Okay guys....I come from a different world of the Corvette, SRT4 and M3....

Over the years of modifying I look back and almost every mod I did I found out two things that slowed me down. 1. The modification was a waste and leaving it OEM was better or 2. There was a better product than the one I purchased. Through trial and error I wished I had never bought the rest.I wasted money and time .....for example with my M3....I bought a ESS exhaust and found out that it fit like crap and ended up selling it for the Akropovic exhaust.

So I am hoping to take a short cut and use your 6 years of experience with the Cobalt SS T/C (since we are in 2014 now and this car came out in 2008) . I know there are a lot of gear heads who have gone through this mod and that, and through trial and error, know what the best available are now.

If you could mod your car knowing what you now know, what are the top products you would buy? Cost was not really a concern....

For example: .... it appears that HP tuners is the best.... correct?

A list for example would be great like:

1. Exhaust: the agreed upon best..
2. Intake: the agreed upon best one...
3. Tuning software etc : " " "
4. Suspension: set up " " "
5. Wheels
6. FMIC
7. ETC
8. ETC


THANKS!!

 

zzp charge pipe and intercooler kit, zzp catless dp if you dont have emissions, stock intake flows more than enough, if you want the sound then K&N SRI is nice. Exhaust on these cars really only change the sound. For a tune hptuners and either remote or find a shop that is familiar with GDI engines. Suspension depends if you want looks or track performance. Track performance just send John Powell a blank check you'll want at least his YYZ springs, but TCAB bushing, and a hardcore bar or XXX bar help greatly. Also doing the Koni Yellow adjustable struts/shocks is nice with the YYZs. You'll also want John's rotated engine mounts.

 

I prefer Injen upper piping to ZZP's, the Injen looks much better. If you go catless, don't go mufflerless. I'm very happy with my Trifecta tune.

 

First mod should be powell seperator

 

Yes.

 

This car takes to mods better than most especially the engine
Zzp for engine parts powell for suspension everything they sell is better than stock they will not steer you wrong.

 

This
You definitely have better things to do than be cleaning the valves in this car

 

1 hour and tons of information...you guys are the best....THANKS


Seperator? ....kinda like a catch can? Right?

 

Yes but it's way better won't allow any oil through, dumps back into the oil pan and costs more.

 

ZZP, Powell, or TurboXS won't steer you wrong and you won't be disappointed.

Mod list on my end.
ZZP upper charge pipe
Zfr
K&N intake
Zzp catless dp
Turboxs gt exhaust with muffler and resonator
Powell 4.45 trans

 

Headers? Not worth it?

 

Headers on a lnf? When did that happen...

 

When did we get multiple exhaust manifolds?

 

Banks Power | Why Big Density Makes a Big Difference
"Larger and more effective charge-air coolers increase air density by substantially reducing the temperature of the pressurized air from the turbocharger to the intake manifold. By lowering boost air temperature, the denser air is more oxygenated and allows complete fuel combustion. There is also an excellent byproduct of lower intake air temperatures; they produce lower EGTs. If EGTs never build to the temperature where the computer tuner limits fuel delivery, all of the additional power is always available. Lower EGTs also help to reduce the thermal load on the engine and its cooling system, which keeps them running cooler as well.

Well-engineered charge-air cooler cores and end tanks with greater airflow also reduce pressure loss, which improves air density further. Within some factory charge-air coolers, the airflow inside is so poor that some cooling passages don’t even get used. In turbo-speak, charge-air cooler effectiveness is measured by its percentage of increase of temperature recovery as compared to ambient air temperature. Better, larger charge-air coolers are one of the best bang-for-the-buck performance gains available.

Boost tubes are the tubes that take the pressurized air from the turbocharger to the charge-air cooler and from the charge-air cooler to the intake manifold. Original engine manufacturers (OEMs) commonly flatten areas of boost tubes for cost savings over additional engineering hours spent routing the boost tubes more efficiently. Aftermarket companies can find gains here by both using larger tubing, as well as better routing. Larger tubing with the absence of flat spots and sharp curves equals better airflow. Any restriction that reduces pressure also reduces air density. Therefore, smooth large-diameter boost tubes effectively add air density by having less of a pressure drop than the factory boost tubes.

Of course, a vehicle’s airbox is where the outside air comes into the engine. Due to cost restraints, factory airboxes usually allow for a well-engineered aftermarket airbox to do a much more efficient job at directing the air into the engine. The best-engineered airboxes are sealed units that take the air in from the front of the vehicle and create the least-restrictive path to the turbocharger.

Aftermarket filters-on-a-stick don’t work very well, even if the air filter element has an enclosure around it. They still tend to take in the hot underhood air, which is far less dense than outside ambient air. Remember, just because an aftermarket airbox system or filter-on-a-stick makes more noise, doesn’t mean its making power or increasing air density. Make sure you get a dynamometer-tested airbox that actually makes power and increases air density instead of just making more noise."

lol

 

K&N for the intake, ZZP for the rest of the bolt-ons and an HP tune.

 

I have been reading a bunch on this forum and sometimes posts get jumbled up between the old school and new school engine ....did the SC engines have the headers? Confused...

 

Yes you have a turbo manifold and downpipe.

There are better ones but they are costly and you'd need a turbo swap to run them.

 

I guess I wandered into the S/C portion of the forum....

 

So on the SRT4 the conclusion was that the stock airbox was very efficient and with a drop in performance airfilter did as much or more as a CAI or Ram air beneath a certain HP........is this the case with the Cobalt too?

 

Must people go with the K&N short ram intake (SRI). You can gain about 10whp with it.

 

Yeah pretty much as stated above you MIGHT get almost 10 hp might but it will only last a short time as kn filters have proven to get very dirty quickly and it needs to be tuned for or your fuels trims will go all to hell really kn just makes noise over the stock airbox check out zzp intake tube it increases the diameter of the tube going into the turbo also tells you how to modify the stock airbox to flow a little better without affecting fuels trims while still being able to run a quality filter

 

Yea ^^ okay guys help to get my head around this one....most cars I have worked with no tuning was needed when adding intakes..the ecu compensated for the difference in air intake overtime and minimal gains are achieved with no problems.

I read that intakes on this car cause the fuel trims to act all funky.......Since an intake is hopefully just increasing the amount of air that can enter the cylinder ...I wonder why the ECU is not able to analyze this increase and compensate with normalized fuel trims overtime?

Is it that the ECU on these cars are limited and cant auto adjust ....or is it that the intakes do not cause a consistent increase in air. Perhaps the intakes cause as much decrease in air intake as increase at times? fluctuating too much for the ECU to adapt?

Confused...

As Powell mentioned above the density of the air is lower in the engine due to hot under hood air. Is the K&N causing fluctuation in air density due to air flow being cool at first (denser) and then as engine heats up becoming less dense causing the fluctuations I mentioned that the ECU cannot compensate for??

 

I think its Turbulance
It changes the way air flows over the maf
It actually matters which way you orient the metal strip on the kn filter in these cars if you run one

 

Yea ^^ okay guys help to get my head around this one....most cars I have worked with no tuning was needed when adding intakes..the ecu compensated for the difference in air intake overtime.

I read that intakes on this car cause the fuel trims to act all funky.......Since an intake is hopefully just increasing the amount of air that can enter the cylinder ...I wonder why the ECU is not able to analyze this increase and compensate with normalized fuel trims overtime?

Is it that the ECU on these cars are limited and cant auto adjust ....or is it that the intakes do not cause a consistent increase in air. Perhaps the intakes cause as much decrease in air intake as increase at times? fluctuating too much for the ECU to adapt? Or is it an extreme amount of air increase...?

 

Its due to the learn down and other features present in the config of the ecu. Its setup to put down 260/260 from the factory. You see many people asking how much boost it'll run stock, and the answer varies because its programmed to do what it can to put down desired torque/power. To someone at sea level and they'll tell you stock that it should only be boosting to 14# (just tossing numbers out here) and someone high altitude may see numbers closer to 20# as the computer tries to compensate for the less dense air