By Hyundai
To help meet its goals of environmental leadership, Hyundai Motor Company today unveiled the 2.4 Theta II GDI, its first Gasoline Direct Injection engine before an audience of engineers attending the Ninth Annual Hyundai-Kia International Powertrain Conference.

Representing the biggest advancement in fuel injection, an ‘80s technology that replaced the carburetor, GDI puts Hyundai at the cutting edge of engine design and management by achieving three seemly incompatible goals: GDI lowers emissions while raising power output and improving fuel economy. Prior to GDI, a gain in one area came at the expense of the other two.

With a compression ratio of 11.3:1, the 2.4 Theta II GDI delivers 201ps@6300rpm and 25.5kg.m@4250rpm in its Korean domestic market specification.

“The Theta II GDI convincingly demonstrates Hyundai’s advanced powertrain engineering capabilities,” said Dr. Lee Hyun-Soon, Vice Chairman and Chief Technology Officer.

Developed with a budget of 170 billion won over a 46 month-long research period, the new 2.4 Theta II GDI engine will make its debut in the first half of 2010 starting with the recently launched Sonata, beating the mid-size sedan competition to market with this exciting new technology. GDI application will subsequently be expanded across the gasoline engine family and applied to other Hyundai models.

One serious limitation of conventional fuel injection is that as engine revolutions increase, the valve opening and closing times get progressively shorter, thus reducing the time available to inject fuel. GDI avoids this problem altogether by positioning the fuel injector in the most optimal location, directly inside the combustion chamber to offer unparalleled precision. With this shorter and more direct path, far greater control is attained over the combustion process: A high pressure fuel pump injects the fuel at pressures of up to 150 bar, in precise amounts and intervals.

The injection is split into two phases to achieve optimum combustion: in the first phase, the pilot injection and ignition trigger the pistons downward power stroke. Then, in the main injection phase, during the pistons descent, more fuel is injected and is ignited. This split-injection technique reduces loading on the catalytic converter and helps lower emissions. This is particularly beneficial during cold starts when emissions are highest because the catalyst has not reached its optimal operating temperature. Split-injection enables the catalytic converter to reach the optimal operating temperature faster thus reducing emissions by 25 percent during cold starts and meet’s California Air Resources Board’s ULEV-2 and PZEV standards

GDI’s other benefits include improved dynamic performance and better gas mileage. Compared to a conventional engine of the same displacement, GDI delivers 7 percent more torque at low revolutions and 12 percent more torque at the high-end for better take-off and overtaking performance. And perhaps best of all, a vehicle equipped with a GDI engine will get about 10 percent better mileage than a vehicle equipped with a conventional multi-point fuel injected engine. Precise mileage figures will be announced when retail sales begin.