Kia Announces New Turbo 3-Cylinder, Dual-Clutch Transmission ? News ? Car and Driver | Car and Driver Blog
the article from car and driver.. click link for photos.. mite be a new base model divetrain for the forte at some point lol or a rio replacement.. but its fun car news
Time was, three-cylinder engines were just for motorcycles, kei cars, and Chevy-badged Suzukis. No more. Mini has one powering the base Cooper. Ford is using its 1.0L EcoBoost in the Fiesta and Focus. And BMW, they of the ultimate drivingness, wedged one into the rear of a fashion-forward hybrid sports car. Now, into the three-hole breach leaps Kia, with the new 1.0 T-GDi Kappa engine.
Set to debut in the new Europe-only Cee’d GT Line, which will bow at the Geneva auto show and go on sale late this year in Europe, the new engine, Kia says, will gradually migrate across its range. The Korean automaker’s American branch says it has no timeline for the engine’s intro here, but we’d hazard a guess that it’ll be installed in U.S.-spec cars sooner rather than later.
The new motor makes 118 horsepower and 127 lb-ft of torque, utilizing a single-scroll turbo with an electrically operated wastegate, which increases air-scavenging efficiency. The end result is a broad torque plateau, with maximum twist available from 1500 to 4100 rpm. Peak power comes on at six grand.
2016 Kia cee'd GT
The teeny engine and multi-clutch transmission will make their debut in the new Cee’d GT Line.
In the interest of efficiency, the new motor features laser-drilled injectors with six holes each. The holes, laid out in a pyramid configuration, are meant to lay a more even spread of combustible mixture throughout the cylinder. Injector pressures can run as high as 2900 psi. That’s not a diesel-insane level of pressure, but it’s a more than a mite higher than what’s happening in that crusty old Carter on your Valiant, Chief.
The Kappa also features a pair of thermostats, allowing the block and head to be cooled independently of each other. The head’s thermo opens at 190 degrees to avoid detonation, while the block runs hotter—221 degrees—in a bid to keep the oil warm and flowing smoothly.
Power-wise, the new triple is most closely in sync with Hyundai/Kia’s G4FC variant of the 1.6-liter Gamma four-cylinder. When it eventually migrates to the U.S., we’d hazard a guess that it will eventually appear in the Kia Rio, Forte, and Soul, as well as the Hyundai Accent, Elantra, Elantra GT, and perhaps, in a slightly sportier trim, the Veloster.
7 SPEEDY!
Hyundai Kia 7-speed DCT
Debuting in the diesel variant of the Cee’d GT Line is a new-to-Kia gearbox. We say it’s new to Kia because the same transmission is already available in the Hyundai Sonata Eco here in the States, and which will shortly make its home in the Veloster Turbo. Kia claims the new seven-speed dual-clutch ’box is good to handle up to 221 lb-ft of torque and makes for quicker shifts than the company’s old slushboxes. In the Sonata, we found it to be an improvement over Hyundai’s first attempt at a twin-clutch, the rather desultory six-speed unit that bowed in the Veloster for 2012.
