I am wondering what I should do to my Cobalt. Right now it has a Stage one kit and the rest is stock. Car has 47,000 miles. I am wondering how much it will cost to upgrade to a Stage 2 or possibly to a stage 3? What comes with each upgrade and how much faster will it make my car? Also, I have been told to do a E85 upgrade. What exactly is that and what will it do for me? My brother has a 2004 SRT-4 and once he saw me get my car he was jealous so he wants to build his car to be faster then mine so I want to make it no way in hell that his car will be faster.

 

Well I dont think or heard of any stage 2 or stage 3 for ss/tc, what you can do to get more power would be to install a catless downpipe and intake. Once you do that you can get a aftermarket tune(hptuners or trifecta) and after that maybe look into getting uppercharge pipe and intercooler just to play it safe and not blow up the plastic pipes and end caps off your intercooler, because of the more boost you would be running. With those upgrades depending on how aggressive of a tune you get you'll probably at around 300 whp and 340 wtq.

 

E85 is Ethanol. It's a higher octane than 93 so you can make more power by running it.

 

Look at ZZP LNF turbo upgrade. That is the only one I know of.

 

Down pipe, intake, charge pipe, intercooler, and tune. Based on your post/knowledge I would just go trifecta very easy and noob friendly. You can run e85 for more power, it is ethanol. You will need to 50/50 mix it and have trifecta tune you for the fuel.

 

what do you want to do with the car?
What kind of power are you looking for?
How much car work do you do yourself?
Can you tune yourself?
How much money do you want to spend?

 

U sound like a kid and seems u don't know to much car wise or ur just starting the modding thing. Ok First, there is no stage kits for the turbo cobalt except the stage one. What u wanna do is change out all the plastic parts. Upper and lower charge pipe, intercooler, and in some cases even the rad, but I'd leave that one till it breaks. Ull want a decent intake. K&n I'd recomend , will make ur car sound pretty dang good. Catless downpipe from zzp or elsewhere, or a single cat one. Catless for more power. And last but not least, a good tune, hp tune or trifecta, both will give u better power than Gm stage 1. Gms1 gives u 280 hp and 320ftq to the crank, hp and trifecta will give u 300-320 hp and cose to 400tq to the wheels. That's on pump gas, anything more ull have to go either E or bigger turbo. If bigger turbo also tranny with 4.45 or 4.05 final drive gear, cause our stock tranny can't seem to take the large amount of torque that's made very quickly with the larger turbos out there for this car. 3rd gear usually goes. So that's it I think, if I was u I'd start with intake, downpipe and tune. And go from there. Keep tune around 22-23 psi on stock , turbo runs out of efficiency after that. Anyone else have anything to add for this guy

 

if I could go back I would have not got the GMS1 and bought HP Tuners and learned. Not that I dont like the GMS1 its just that for the same money I could have had HP TUners which would open soooooooo many doors now.

-start off slow tuning
- slowly add parts.
- Tune again.
- go ZFR, E85, Meth, whatever path you want.

 

This is the problem you guys. If a non technical/mechanically inclined person starts modding their car. THey will be bitching about problems and money for fixing the stuff that breaks. Once you mod/tune you will have to do more **** maintenance and fixing wise.

If you want to not deal with stuff but a upgrade:
gmstage 1
intake
charge pipe upgrades
high flow cat downpipe
3" exhaust
forge bpv

done. You want more power etc etc. You better have money, or know your stuff. Crap will break, tunes will need to be redone for gas changing throughout the year, or parts added. Its a pita. That is why instead of doing the ebay part ****, you figure out what why when how you want your car. And progress slowly knowing what you are doing.

 

First, learn to get the most out of what you already have (ie, driving education). Did you know that what you gain in your 60' is generally worth double in your 1/4 mile ET?

 

I am a rookie to this whole thing. I know the basics of the car but nothing about the mods. I raced a 02 camaro on the expressway and after that we pulled over and he talked about my car and what it had. He had a cobalt before his camaro and told me it had a stage one. I have a downpipe and a CAI. When I was driving the old owner of my car drove passed me and said that I bought his old car and said that it had around 300 hp so I assumed it had been previously tuned too? So what your all saying is don't do anything else to it or I'll have problems? Would the best thing for me to do is go to a tuning shop and get a dyno and ask what is done to it? I know ill sound like a ******* but I don't care. Now after all that is said most of you probably think I'm a ******* but I've only had the car since end of summer and haven't really got to have real fun with it.

 

Another thing is I've seen boost gauge to tops 15. I do want that up to 22 so what needs to be done to make that happen?

 

Go to a reputable performance shop and get an HP tune.

 

That's what I'll do

 

Ya 15 psi is stock tune, so it's not 300 hp, but try this, hit the tracton control button 2 times so it says performance mode and then launch control when ur standing still. Then take for a drive and see how high it boosts. If it's more than 15 psi then u got trifecta most likely and u need to hit that button twice whenever u want to have ur tune activated.

 

Toledo is only a couple hours from our shop. You could come see us for a dyno tune. We have all the bolt on parts in stock if you want to mod a little as well.

 

OP needs to do this, make the trip to zzp. I need to visit zzp next time I'm back in michigan

 

I'm pretty sure the old owner told me it was tuned but I couldn't tell. Just like I said before I'm a rookie. So every time I want to use my tune I have to be in competitive mode?

 

What is the name of your shop and where are you located?

 

Also tom are you saying from a standstill use launch control or just make it so it says comp mode / launch control? Doesn't launch control automatically engage when you put your foot on clutch and gas?

 

Just make sure it says comp mode, can turn it on anytime when ur driving or standing still. If u don't boost any more than 15 with comp mode, he took the tune off before he sold it, or if u got it from dealer, they probably flashed it back to gms1 or stock , forgot what u have

 

Zzp performance. Look up their website , it will give u address

 

Go see the guys at zzp they will not steer you wrong a couple hour drive is plenty well worth the expertise that you will get at their shop

you are at a point in your cobalt life where you need guidance grasshoppa don't listen to what your buddies say the cobalt ss/tc is a very unique platform ZZP is one of only a few companies that have spent the time and money in the research development and testing to help you on your way with the right parts


You need help badly and thats ok just choose the people wisely that you listen to about your car

 

So

 

So ZZP is the place to go. I'll make a trip there. Now has anyone heard of pure tuning in toledo? Do they do the same as zzp or am I just wasting my time?