Hey guys so I have been looking on zzp and other sites and have made a mod list which will make my future cobalt ss the speed (high 12's) and budget I want ($2100ish).

K&N short ram intake
downpipe with no cat
upper charge piping
trifecta tune
motor mounts

So basically full bolts on and a tune.

My question to you is what am I forgetting or what should I modify?

1. Is there anything to the transmission that I need to do at this point? ( I want a 5spd)

2. What other mods would help traction besides tires? I literally know nothing about suspension so please use as little abbreviations as possible.

3. Will I need a BOV or some other bypass to safely run the increased boost? I am assuming I can run 24-25lbs safely on stock turbo from what I have been reading.

4. Would I need to the lower charge piping? Or a new intercooler kit such as the one zzp has? I just feel like for the money I am going to gain like 2hp so its not worth is cause I still have the stock turbo. Is that the right way to think about it?

5. Would you recommend a catback exhaust? The prices on these are just so high that I feel the cost to power ratio is terrible. Are you seeing good gains with a catback or different set up?

Thanks!

 

intercooler is needed.

 

I am a newbie. Please explain this need. Reduce KR?

 

yes, and to raise your timing to get more midrange.
hp tuners will get you more power than trifecta as well

 

The stock intercooler end caps are plastic, replace with an aftermarket.

 

Intake
Tune
Mounts
Tires
Upper charge pipe
Intercooler
Downpipe

Skip the catback, just a noise maker on stock turbo.

 

its a good noise maker though haha

 

Buy the mounts from Powell and I'd say everything else from ZZP.

 

Don't spread bullshit.

 

I do agree that HP is probably better overall but I just like the ease of use of trifecta. Tell them my mods n they make the tune. Able to switch from stock to fast mode when I want. HP tuners I would have to get someone to tune it cause idk how (at least thats what I got from the review on this site)

Anything else I would need to do that I mentioned?

 

Driver mod is #1

 

This 10x, I suggest powell stage 1 mounts, any catless down pipe, and an intercooler kit. The stock intercooler operates fine but has plastic end tanks that crack or break overtime.

Honestly though, if you can wait and save up a little bit longer I'd suggest getting zzp's lnf turbo kit. I just priced it out at about $3.6k, but that comes with a complete turbo kit with either the s252 or s256 and full bolt ons and a tune. If I could go back in time, it's what I would've done anyways lol.

Like others have said, Powell for mounts/suspension and ZZP(imo) for engine/turbo/boltons.

Tune is an important part too and I suggest HP tuners over Trifecta, it just depends what's available to you and you're particular interests with the tune ect.

 

1. Is there anything to the transmission that I need to do at this point? ( I want a 5spd)
Want a 5 speed? Should be one in ur car. Being careful doing 3rd gears pulls. Some stock turbos has broke their granny's

2. What other mods would help traction besides tires? I literally know nothing about suspension so please use as little abbreviations as possible.

Tranny mounts. Like they say Powell

3. Will I need a BOV or some other bypass to safely run the increased boost? I am assuming I can run 24-25lbs safely on stock turbo from what I have been reading.

Nope...don't need one. Drag bags if you really want to get in it. But stiffer spring will help some as well. Eliminating some squat

4. Would I need to the lower charge piping? Or a new intercooler kit such as the one zzp has? I just feel like for the money I am going to gain like 2hp so its not worth is cause I still have the stock turbo. Is that the right way to think about it?

Don't need charge pipes...I recommend upper since the plastic has been known to break

5. Would you recommend a catback exhaust? The prices on these are just so high that I feel the cost to power ratio is terrible. Are you seeing good gains with a catback or different set up?

Not a lot of gains from cat back so that is not needed as well

 

That kit looks awesome but $3600 is steep. I want it to be a reliable daily driver and I feel if I get that involved by upgrading the turbo I will have to keep modding to stop things from breaking. I do not want to put a new trans in the car or mess with adding another $500-$1k in suspension parts or anything like that.

 

I hear ya, but the way I see it is if you're like the rest of us, you're going to get power hungry at some point in time and upgrade parts anyways, so why not buy all of that at the beginning? Like I said I wish I would've done that lol Now I'm putting in a built engine and have to buy a whole turbo kit. With that being said, I have not heard one thing bad about zzp's lnf turbo kit but only good things of top quality and reliability while performing like it should.

But I understand that's a lot of money to spend at first, so if I were you, I would do intake, downpipe, intercooler kit, stage 1 mounts, and tune. That should be well under 2k especially if you buy any used parts.

Trifecta works fine for the right people but there have been mixed reviews. You will have to wait sometimes a couple weeks or so(based on what I've heard/threads I have read on here ect) for a revision in the tune. But with hp tuners, if you don't have a decent tuner in your area than yes you will have to buy hptuners($500new) and data log and have email revisions sent to you, similar to the trifecta process. Ideally, you should have a tuner local which can drive your car and tune accordingly. But not everybody has that opportunity so you gotta go with what you have. Me personally, I'm towing the car 8hrs to get tuned once my build is complete in a couple months.

 

Maybe I will get power hungry and buy the turbo kit so thanks for telling me about it.

For the tune I just want to get something custom where I have to control to turn the tune from race/sport back to stock with ease. With HP tuners I can do the same e mail thing as trifecta?

I had a zzp tune on a different car and swapping the PCM;'s was super easy for me. Loved it when I went to sell the car.

ALso If i do find someone near me to tune the car can I just flash it back to stock at any time with HP tuners? along with my upgraded tune of course

 

replace lower charge pipe with non plastic one, replace intercooler with non plastic end tank one. may wanna think of replacing rad, since it has plastic end tanks and mounting pegs. few of us have broke them to. zfr turbo upgrade. and if u do that, save up for tranny with 4.45 gears

 

Not interested in upgrading turbo, tranny and gears. My goal is reliable quick daily driver not gas sucking race car.

 

If you own ht tuners, you can data log and email the file to your tuner and he will make changes accordingly and email you the modified file back for you to flash.

 

Then just do full bolt ons and stage 1 mounts, the mounts properly align the trans and prevent wheel hop and are much needed.

 

Ull do just as good on gas as u would stock. Turbo cars only start sucking gas when u get on it. Stock turbo will do the same.

 

If you want a real, worthwhile mod....

Get the PVC upgrade from Powell to prevent valve coking. Otherwise, you are going to be spending money in the future to clean your valves.

 

Seems wonderful but I have never heard of this valve coking problem before. I just found a write up on it and $350 seems steep for what you are getting.


I could be wrong but it just seems like a waste of money since I have never seen this part in anyones sig and see these cobalts go 100K+ miles without too much trouble

 

I'm curious how many PVC upgrades Powell has sold, but it's deff a good investment for us.

 

If I could buy it for my 2.2 LAP (pretty much same setup as LE5) I would.