Bobzilla: I respectfully request thine knowledge of the Kia TD platform

In reply to stanger_missle :

This is the one I would have gotten.

In reply to bobzilla :

Hmm... I thought I searched SPEC's site and they only made kits for the 2.4L. Or it might of been LUK. Or Fidanza. 

Maybe when it's time for a new clutch (when not if), I can convert it.

As far as a rear bar, about the only two brands I can find are Whiteline and Ultra Racing. The Whiteline is almost half as much as the UR. I tried Eibach and Hellwig but I couldn't find anything.

Which one would you suggest?

I ran the whiteline. Also check out Pierce Motorsports. 

http://www.piercemotorsport.com/2012-2014-hyundai-veloster-turbo-suspension/?sort=newest&page=2

I also got my ksports through him. He specs the spring rates higher than the stock ksport stuff. 

New shoes are on and a quick alignment was done:

The car hated expansion joints and patches/seams in the pavement before. It drives much better now.

Also, the tech said that the front brakes are nearly new and everything was in really good shape except for the passenger side CV axle, which needs to be replaced soonish. It does vibrate a bit over 75mph and I can hear it click every now and again. Thats not a big deal.

bobzilla said:

In reply to stanger_missle :

This is the one I would have gotten.

Does that flywheel require a special clutch for the conversion or can you use any replacement clutch with it? And thats not a bad price for that flywheel. The price of even a Stage 1 SPEC clutch though .

In reply to stanger_missle :

Honestly I don't know. As for midcorner bumps, rear shocks help tremendously. 

In reply to bobzilla :

I shot SPEC an email asking them specifics on the flywheel.

The car was pretty unsettled on freeway expansion joints and rough pavement. New tires and an alignment cured about 95% of that. I gotta wait to get paid to enhance the suspension. A rear bar is first.

In reply to stanger_missle :

I did the same thing with mine in 2012. New tires, rear bar, then coilovers. At 40k I when I switched from summer to winter I went with the Bilstein front struts with the Koni sport rear shocks and the ride and handling for a stock suspension was spot on. 

Fun fact, the entire suspension can be swapped for coilovers in 45 minutes flat from the time you grab the jack until you drop the car back on the tires. It's so darn easy. The rear suspension is literally a 17mm bolt on top and a 19mm nut on bottom and the shock comes off, dropping the beam and releasing the spring. The front is a pair of 19mm nuts on the lower strut, a 17mm nut for the sway bar link, a 10mm bolt for each brake line and abs sensor and 3 14mm nuts to drop the assembly from the top. 

In reply to bobzilla :

Yeah, it seems pretty easy to swap the suspension out. I was watching YouTube videos where they were installing a rear lower brace that required rear shock removal. Easy peasy.

I got an email back from SPEC:

Stanger_missle,

 

The SK24S is for the 2.0L.  It may fit the 2.0 using the 2.4 pressure plate, but we cannot be sure until our 2.0L sample unit arrives, which should be next week.  If the 2.4 parts won’t fit the 2.0L, then we can make the 2.0L unit and have them ready to sell in about 10 days.   Our flywheels for the Kia’s are designed to take any clutch kit .

 

Regards,

David

SPEC, Inc

I'm guessing he meant to say the 2.4 in the first sentence? The whole email is kind of confusing. 

In reply to stanger_missle :

I'd wager your right about the 2.0L type... considering the part number "SK24S"... but it sounds like they might be making an "SK20S" part soon?

In reply to sleepyhead :

That's kinda what I gathered from the email as well. I hope they start producing 2.0 flywheels because driving mine in bumper to bumper traffic makes me want to stangle the Kia powertrain engineer.

And on an unrelated note, I found a couple of things for the interior:

New in bag OEM Kia floor mats:

Found on eBay for $20 with free shipping!

And a JDM yo red aluminum shift knob for $9 on Amazon because why not:

I also have Kia aluminum sport pedals coming that I paid $7 for!

I ran across this while surfing for Kia stuff:

http://sharkracing.com/clutch-pedal-adjuster/

It's basically an adjustable clutch master cylinder pushrod.

I damn determined to "fix" the horrible clutch in this car come hell or high water. The clutch grabs pretty low in the pedal travel. Do you think this would help or would I just introduce all sorts of issues? 

So far I am looking at a CDV delete, a SPEC solid flywheel (no more dual mass flywheel), adjusting the throttle pedal sensor (eliminates the horrible dead spot at tip in) and possibly this adjustable pushrod to fine tune the friction point on the clutch. I understand this car will never be like driving a Civic Si but if I can make it better, I will.

I just ordered a Cosmo Racing short shifter and a Pierce Motorsports rear sway bar. It's been really windy lately and I was surprised at how susceptable the Forte is to crosswinds. I'm hoping the rear bar helps with that.

So far I have driven 627 miles since taking ownership. I hand calculated the fuel mileage at 30.7 mpg which isn't too bad. The freeway can either be 80mph or stop and go traffic depending on the time of day. At 80mph, it sits at about 3100 RPM. It really needs 6 gears.

The front undertray was missing so I ordered one off of eBay (overnight parts from Korea y0!!1!!1!) to see if that helps a bit with fuel mileage.

I have noticed a groaning sound at low speeds while turning or pulling into a driveway coming from the passenger side front. End links maybe? Front strut? I don't have access to a lift anymore so I'll have to do some more poking around.

The shifter is pretty meh. When shifting quickly, I seem to hit between 3rd and 5th sometimes. I noticed some slop in the cables where they attach to the transmission. After further investigation, I found the cable bushings are torn. I've been on the lookout for some solid shifter cable bushings to tighten up the shift feel.

Another annoyance is the glove box bumpers are missing. That causes the glovebox door to rattle. It's driving me berkeleying bananas. I don't see the little rubber bumpers anywhere on the parts diagrams for the dash. Any suggestions?

stanger_missle said:

Another annoyance is the glove box bumpers are missing. That causes the glovebox door to rattle. It's driving me berkeleying bananas. I don't see the little rubber bumpers anywhere on the parts diagrams for the dash. Any suggestions?

I'm the crazy idiot on the forum that favors removal of the glovebox for increased knee room and weight reduction (both the box and all the carp that ends up in it).  yimv  

In reply to sleepyhead :

That’s because you’re not used to the extra legroom you get with the Koreans. 

So, I have just over 1000 miles on the car so far. Fuel mileage is just over 30mpg which is acceptable considering the unpredictable nature of heavy traffic.

I crawled under the car to pinpoint a creaking sound from the rear. It ended up being the parking brake pads creaking ever so slightly while the brake is set. But I did notice the OEM shocks with 140k miles on them. I'm sure those are contributing to the unsettled feeling from the rear on the highway. Those will be replaced with Koni Sports after I get paid.

And today the battery light came on while driving home from work. I checked it out with Torque. I was pretty sure it was the alternator but since I don't have a multimeter here, I drove it to the local AdvanceZone. Yep, alternator is dead. Well that berkeleying sucks.

So I did what any rational person would do: I bought another battery to swap out on the side of the road when this one dies on my way to work tomorrow. I just gotta get to work.

Since I have none of my jacks or jack stands here and just a small kit of hand tools, I'm farming this one out to a local shop. It will be about $350 to have it replaced.

Also, this came today:

KDM AS 못쓰게 만들다

The Pierce Motorsports rear torsion bar will be here Tuesday.

This showed up today:

This is the only company I could find that makes a short shifter for the 5 speed. In 2011, they started using the 6 speed transmission, which everybody and their mother makes shifters for.

Also, regarding roll stiffness in a twist beam rear axle setup: how much is too much?

I was contemplating partially boxing the rear axle to increase roll stiffness. I saw a few threads on GRM where a member did just that to his Prius and it worked very well. But how do you calculate the results before you do it? Is it just trial and error? This Kia is strictly a commuting weapon so I can't go all out but I want to correct some of the sins of an econobox suspension. Will adding a rear tosion bar be enough for a decent handling, safe commuter?

In reply to stanger_missle :

Could you figure out a way to clamp the metal to the twist beam to test it out prior to welding? To play with different lengths. Seems like I remember reading something about doing that somewhere at some time.

So, I went to finally install the Pierce Motorsports rear torsion bar on my Koup yesterday. I felt lazy so I just jacked the rear of the car up without removing the rear wheels or rear shocks. It seemed like I could get to the holes in the bottom of the spring pockets without removing the rear springs. I laid the bar under the car to get an idea on how it would fit. Well...

All of the pics of the Gen 1 Veloster show the spring pockets like this:

This is just a random image I pulled off of the net but it shows what I am talking about. Notice all of the holes in the bottom of the spring pocket? The spring pockets on my 2010 Koup do not look like that. There are only 2 holes, both on the outside, closest to the wheel. They are a lot larger than the holes pictured. I couldn't get one of the bolts to sit vertically due to how close it is to the lip of the spring pocket. I don't think I'll be able to mount the bar since it seems the 2 holes on my car are in a different location than the Veloster pictured.

I'll grab a shot of my car after work tonight but I don't think I'll be able to make the bar work .

So this is what the rear spring buckets look like on my 2010 Koup:

The only holes that are remotely close to lining up are the big hole on the left side and the notch in front of it.

Thoughts?

I used the Whiteline and had to drill two holes on each pocket to bolt it on. 

Looking through my old build thread and all the photos are gone thanks to Photobucket.