Tiburon AWD conversion theory
 

Hey everyone. Just registered and have been thinking about doing this to my tiburon. I have done countless hours of messuring, researching, and planning time off haha. I may have found a way to convert a Tiburon to all wheel drive or rear wheel drive (which ever tickles your fancy). My brother in law and I were talking one day about his new Kia sorento and how it's all wheel drive and that I had been thinking of a way to swap a bigger motor and make my tibby either rear or all wheel. We then saw that his sorento is a transverse mounted V6 yet still all wheel drive and the 3.5l V6 that is in it looks like it would fit in my tiburon. So I started measuring and pricing and looking for availability on these parts. Found that I needed splined rear hubs to accommodate the rear CV axles. Well as you can tell it needs a lot more than just that the make it work. So I then found a totaled 07 sorento on line and placed a few bids and got the donor sorento for $600 and I am currently waiting its arrival. I plan to take the sub frame from the front to make exact motor mount locations fabricated to my tiburon subframe. Then exhaust right with the full drive line, rear differential, fuel tank and slight modification to rear suspension, hammer out transmission tunnel slightly to accommodate the driveshaft and exhaust where currently there is just an exhaust. And finally have ECU and TCM with donor veichle to swap with motor and the rest of the drive line. Yes I know there is the slight issue of it not being a full time or all time AWD, only selected AWD but while not selected it will be rear wheel drive ie sideways tibby! Lol. Yes I have the fabrication knowledge and background, I've been ripping apart cars and welding since freshman year of high school (10 years). If anyone has any other possible ideas, pointers, or possible problems that could arise while attempting this feat please comment, I need all the help I can get haha

Will be interesting to see it come together. The only problem I see is that much work for an AWD system meant to get soccer moms out of some slush a few times a year. That said; I have zero idea how tough it is or its inner workings - so I might be totally wrong.



I know people in Korea have crammed the 3.5 in a tib, but never heard of the AWD conversion as well.

Well I had thought about using the mitsubishi evolution AWD platform but had not found a confirmation on weather or not that transmission would bolt to a Hyundai 3.5 or 3.8v6 so I had started to stray away from that idea

I do remember seeing a 4G63 awd swap years ago, it was on cardomain I believe.

I saw a tib with a 4G63 in it; never saw one with an AWD conversion.

I've seen mitsubishi 6G75 3.8L MIVEC engine bolted in a GK Tiburon. the tranny mates with 0 issues.



On the AWD Side, you are planing on swapping the entire electrical system?

This is going to be a lot of work. The mechanical will be the easy part. I hope you keep us updated on the build. This will be really unique.