Turbocharged Hyundai i20 1.2 VTVT NA motor by Wolf Motorsport.
This is a fully functional street car based on Hyundai stock chassis and engine with a fair bit of performance added making it is a perfect "N"thusiast car.
How it all began -
We have been planning to implement quite a few different things and were hoping to work on a project that would allow us to do most of the things we had on this "to do list" -
1.Turbocharge a car that hasn't been done before ?
2.Do a OEM like "clean" build
3.Turbo build with all OEM - stock internals.
4.Drivability - stock like refinement & more power
5.Power goals - Comparable to OEM turbo cars
6.Achieve all of the above using OEM - Stock ECU! (*which turned out to be a humongous project on its own.. )
Project car selection-
Since Hyundai N-line was soon to be launched, we decided to build turbocharged Hyundai hatch. We zeroed in on the Hyundai i20 with 1.2L VTVT motor. The idea was to build a fun little car that had similar performance to the new i20 N-line. The plan was to run low boost on stock OEM ECU with no add on piggyback ECU or RRFPR. Where all boost related functions are handled by the stock ECU with added custom calibration and codes for new subroutines and correction maps.
OEM ECU - Tuning history
Tuners working on Honda ECUs especially have been using their OEM ECUs with some aftermarket add-on daughter board/ ROM Emulator to help them tune their cars for NA, cams, boost etc. Some of them like Hondata and the likes have also developed reflash solutions for OEM Honda ECUs that can be tweaked and tuned like an aftermarket programable engine management system, well, almost !
OEM ECU - jailbreak !
It is widely believed that its extremely difficult to coax the new generation ECUs (like tricore processor ECUs) to successfully run a boosted setup where the Stock NA ECU handles newly assigned boost related duties like - new map sensor, bigger injector, revised fueling, revised ignition curve, revised cam phasing, knock retard and most importantly having boost accounted for in the larger perspective of load modeling and independent correction factors.
This idea was an extention of some development work we did for couple of Hyundai models. In hind sight, using a Standalone ECU would have been much easier and straight forward. But getting the i20 OEM - stock (naturally aspirated) tricore ECU to handle boost was a humbling and learning experience to say the least. We learned a lot during this journey.. Valuable insights that would help us further develop custom sub-routines and new OEM ECU tuning strategies to go along with new calibration/ maps.
Motorsports and safety features -
We have also added new features and functions to our Boost enabled OEM ECU that enables new motorsports features like switchable Multi-Map function and improved engine safety features.
New Motorsport Multi-Map functions -
.Multi-map linked independent boost settings.
.Multi-map linked independent ignition curves.
.Multi-map linked independent fuel/AFR curves.
Forced induction based safety features -
.Ignition Retard Strategy for high coolant temp+boost
.Ignition Retard Strategy for individual cyl - knock sensitivity
.Individual cylinder - Ignition Retard bias threshold
.Ignition Retard Strategy - high intake temp +boost
.Individual cylinder knock based fuel enrichment
.MIL safety alarm (flash) based on knock count.
Build details
Engine: Stock Hyundai i20 1.2L VTVT
Turbocharger : Garrett turbocharger
Blow off valve: Turbo Smart BOV
Intercooler: aftermarket Intercooler
Injectors: high flow injectors
Tune: Wolf Motorsports
Build: Wolf Performance
Turbo fabrication: Magnum Motors
Cooling system: Stock
Clutch : modified OEM clutch
Control arms: Stock
Wheels: upsize Alloys & tyres
Thank you everyone -
Massive thanks to everyone who helped us through our "Hyundai i20 Z-Performance build". Special thanks to Magnum motors and team for being our fab guys and putting in long hours to finish this project despite having delays due to unexpected lockdowns and other pandemic restrictions. As usual the guys at Garrett turbos delivered our performance turbocharger well in time.
Logging, Testing and some fun drives.
We have been logging and testing our Hyundai i20 turbo - Z performance for well over a month now covering around 2000 kms without a single issue. The car drives like a stock car except for the added performance boost. We were surprised that it delivered better than expected fuel efficiency with some light footed driving during logging and testing. Theres enough and more performance on tap to take on most of the hatchbacks out there, and this thing is still a fully functional daily driver with all creature comforts and then some more !!
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