When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I bought my 2006 Cobalt LS Coupe 5-speed my senior year of High school (2008) It wasn't long later and I had an Injen cold air intake and a Magnaflow cat-back exhaust. Being a broke college student these were the only mods I did until 2015.
I think it was around June 2015 I decided to go supercharged. I had all the parts taken off and had everything ready for the SC to go on before it even arrived in the mail.
Had a few hiccups along the way. ZZP sent me the LNF gasket and being impatient as I am I tried to make it work anyway. Needless to say I had a vacuum leak until I installed the correct gasket.
Not ragging on ZZP, they have been pretty good. I think I just got unlucky. But I also spent weeks trying to fix this leak. Turns out the brand new dual pass end plate was leaking were the nipple was press fit it. I patched it up with some water-weld and has been dry ever since.
First time I had everything installed.
When I had the SC off the second time to fix vacuum leak I decided to paint it.
This is how she sat freshly boosted. Still monster truck status.
I didn't like all the hot air my intake was sucking in so I extended it down to the bottom of the engine bay by cutting up part of my old CAI.
You can see the filter here with my heat shield that isolates the filter from engine compartment.
BOOST and AFR gauges in dual gauge pod
I decided it was time to improve the handling a bit now that I had some power. Installed YYZ v.5 springs with new TC Cobalt struts.
I also installed Hawk high performance rotors and pads
I eventually also installed stainless steel braided brake lines but I don't have any pictures of that.
Car after being lowered a bit on YYZ springs.
Wanted to make it harder to miss shifts so installed TWM short throw shifter
Power Hop was also now a big problem so I installed Powell rotated motor mount
To make it easier to work on the car up on jack stands I installed Powell Under Car Rails. These things are great. I can get my car up securely on stands in minutes and have confidence it isn't going to fall off and squish me.
John told me my steel control arms were junk so I upgraded to the latest TC control arm with Powells spherical TCABS
Spherical CABs
Old crappy voided CABS
Front cradle with new control arms as well as the TC sway bar and sway bar bushings
Comparison of sway bars
Also upgraded to PowerGrid adjustable end-links
Still looking stock as hell
Last edited by Slowbalt2000; 12-13-2018 at 05:59 PM.
I then decided I needed to justify my LT header by installing forged rods, pistons, clevite rod bearings, and stiffer ZZP valve springs as well as throw on the TVS 1320 blower.
New springs installed.
Cylinder walls need deglazed
Honed the cylinders with 320 grit Flex-Hone by brush research
Installed Option B reservoir
Got everything back together but had a problem with pinging with my 91 octane gas
Now with 5 gph water/meth kit from DevilsOwn. Currently running off of the windshield washer reservoir. Soon will be running duel tanks for more peace of mind.
Still looking like a regular old Cobalt with missing hub caps. I hate hub caps or anything fake, like fake hood scoops.
In the future I eventually plan on installing an LSD. I also need to do the swap over to the LSJ 6 rib belt because I get belt slip at around 7,000 rpms. Then maybe get some proper wheels. Of course after that I would need to upgrade my brakes. It never ends...
Oh yeah I almost forgot. I also have an oil catch can setup waiting to be installed after I put in the second windshield washer fluid reservoir tank
I have made a few threads up to this point but I thought I would consolidate everything into one thread. When I do more mods in the future I will update here. Thanks sandman.
Been a long time customer with Trifecta starting with a canned tune for the CAI and cat-back exhaust. I actually had an open ticket with them still from before they decided to drop the package from their website. I bought my TVS from Steven Weller, the guy that tunes 05-06 Cobalts on the condition that I would need a tune for it. So I got lucky I guess.
Or try fitting the ion redline airbox in there somehow.
The filter placement is in a highly susceptible water ingestion spot.
I'm well aware of the water hazard. I'm running a hydro shield and I don't drive it in rainy weather really. Really I only run a risk if I drive through standing water. I inject water into my intake anyway. Water droplets don't cause hydro-lock.
Where it really isn't good is in snow as it can get packed around the filter.
If it starts to concern me I will probably make some baffling out of sheet metal to protect the filter a little more.
Last edited by jdbaugh1; 04-08-2016 at 02:53 PM.
Reason: Added info
I'm well aware of the water hazard. I'm running a hydro shield and I don't drive it in rainy weather really. Really I only run a risk if I drive through standing water. I inject water into my intake anyway. Water droplets don't cause hydro-lock.
Where it really isn't good is in snow as it can get packed around the filter.
I understand about what can actually cause hydro-lock.... It's still a poor location.
I'm only recommending. It's your car. As long as you are aware. Nice work other wise.
I understand about what can actually cause hydro-lock.... It's still a poor location.
I'm only recommending. It's your car. As long as you are aware. Nice work other wise.
Thanks. And trust me I have thought about it. Honestly this is mostly driven in dry weather only. But it would be nice to have a little more protection if I got caught in a rainstorm during a cross country trip or something. I just need to leave my windshield washer tank in as I am going to be running dual tanks, one on each side. So I will have to figure out a custom solution.
The location is really good for sucking in cold ambient air though.
Nice job! did you notice a big difference with the TVS? Is she running good now?
I was running a 3.1" pulley and 7 degrees less ignition timing advance with the M62. So yeah now that I am running 2.9" with TVS and 22 degrees advance ( I have a tune for 24 degrees advance I have been nervous to try until I'm sure my methanol/water injection system is working consistantly) so I have noticed a considerable difference. Especially under higher load/gears.
Don"t buy cheap auto store brand timing chain kits
So I've been finding some very fine metal sprinkles in my oil filter and they have had me concerned. I have been doing frequent oil changes in hopes that it would improve and clear up. Then I found this on my magnetic oil plug. I just put this timing chain kit in when I built the engine about 6,000 miles ago. It is a Car Quest brand kit for those of you wondering.
You can tell by examining closely that the edge it is standing on is the factory edge as well as the edge at the top. This piece also has a tight radius to it. I was racking my brain trying to think of where this tiny small radius piece would have came from in my engine. Then I thought of the timing chain rollers.
I had my old timing chain and I compared the part and it does in fact look like a broken part of a roller. So then I took my valve cover off.
It may be hard to see in the picture but if you look you can tell this timing chain guide is out of tolerance and the bend is more like 85 degrees than a true 90.
Here you can see, just under the plastic bushing, where the chain has rubbed a considerable channel into this piece because it is made wrong. I should have noticed this when I installed it but I didn't really even think to check.
Luckily I am in the process of swapping over to LSJ belt routing so I have to pull all the components off of the front of the engine anyway. I haven't taken this timing chain kit out yet, nor have I found the link with the broken roller. I am in the process of trying to get money back for the faulty kit and I am trying to order an OEM kit. Are there any other quality kits out there? I am definitely not buying store brand again.
Are there any additional precautions I should take as far as making sure there is no other metal pieces from this floating around in my engine?
Honestly even though this is a shitty thing that happened because of bad parts I am still very relieved. The metal dusty particles on my filter were tripping me out. I just hope I haven't caused any damage to other components from the metal floating around.
On a different not I am also going to try to swap a pulley from an LSJ AC pump to my stock L61 pump so I can run the 6 rib belt. I tried asking on here before if anyone knew if it is possible but no one had an answer. So I will report here whether it works or not.
Installed my second washer tank so I have more meth capacity. Also installed dual 3 gph nozzles instead of on 5gpm nozzle right before the throttle body.
Also installed OEM timing chain kit from CED with ARP bolts in the bottom guides.
Got a wheel and tire combo from Tire Rack so I could have a bit more grip for Autocross events. I will still probably run my steelies and use cheaper tires for daily driving because honestly I can't really even use the extra grip on the street without getting into trouble. So for when I need it I will now be running 245/40R17's on my TRMotorsport FF10 wheels. I got these wheels because they are the lightest 17X8 wheels spec'd to fit our car on Tire Rack coming in at 17.1 lbs. Luckily I don't think the look to bad either. They are a little to nice looking for the sleeper theme of my car but sometimes you have to make sacrifices in the name of performance.
I'll probably try to get some better pictures of my car with these wheels on it when I get a chance.
04-08-2016, 11:15 AM
