Yeah exh leaks = life story. Lol

 

Couldn't agree more

Been on stock tune, injectors, basically stock suspension with sport line lowering springs only (no more coils) etc. its not to bad to drive. when I had 80s and E85 cold starts were a bit rough... kinda forgot how it was stock tune its been so long.

can't get over all the damn squeaks and rattles though. they came as a factory option when I bought the car lol

 

Bring me your exhaust ill surface your flanges

 

Thanks buddy. Shoutout to you - saw you fabbing some killer pipes for an SRT that one day and you do awesome work!

 

Thanks man

 

getting her back from a shop today (decided to just have a local mechanic weld the catback together and do the header gasket)

so excited to have this thing leak free - FINGERS CROSSED!!

Gonna be driving it for a few more months. And actually boys and girls, if it drives well enough, which it should since i wanted it to be in great selling condition, i may actually keep it longer and get rid of my truck instead. i could use a few car payment free months.

 

Lol Adam idk what to say but glad your thinking of keeping her

 

you're nuts dude

indecisive ****

 

Lmao that's what I'm thinking

 

If you didn't buy that silly truck, you could have just kept the Cobalt modded and not go through all of this.

Lol

 

possibly, but i actually needed to cleanse the car of all the stuff. It really was just alot to handle. and knowing i gotta get rid of it at some point left me with no choice but to do the partout. right now is perfect 'cobalt selling season' being that it's springtime and people want fun cheap summer toys
So as of now the car works great, but right away i'm remembering all the things that made me do this in the first place - the noisy transmission, rough ride, overall crappy feeling etc. it works well though, drives straight and has power. Well enough where I may be able to stand it a little longer should i sell the truck, but also wouldn't miss it too much should i just cut my losses and get rid of it.

My truck is much better off than the car even with 20k more miles lol. It's mint actually. But the insurance costs more, it doesn't have much in the ***** category, not as good on gas, and without AWD becomes a little impractical. Also i guess i just don't really need a truck as much as a comfortable daily.

Sooo decisions, decisions. what to do.

Come mid summer or fall i want something nice, newish, AWD, turbo, and preferably hatchback. The only two options that i can find and like are golf r or wrx.

 

working out a few more kinks before its time to sell!

getting new front struts/springs. the used ones i put on are garbage.

new brakes. forgot i put on my performance brakes like 50000 miles ago lol. they don't feel too good.

rear spring seats. the current ones are garbage. time for new for a smoother ride

new flexpipe section from zzp. new header and catback seems good but still got a little leak somewhere and i suspect its the flex so gonna give that a whirl

once all these things are complete the only remaining issue i have is a starting issue - p0017, crank sensor/timing deal. sometimes starts right up, sometimes takes a few tries. thinking its related to my keyway being slightly loose, or perhaps the timing chain stretched which i really hope is not the case lol

 

Which header downpipe are u using?

 

oem

 

Look for soot around the flex before u go throw parts at it.

I do not understand how one person can have so many exhaust leak issues....

Are you re-tightening the bolts after a heat cycle?

 

Yes sir

well to be fair i couldn't see one but right after starting the car i felt around and did feel some air right by the flex

 

K, just check it out as well.

A true leak will start showing sooty deposits.

 

Loose key/ chain stretch is not enough of a difference to throw the p0017. You can even run the exh cam a tooth off and it won't throw the code.
Redo the hex timing.

 

thanks man.

do you think ANY play in the keyway could set it off?

i have a new sensor i was gonna toss at it since i know it got all covered in oil for whatever it's worth - vautozone wouldn't accept the return anyway so may as well try it along with ensuring the hex is timed correct.

turns out the header is slightly cracked down the middle so i bought a zzp shorty header lol. gonna install it and increase value for the sale haha

 

Lol you just can't stop modding

 

new sensor fixed the issue! car starts up fine now!

 

Good to hear. Im surprised you didnt have to wait a minute or so in between cranks. When i had it that problem i would get endless cranks and would have to wait at least a minute before trying again.

 

yeah it was wierd. all good now though so since that's out of the way i upped my price 500 bucks lol

 

Nah... he just can't figure out how to install an exhaust without it leaking or breaking, lol.

Good to hear!!

 

haha!

well i took a very proactive approach actually and taped a vacuum hose at the tip, put the vac in reverse (empty of course) and then sprayed soap water around the header and downpipe. revealed that the header has a crack in it and the flange connection was leaking. no fixing that! haha, so new header it was. no sense in trying another used oem one and besides that there are only aftermarket versions available so off i went to zzp.