Removed the magnet from the flapper on my 2015 3.8 while I was inspecting the engine bay for stealership oversights like...leaving one of the air box clamps unclamped. The service department also left the engine bay fuse box/positive terminal post cover laying over the intake piping so when I got home from the stealership to check the oil, I see this warped and heated plastic fuse cover sitting on top of the intake pipe + a nice indention in the hood insulation from the less than detail oriented technician that did their 0.0 point inspection prior to me driving of the lot. What the actual frak?
I was able to to bend the warped cover back to it's shape (mostly) and put in the proper place. Over time the hood insulation indention has faded to almost nonexistent since I found the party foul within 24 hours so it didn't cook for days or weeks.
Lessons learned:
1. Never take possession of a vehicle while your 3 year old (Threenager) is with you because you will be so mentally fatigued by the time you drive off the lot you won't take the time to pop the hood since you assume the car won't have something ridiculous like a removed fuse box cover sitting on the intake pipe.
2. Hyundai/Genesis throttle mapping sucks for people that don't want to do foot to gas pedal calisthenics. People that like lighter pedal pressure to achieve results will be less than thrilled.
Why I am happy now:
I love the Genesis. I test drove a Lexus 2017 IS 350 and a 2018 Acura TLX before finding a 2015 Genesis 3.8 with the Lexicon audio hiding on the lot with a dead battery so it had to get jumped for the test drive. Once the salesperson verified Lexicon was stamped on the head unit I said break out the jumper cables because I want to test drive that vehicle. A week later, I picked up the Genesis even though I really liked the IS 350 ( Fun F-Sport package and dash cluster display was pretty slick ). The Lexicon audio and other luxury perks on the Genesis that were not present on the Lexus made the decision a no-brainer in favor of the Genesis.
Reading posts by CarGuy75 and the intake flapper
mods pointed me to purchasing the Sprint Booster v3 and doing the magnet removal on the intake flapper choker which to me is kind of like the TGV (Tumble Generator) valves on the Subaru FA20 engine except on the Genesis it chokes the car in the intake filter area versus choking the engine in the intake manifold area and creating more fuel air swirling at low RPM/low load operation on the Subaru boxer engine design. When I had the WRX I modified the TGV valve open/close transition using the Cobb Accessport tuning software so I got the best of both worlds, better MPG at very light loads but the TGV valves opened sooner so incline power in lower gear improved since the engine was breathing better with the TGV valve open instead of closed when the engine load hit about .80 instead of opening at like 1.2 load levels.
I WISH we had something like the Hondata FlashPro (Honda) or Cobb AccessPort (Subaru etc.) for the Genesis sedan 3.8 or 5.0 because even if it is just an "N/A" engine and not boosted, speaking from experience with 13 years of owning a Honda Civic Si running custom FlashPro tunes for 12 years, there is a lot of daily driving improvement that could be made with some tuning tweaks. I didn't get much peak power improvement on the Civic Si but I dramatically altered the feel and fun of the car + increased power under the curve substantially since my
mods allowed the VTEC crossover to occur at 3900 RPM versus 5600 RPM. Getting to the high cam faster got me useable torque more quickly for daily driving and the car had a nice flat injector pulse/duty cycle climb for a smooth increasing powerband from 4000 - 8500 RPM. Without FlashPro, the stock Civic Si ECU calibration was less than ideal. With Flashpro I had more useable power, better MPG after adjusting cam phasing, part throttle ignition timing and the Lambda target for better power versus maximum lean operation.
SprintBooster + intake flapper door magnet removal on the 2015 3.8 has me happy with the pedal and throttle response so now I actually use Eco mode at times versus just leaving it in Sport mode because the stock throttle mapping was so conservative compared to what I prefer. Did I like dropping extra $$ on the SprintBooster since it's a one trick pony for just the throttle response? No. Was it worth it to me? Yes.
