Bump

 

I say hold out on the bnr. I was thinking this option but I waited a little longer and bought the stage 2 s256et kit from ZZP. Just waiting for the install I plan on going very conservative with about 430ish at the wheels. Nothing more for now. But If I we're you definitely ported head with cams and tune for now. You're going to want more power in the future and a bigger turbo than the bnr will take care of that easily. The thought of boosting anything above 25 psi on the bnr kinda worries me. Don't know why but it just never sat easy with me. That's another reason I went with this option

 

Hp for the upgraded head is supposed to be about 50. Cmiller has this head as well, and I'm sure there are others out there, but unsure of just who. I did not install this head myself, I had a goodwrench mechanic do it. Reason being, 1. I don't have a whole lot of tools 2. Unsure of the important things.
Directly from ZZP site on install:

This combo comes fully assembled and ready to bolt on. You’ll be removing your factory head, swapping with ours. The only pieces you’ll change over are the cam gears and fuel pump. They are quite easy to change over. The hard part is making sure your timing chain is setup properly. The cam gears have marks on them correlating to colored chain links. YOU MUST align all of this perfectly including the mark on the crank gear. If you don’t you risk a poor running/performing engine at best, destruction of your build at worst as the valves hit the pistons. You’ll want the front cover off of the engine to see timing marks. We’ll have an install write up soon. We recommend a qualified mechanic installing the head for this reason alone. The motor does not need to come out of the car to swap the head.

I don't know how mechanically inclined you are, I'm more of a bolt-on kinda guy; important stuff like this I wouldn't trust myself with unless I had a manual or something stating exactly how things need to be in plain english so there's no doubt of any kind in my mind, and I prefer to have pictures showing it as well. Then I'd tackle it, otherwise, definately not.

 

Cmiller doesn't have the head. He just has cams and springs in his stock head. I talked to ZZP about this and the issue with the head is it only helps so much. The stock turbo is already out of breath, but with the head combo you're basically just making it run out of breath easier. So really you won't see much for peak gains, the tune they give you is where most of the power gain comes from. Its a 30-50hp(crank) gain for mildly modded vehicles which will equate to around 30whp.

 

As far as general mod route, I'd recommend the head and cams on principle. Anything you do turbo-wise the head and cams will enhance. You could look at it as a gain now, and more of a gain later if you want more power later and do something as far as a turbo swap.

E85 is by far the cheapest power route. After bolts-ons and E85, things start getting expensive for the extra power after that.

I give you Exhibit A:

2009 Cobalt SS/TC vs 2009 Cobalt SS/TC - Identical mods except one has a BNR2871 and valve springs on 93 octane, and the other is instead running full E85. Both have one passenger. As you'll see, the shift points change with the BNR, so there's a back-and-forth battle that unfolds. Camera car is the one on E85.

Cobalt vs cobalt run 2 - YouTube

 

I tried to find a thread on this e85, but could not find one. Do I buy a kit or what, how much whp will I gain with it, and I guess I have to get trifecta to do a retune right? might be a dumb question but I dont know to much about it.

 

You can have Vince at Trifecta write you an E47 or E85 tune for the cheapest route. The more expensive, but more controllable option is to buy HPTuners, 3 bar MAPs, and have an HPTuner guy tune your car. Having HPTuners, you can monitor everything going on with your car so you can see if you need a tune adjustment. With the Trifecta tune, you're depending on Vince to set your tune up correctly. You have to buy separate software to monitor the Trifecta tune. There is not hardware change with the Trifecta route, so no parts needed, unless you want to keep your original ECM on gas and have a separate ECM for the ethanol tune so you can swap them out. In that case, you need to buy a $200 ECM.

 

^what he said. lol Going E85 doesn't require any hardware tweaks. E85 is a mixture of ~85% ethanol and ~15% gasoline sold at some gas stations. Just run your gas tank low, top off with E85, and then flash the tune.

Just an FYI: Without going into too much detail, Vince's turnaround time should be permanently improved soon too.

 

Finally recruiting some help, huh? Teaming up with HPT finally, maybe?