My company offers a GM discount on new models. Its alot like Ford's Xplan for employees and partners for Ford.

Anyway while building my Neon for competition this year has lead to me think about next season also.

I feel two segments of the hobby unexplored yet buy GM Racing is the Ecotec in N/A competition trim. I know about Nick Novak's Saturn SL2 sedan from two seasons ago that Saturn Motorsports compained but have since parked it for unknown reasons, I would say lack of funding to do it properly.

Several entry level classes being introduced over the last two season, I thought about building a Cobalt for next season. My Neon will compete in NHRA Street Stock this season on the west coast, but next year I feel like that when the class will really pick up and the ET's and trap speed will really drop.

To get a jump on the competition thought about getting a Cobalt, mostly because the 2.3L Duratec engine in the Focus is only available now in a really heavy sedan ST model.

The displacement limit for NHRA is 2.4L

I could experiment with stroke and overbore with the engine to find a sweet spot, but I think the stock bore and stroke are pretty good. The reduced the stroke down to 2.0L on the Turbo engines because they wanted to spin them to 10,000rpm and they wanted to cut down on side bore friction by using a shorter stroke and longer connection rod.

I think you don't have to spin the Ecotec much beyond 8,000rpm to generate the power I would need.

I think I have it under control save for the intake manifold and engine control.

Could a company like Digital Horsepower help here? An Intake Manifold can be fabbed up by Hogan for a pricey sum, so I'm looking to spend much less. The stock intake might be effective up to a point. Won't really know until you dive into a project like this.

Is anybody else interested in going this route with their base or LS Cobalt?

Is the stock intake aluminum? If it is you may consider having it ported. If you've been in the Neon world you've probably heard of NRGY Heads. I'd give Nick @ NRGY a call and see what he can do.

Nick and I don't see eye to eye and that's all I'll say about it.

The intake is plastic like the SOHC Neon. It has no plenum either.

I think a custom intake would be in order. but like I said most Ecotec owners haven't gone past camshafts and bolt-ons yet and I don't think there's even one in the 14's yet either.

Shaver Motorsports did the headwork for Bothwell and GM Racing with the turbo engines and basically every racing Ecotec uses a Shaver head. I'll go in that direction if I decide on a project like this.

most Ecotec owners haven't gone past camshafts and bolt-ons yet and I don't think there's even one in the 14's yet either.

Well someone's always got to go first ;) :D

What's the aftermarket ECU support like? Room for high compression and big cams?

Well someone's always got to go first ;) :D

What's the aftermarket ECU support like? Room for high compression and big cams?


I don't know about engine management yet, but I was running around the J-body Forum and found out a couple of places in Canada offer flashing of the PCM.

Now sure how much has changed with the Cobalt's PCM compared to the Cavi/Sunfire but if is flashable with the same software, we could be in business and cut cost.

Off the shelf parts are plentyful actually.

Eagle and Crower makes rods, Crower, Comp Cams and Crane make camshafts. You can also get blanks from GM Racing if you have different ideas on what kind of cam you need.

Crower and Eagle also have crankshafts.

So getting say 13:1 or whatever isn't an issue.

There also a fully ported head available but I think its for turbo apps and might not be suited for a build up like this. There's a sport head listed also.

Just using common sense, 160-170hp shouldn't be a problem with a mostly stock engine. But beyond that, like I mentioned there's manifolding to look at both on the intake and exhaust side of things and engine management.

The rest of the part are mostly there driveline wise.

I'm sure there will be racing/street coilovers and such for the suspension as well.

Cobalt with no options runs about $14,500

But, GM is giving out money in both major series. Done right and you could pay your car payment just on winnings.

How's the Neon coming?

An option for the Exhaust is to find a custom header shop. I got my custom header from S&S here in Glendale, Az (about 5 miles from my house) for the R/T for $105 per tube and Jet Hot coated for $100 more, plus I think about $50 for the Tri-Y merge collector.

I'm still working on the R/T. I should have a cage kit coming from S&W here soon. I have the new 14,000 rpm SFI certified clutch setup from SPEC, and a new bell-housing. The remaining peices are a new intake manifold, 36# injectors (ran out of fuel w/ 24# injectors @ 62psi), and a new radiator. Also the 1 peice fiberglass front-end should be showing up within the next month. The goal is by the end of summer to have everything finished, including a new paint job. Probably hitting the dyno late Aug or Sep, shooting for 240whp on race gas... (I hit 202, running out of air & fuel at 7200rpm) Can't wait to get it all done and then hit the scales to see what she weighs. I don't think anyone (except Mohler) has gutted thier car as much as I have planned (more weight redux to come, over what I've already done). All said & done, I should be in the bottom of the 11's, providing I hit my hp and weight goals...

Meanwhile, I've been having fun with the SRT-4. I've got all of the supporting mods for the AGP turbo upgrade done (except the 750cc injectors, which will go on w/ the turbo) and I've ordered the Snow water injection Stage II kit, so I should be able to run quite a bit of boost (shooting for 450whp on the stock block) on pump-gas. :D I'm also starting to collect the pieces to put together a forged bottom end (Billet rods, CP pistons w/ ceramic coating, MADI Crank from Darrel Cox Racing) and a built top end (NRGY Race Port, springs, Crane 14's, Inconnel Exhaust valves, Stainless Intake valves, all ceramic coated) after which I'll turn up the boost (shoot for >500whp) and then add a 75-100 shot on top of everything. Hopefully ~600whp is enough to get me deep into the 10's on my daily driver :D Hoping to have all of that done about a year from now.

Well, i can already tell you i have plans to be in the 13's with some mods and spray on a 2.2l ecotec 2 dr coupe with auto. If you want to do something similiar to get in the same area as me, just drop in a converter, intake, exhaust, headers, im gonna adjust valve timing(retarding) but im not saying how much, its a secret. and some other various tuning for which i will not name either, but once i head to the track ill let ya kn0w how it goes...

Well, i can already tell you i have plans to be in the 13's with some mods and spray on a 2.2l ecotec 2 dr coupe with auto. If you want to do something similiar to get in the same area as me, just drop in a converter, intake, exhaust, headers, im gonna adjust valve timing(retarding) but im not saying how much, its a secret. and some other various tuning for which i will not name either, but once i head to the track ill let ya kn0w how it goes...

Nitrous is fine for fun and test n tune stuff, but this is a money/fun venture and nitrous isn't allowed with an N/A setup for Street Stock.

Rules are on NHRA Sport Compact dot com

Street Stock looks to be a fun class.

I kind of wished they'd announced that class before I started building my R/T. It would have gone an entirely different direction...