARC weld 9000 can hack it here.

6A13TT AWD Swap

Serge NEO's 6A13TT AWD Swap

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQeTQ4_tPVI&list=PL7Xv0LLXvaRgrW0JAum02iI2Temt7wc8I

Another great eastern block example of fabrication skills. This is a Mitsubishi Galant VR4 AWD system transplanted into a Tiburon chassis with a TON of customization. This is NOT PLUG N PLAY. It is often rumored that our 2.7L Delta is based on the 6A13 motor but we don't share anything with this platform. Even though this car can move under its own power it is rumored that it spends more time in the garage than on the road. Give the playlist a whirl to see what it really takes to modify for AWD. He goes into some detail about the rear suspension setup with an under car flyby of the suspension.

700HP K24 Turbo Swap

Luis Adrian's K24 Turbo Swap

Source: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1J1tUTzG3D/

A real performance shop with loads of K swap experience built this car to chase down numbers on the quarter mile. With K swaps being the go-to for every platform this seems like the obvious answer to "how do I go fast?" in a 25 year old Tiburon chassis. This is the first solid example I've seen in North America. While there are rumors of these swaps already becoming common place in South Korea, there are still no drop in plug n play kits available to make this an easy swap. You're going to need to fabricate everything from the shifter forwards and it does not mate to our transmissions. I don't think the budget of a burger flipper will be able to afford this kind of work any time soon. Keep dreaming boys and girls!

Igor's 4G64/G4JS Turbo FWD/AWD Swap

Igor's 4G6x/G4JS Hybrid Turbo Swap

Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/B4YrFCyAWd2/

Igor AKA 4GShark has been working on this for over a decade and it has seen many different iterations. The original goal was to build an AWD monster but the goal posts kept moving as he ran into new challenges. Through each version it retained the combination G4JS/4G64 hybrid motor mated to an Evo 8 or 9 transmission and transfer case. The first engine build was setup was only FWD and laid down an impressive 566FWHP with the prop shaft capped off estimated to be losing 15-20% power. The engine had to be rebuilt to solve a problem with piston to head clearance and the head lifting and he's since ditched the AWD plans to add a Tesla electric motor to the rear. While this car does drive under it's own power, it has never been fully complete. This mad scientist may never be done with the car as he keeps throwing new ideas at it as it evolves into something so distant from the original Hyundai it once was. Again this is not plug n play. Everything from bumper to bumper had to be custom fabricated to fit.

6G75 MIVEC N/A Swap

6G75 MIVEC Swap

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBVUrvzmBNI

This uses a 3.8L Eclipse motor, ECU and harness swap and it will mate up to our M5GF1 5speed or MFA60 6speed transmissions. The flywheels, trans bolt patterns and clutches are interchangeable meaning you only need to customize the one motor mount to the LHD passenger side retaining all 3 of the original transmission mounts. Additional customization required for the intermediate shaft bearing carrier mount and the header Y pipe that mates the 6G75 manifolds/headers to our catback. Otherwise this is one of the most straightforward swaps for this platform. With nothing more than a custom CAI and ECU reflash this motor will make ~305WHP naturally aspirated on a stock motor. Of all the swap possibilities the 6G7x is the only feasible swap for your average Tiburon owner's budget and skillset. This is one of my favorite swaps to date. Not as difficult as all of the above moonshot swaps and it makes good enough power naturally aspirated to keep anyone happy. If you are considering a 20 year old supercharger kit that makes 250WHP on a good day, consider the 6G75 MIVEC swap instead for nearly the same cost in parts!

Conclusion

If you're thinking of swapping a motor or converting to RWD or AWD/4WD... You won't.

A few days ago, someone came to me asking if I could disable the downstream O2 sensor code in his ECU, since the sensor had been removed and the car was throwing a CEL.

I do small things like this for free when I can, because it is a nice way to help people in the community. But I started getting suspicious when he told me the car was already running a “stage 1 tune” that he got from some random person in a local Tiburon group.

Usually, a lot of these so-called “tunes” are just a tiny bit of added ignition timing and nothing else. Definitely not worth the money people are charging for them. In this case, the mystery tuner could not even keep an O2-related CEL turned off for more than a few days.

Once I received the file, it became obvious almost immediately that this person had no idea what they were doing.

https://preview.redd.it/rv1lf3mgxh1h1.png?width=631&format=png&auto=webp&s=9f22c8c2cd3291b30439d05721084bbd1fed5518

All of the highlighted 00s shown in the picture aren't supposed to be there. That region of the file contains configuration bits and flags, mostly related to diagnostics. So what did this guy actually turn off?

Quite a lot, unfortunately.

He disabled or heavily affected the ECU’s ability to detect issues with:

• Camshaft sensor errors
• Crankshaft sensor errors
• O2 heater errors
• SPI/electronics communication errors
• Vehicle speed sensor errors
• Misfires
• Rich and lean conditions

He also disabled the trigger that disengages the A/C compressor at wide-open throttle.

Because apparently, who doesn't want the A/C compressor bogging power during an overtake while also putting extra strain on the compressor pulley?

By disabling or modifying these error-detection models, he made the car less safe and less able to protect itself. If the cam sensor starts failing, you may not get a CEL and limp mode. Instead, the ECU keeps trying to run the engine without knowing there is a serious problem, which can lead to more damage.

And that was only the beginning.

Further down the file, I found that he raised the rev limiter to 7500 RPM.

Current value of RPM soft and hard limiters. Stock G4GC non-VVT limiter is at 6816 RPM.

That is a serious problem on these engines. We already start seeing valve float around 7000 RPM, and piston speeds are already very high at that point, around 22 m/s. Pushing to 7500 RPM is not “performance tuning", it's literally asking for engine failure.

Then I found more problems:

Current values (left) vs Stock values (right)

• Misfire detection thresholds were raised significantly, meaning the ECU is now much less likely to detect misfires properly.

Current values (left) vs Stock values (right)

• The knock retard table was literally zeroed out. So if the ECU detects knock, it will not pull timing. It will just keep knocking until something breaks.

Currnet (top) vs stock (bottom)

• Canister purge valve PWM values were changed for no obvious reason.

Current values (left) vs Stock values (right)

• Intake temperature ignition retard values were reduced, which is not safe.
• Intake temperature sensor calibration was changed, making the ECU think the air is cooler than it actually is.
• A random axis length identifier was changed for some reason.
• There were random changes in the torque model that make no sense, likely because he thought he was editing something else.
• The time required to detect rich and lean conditions was massively increased, making the ECU much slower to react.

And finally, I found changes in the program zone.

Current values (left) vs Stock values (right)

I have no idea exactly what this specific edit does, but I can say this with confidence: editing the program zone without fully understanding it is extremely dangerous.

Program zone edits are not something you casually mess with. If you change the wrong thing, you can completely ruin how the ECU controls the engine. We have spent years disassembling the program code, and we have only just managed to safely change four bytes so that larger MAF sensors can be supported.

This file had what looked like three or four lines of code wiped out. That is insane!

This is why you need to be careful who you trust with your ECU.

People like this are not tuning engines. They are disabling safety systems, hiding problems, and making the engine much more likely to destroy itself. There is no good reason to alter ECU error-detection models and diagnostic algorithms unless you are doing very specific and extreme hardware modifications, and even then, you need to know exactly what you are doing.

A random person from the internet is not always the best choice.

There are not many people who truly know how to tune these cars properly. I know most of the ones who do. There is a reason why u/chase206 and I have built a reputation in this community: everything we make is tested thoroughly. We have spent a lot of time beating on our own cars, testing, logging, learning, and making sure that what we release is safe and works properly.

I have said it before, and I will say it again:

If you are running a tune that you are unsure about, or if you get a tune from someone and want a second opinion, just send me a message. I would much rather spend a little time checking a file and making sure everything looks okay than scroll through the group the next day and see an “I blew my engine” post.

Bonus: I like how the "tuner" tried to lock the file to keep his intellectual property secure...

That isn't stopping anyone mate...

Edit: If somebody the firmware files that our ECUs run and definitions we've made for them, you can find them here. All free and open source!