Stinger Club

I'm not a car guy... but I started modding my ride. Then I joined the club.

Cars were never a particular interest of mine until my 2012 Ford Fusion broke down and I started looking for its replacement. My only criteria at the time were: All-Wheel drive for the winter months, five seatbelts, and four doors. It was a practical list, but one that grew some preferences as well: I wanted it to be a sedan style as opposed to an SUV or a wagon, and I almost always buy used instead of new. One car stood out in my list: The Kia Stinger, which I had never heard of. They were pricey by comparison to typical commuter sedans like my Ford Fusion, but they looked better to my eye than many luxury models offered by Audi and other upscale brands. I ended up finding a great deal on a 2022 model year with low miles, from salvage, with a rebuilt front passenger side wheel.

This is the exceedingly rare "Li'l Sister" Stinger, sold under the GTLine trim. Kia only sold something like 2,200 of them in North America, in total. In contrast with the more popular GT or GT2 Stinger, which come with a 3.3L (3300cc) twin-turbo V6, the GTLine has a turbocharged 2.5L (2500cc) 4-cyl engine. In spite of gaining a cult following, the entire Stinger line proved too obscure and failed to launch Kia into the performance market. In 2024, Kia discontinued its Stinger models, and they are becoming increasingly sparse on the open road.

In spite of its 4-cyl engine, the stock GTLine model makes 300 hp with 311 ft/lbs (422 N·m) of torque, with a 0-60 mph (0-100 kph) time of 5.5 seconds.

When I realized I had bought a sports car, some sort of Guy Thing happened, and I became interested in it. Soon I discovered that I could get aftermarket add-ons, which feels very much in the line of Making. Since then, I've been hooked on modding and tuning.

Here's what I added so far:

Injen cold air short ram intake
HKS Blow-off valve
HKS Racing spark plugs
JB-4 intake manifold pressure tune module
Big mouth ram air intake snorkels w/ LED
LED devil claw front canards, and various body dress-ups

I'm running Map 1 on the JB-4, with 91 octane fuel, and that offers an extra 3.5 psi of pressure in the intake manifold. This is the most noticeable upgrade in terms of engine power, producing significantly more boost under certain driving conditions. The JB-4 unit is said to be capable of producing up to 65 additional horsepower on the 2.5L engine, but that requires 93 octane fuel and Map 4 which pushes the pressure up above +5psi.

The short ram improves the turbo efficiency, especially combined with the ram snorkels which are vastly more capable of getting cooler outside air into the engine than the OEM snorkels and intake which appeared incredibly restricted even to a layperson like me. The Injen spec sheet suggests the ram intake can provide up to 18 additional horsepower by opening up the intake.

My goal is to bring this build up to par with a stock twin turbo V6 Stinger. That makes for a target of 370 hp, and I suspect I might be somewhere in the neighborhood of 340-350 hp range right now. I will need to check it on a dyno to find out for sure, once I feel like I'm done adding upgrades.

There is still plenty of modding potential here. I can add a catback exhaust upgrade, exhaust downpipe, upgraded intercooler, and even a boosted aftermarket turbo unit. Everything I've done so far is pretty well within the reach of a non-expert, since these are all straightforward bolt-on upgrades. I'll need extra tools to get under my car for the exhaust pipes, but those are otherwise fairly simple to swap out. The intercooler is a little more serious, and swapping out the turbo... that's expert level stuff, I think.

Ram air intake

I did this project with one of my sons. The OEM intake is quite a bit more complicated than this nice chrome looking one that replaced it. The factory intake prioritizes quiet operation, so it's enclosed and full of baffling. This new intake is smooth-bored and open, and you can hear the engine "breathe."

HKS Blow-off Valve (BoV)

On a turbocharged engine, the intake manifold is pressurized. When the throttle is closed that pressure can't enter the combustion chamber and needs some other way to escape. The BoV provides the escape route. An aftermarket BoV like this one is snazzy looking, hefty, and above all... noisy. This valve vents to the atmosphere and makes a satisfying chirping sound. It doesn't provide any extra power, but it lets you hear the intake system working which is part of the fun.

Ram air snorkels

These LED snorkels route cool air into the engine bay. The passenger side snorkel is the important one for this car, since it dumps right into the intake enclosure. The original snorkel inlets were completely covered up, and I don't see how they could have been effective at all. These will ensure the intake is breathing cooler outside air, which combusts much better than the hot, thin air in the engine bay.

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