Photo: Drive2.ru | Autoreview archive | Hyundai company
It would seem that two-liter naturally aspirated engines with cast iron liners and conventional distributed injection are reliable. Such people are simply not capable of being particularly problematic and short-lived. But there are no rules without exceptions. And in the engine industry, such an exception was the Hyundai and Kia GEMA series units. Very “cocky”.
The history of these engines began in 2002, when the GEMA (Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance) alliance was created to jointly develop a new family of engines. In addition to Hyundai and Kia, it includes Mitsubishi and Chrysler. The Japanese unpretentiously called the new engines B11; Chrysler immodestly proclaimed them as World Engine. Well, Hyundai/Kia engines continued the corporate tradition of Greek-letter names: this family is called Theta.
The design is quite typical for those times. Common to all international aspirated engines with distributed injection are the architecture of the cylinder block with cast iron liners, the design of a 16-valve head without hydraulic compensators, a timing chain drive and a variable valve timing system on the intake camshaft. But the design itself and many components, including attachments and piston groups, differ. Which largely determined the difference in engine reliability. Moreover, the most unlucky ones were Hyundai and Kia units.
The firstborn of the Theta family, the G4KA engine, was more complex before modernization
The Korean first-born in 2005 was a two-liter Theta engine with the index G4KA. It was produced until 2013 and is most often found on the twin sedans Hyundai Sonata NF series and Kia Magentis MG series.
Perpetually leaking valve cover seals and crankshaft seals are just one of its troubles. Like the chain in the timing drive, which stretches even before the mileage of 100 thousand kilometers with excessively sweeping use of the gas pedal (this is fraught with jumping of the chain and bent valves). But even if you drive smoothly, the chain can only last 150 thousand kilometers.
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2024-02-02 17:37:43
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