Congratulations on purchasing the most heartache-free Genesis Coupe that money can buy. That being said, brace yourself for the realities of attempting to squeeze serious power out of a complex, purpose-built buttered-toast V6 'sporty' motor car. So long as your horsepower goals aren't sky-high, you're in good hands to get yourself moving in the direction of motoring bliss with your reasonably powerful sporty coupe.
Quick & Dirty Strengths/Weaknesses, 'What can I do with this thing' in Nutshell Format
Strengths:
- Smooth & easy to drive power delivery; this motor can be hammered hard by a novice without much trouble
- OEM clutch could be proficiently operated by a comatose mental patient
- OEM transmission known safe to basically whatever power you want to make (so long as you upgrade your fluid)
- Bolt-on build your 3.8 motor to ~315whp depending on whose dyno you are on (both generations of motors)*
- Headers + straight back exhaust piping leads to very pleasurable sounds
- 2nd Generation GDI motor gets excellent fuel economy
- Motor response & safety with nitrous oxide wet shots is reasonably good & reliable up to ~100 shot (wet!)
Weaknesses:
- 6spd Transmission is about as smooth as the Lunar surface. OEM syncros are poor quality. Thankfully this only affects feel, not safe operation
- If you got an automatic transmission, I apologize and my heart goes out to you - nobody knows how much power that trans will take, so go for it!
- Motor's max power output is very high in the RPM range so get ready to ride your motor like an Alabama whore
- OEM engine block & internals known safe to ~400whp (you might consider this a strength but for this price range motor, I don't)
- 2nd Generation GDI motor's power output severely over-rated by Hyundai (typical stock dynos see sub-300whp numbers)
- Camshaft design not well-suited to performance; due to design & variability by year (even within generations) performance cams are basically impossible/not worth it
- Motor overall design & ECU configuration are extremely unsuitable for forced induction modification in every aspect
- Intake manifold layout not well-suited to aggressive NA builds; certainly a bottleneck in heavy race builds
- 2nd Generation GDI motor fuel system not easily upgraded for power builds (typical of GDI type motors)
