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LSPI isssues

13211 Views 40 Replies 12 Participants Last post by  Caezar
I had heard of LSPI and that pennzoil ultra platinum is supposed to help prevent it. But haven't heard it explained like this...don't floor it in high gear. Between this and the carbon build up issues I wonder if the current t-gdi design will be retired relatively soon.
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He is basically saying don't floor it in a manual car in 6th gear. You should always downshift. It's been talked about on the VT forums not to do that and Tork even adjusts the ecu to help fight it when you get tuned.
Oh well thanks for that nightmare. Went over to vt forums and searched for LSPI and got a bunch of blown engine threads.
Can't watch the video right now, at work, but I am wondering about accelerating in 6th gear at highway speeds. I understand why this is a bad idea at low speeds, but If I'm doing 70-80 mph (3,000-3,500 RPM) is it safe to accelerate in 6th gear when the RPMs are high?
I spent hours and hours researching LSPI before making the decision to purchase a turbo GDI. High load, low speed is the combo for thr highest chance of experiencing LSPI.

SXT, the nice (and bad thing) about the manual Forte's is the short gearing. Wanting to accelerate in 6th gear isn't an issue - but flooring it would be. Since your car is already turning 3200 rpms , its not nearly as bad doing it while turning 2200 rpms.

First thing I told my father (who test drove the car last night as he wanted to see it - yes guys I picked it up last night) to rev the absolute PISS out of it opposed to lugging it down.

Always, always, always downshift a gear when wanting to get that power. These GDI motors like to be spun.

Speaking of the velosters, supposedly the 2013s were manufactured with weak rods and a bad tune, 2014 the rods and pistons were improved, and 2015 improved again with better rods/pistons and a better tune.

That said - DOWNSHIFT! Automatics, you guys have less to fear.
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LSPI Risk Minimization Tips & Research

So catch cans, CERMA engine treatment, cooler plugs, use 93 octane, add a water-meth injection system, and aftermarket pistons.

But ironically if you did all that and had a problem I'm sure Kia would throw those mods you put in to protect it back in your face and deny the warranty. This stuff is really cooling my heels on mods and whether I want to keep the car long term.
The ones that were prone to blowing is the 13 motors and it has been proven that Kia/Hyundai changed the Pistons and rods in 14 and then again in 15. Each revision they got stronger then the 13 internals.

I have no worries about modding. Every car has risks when you start upping the power so I just mod it the way I want lol
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Well as far as Kia dropping turbo gdi motors , they have no plans to . But what they do have is 3 new gdi motors . The new 2.0t for the optima , but for the life of me I can't figure out why the detuned it to 245hp a new 1.6t that is tuned to 173hp but gets over 40 mpg. The 1.0t and a brand new design kappa 1.2t that will make 204 like the current 1.6t I know the optima is getting the 1.6t 40 mpg . And rumored is a SX sedan to run the new 1.2t
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You guys got it right. You want to go faster or pass a car?

DOWNSHIFT and floor it/accelerate. High gear and low RPM is too much load for the engine to handle if you do that repeatedly. You are asking for trouble.
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Think of the car as actually having a 1.6L not a big block Chevy and these situations can be avoided. Also programming comes into play as well, with the introduction of some key changes by hyundai/kia to fueling and timing below 3000 rpm we have seen a major reduction of both stock and modded cars having issues. Luckily for you guys kia had implemented alot of the changes to the forte before it was even released as they had the VT in production for 2 years at that point.
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Forte5. You gave me an idea for building an Oem type performance built motor.......
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Forte5. You gave me an idea for building an Oem type performance built motor.......
Oh no I hope that's a good thing! Lol
Don't take off in too high of a gear either. Flooring it in 3rd from a dead stop or 10mph roll could have the same catastrophic effect.
Or a recipe for a new engine 9 years and 11 months into the warranty? Heh
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I have floored mine in 6th gear when I forget that I am in paddle mode. The torque converter unlocks and the rpms jump up a good 800 rpm but I always try to remember now
I can't stand to watch that guy lol too many hand motions, is it bad to do 20mph pulls in second?


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If you are flooring it just make sure you are in the begining part of the power band at minimum
Our power band starts low at 1750rpm so if above 2k rpm your good. I have done that several times
We tell people if your going wot be above 2500-3000 rpm
I for the first time put my automatic car into a situation where it could have been bad . I was trying to get sound bites of my newly installed BOV and I went WOT off the line . Then let up the gas to get a second phssst sound . The car went limp and I shifted the shifter real quick over to the auto shift to see what gear it was in and indeed it was in sixth . So now I know not to letup and WOT on short sprints for sound bites :/
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