A few months ago, i took my brand new cobalt ss/sc to the drag strip to see what she could do. I had what most cobalt ss owners had, a mad case of wheel hop. The best time i could muster was a 14.7 @ 96.45 mph. I was ofcourse disapointed and wanted more. So I went to my dealership and ordered me some performance parts. I ordered the Stage II kit, K&N cold air intake and an Ingals Stiffy to fix my wheel hop problem.
3 FRICKEN MONTHS later my stuff finally all came in and everything was professionally installed by my dealership except for the ingal product that I put in myself.
My first reaction after getting all these mods were some what dissapointing, I could here the sweet whine of my blower thanks to the K&N, my wheel hop was almosts gone thanks to Ingals, my boost guage was diffenetly showing a 15psi boost up from 12psi and i could redline it now to 7000 rpm. What I was so disapointed in was the car didnt seem all that quicker, sure it made more noise, but i wasnt feeling it. I thought geez a 30-40 horse power boost from the stage ii kit i should diffenetly notice a difference.
So I went back to the same race track, this time with my mods all done, I was eager to see what she would do now. After three tries at the 1/4 mile, the best time i could muster up was 14.7 a@ 96.95. I couldnt believe it, all the right stuff done to my car and virtually no improvement. I read somewhere that this stage kit was supposed to improve my 1/4 mile time by 7 tenths of a second. All I got was an extra half a mile and hour. Both my visits to the race track the temperature was simular, i had the same amount of gas in my car and no extra weight, infact i took out my spare tire during the second visit to the track.
So my questions are to all you stage ii owners,

1) What kind of gains did you all see??
2) Is it possible my computer wasn't reprogramed right at the dealership durring the stage ii set up?
3) Is my stock exhaust system restricting all that new power?
4) Is there something GM performance group can do to help me out?

 

i say.......that sucks man....

 

Sounds like something is wrong. You should feel some seat of the pants difference........your times should be better...although driving style could play a role there.

 

That sucks dude.

 

I'd get rid of the intake, reset the computer, try again. Very possible the intake is causing lean conditions and knocking/pulling timing.

 

thats ok my first time to the track with my intense stage 3 and i could only run 14.2 @ 101mph.

 

driver mod dude, it takes lots of practice. my first 1/4 mile race got me a 17 second run on my 04 srt4 LMAO! Practice your launch especially, sounds like you dont have a differantial, with out it a wrong launch will exhaust your gears quicker. IE your tires spin and u go nowhere. practice the launch. trust me.

 

wouldnt i have a engine light if it was running that lean????

 

Id say get new spark plugs. OniMirage got stage 2 and had the same problem, I even beat him from a roll on the freeway! He got new plugs and noticed a huge difference and would prolly kick my ass in a race now.

 

What kind of plugs? Why wouldnt GM let ppl know they need to better plugs to see the gains from stage II?

 

Nope.

And the NGK BRK7E's gapped at ,040" are the plugs you want. Lordco on Westwood had them in stock when I bought them.

 

It is important to remember that the extra 36 HP from Stage II is a peak power increase, not across the RPM band. The extra 500 RPM (7,000 RPM vs. 6,450 RPM redline) is where all that extra 36 HP is made. My car is still stock, but I have driven a friends who has stage II, and I didn't notice a huge difference. If you ran one with and another without down the track, you would most definately see the difference.

If you can go to 7K, you got the reflash. The car may take a few tanks of gas to adjust to the new ECU tune. I would give it a thousand miles, than try it again. Also, I am wondering if the aftermarket air filter has something to do with it. I know everyone will flame me for this, but maybe the engine is reacting differently because of the aftermarket airfilter. I am not saying this is for certain, just that it is a possibility.

Also, are you 100% sure you ran it up to 7,000 RPM in all three gears??? Like I said before, that is where the major power gains are. This thing builds power straight to the redline.

 

hey fingers
I could see and hear the frustration in your face and voice last night,
but I really think you have everything you need, there's alot of power under your hood, it just takes time to figure out how to control and harness it at the track, it's quite different from street runs.
you need to grit your teeth and go through the same agonizing pains we all do, go to the track as often as you can, and keep practicing, it comes in small increments, learning how to squeeze that power out in such a way that it gets down on the track most efficiently.
it just takes time and practice.

I think we all want to just plunk down a whack of dough and get handed instant gains on a silver platter, but it never seems to work that way, at least not for me.
it seems to trickle its way out of the beast just a little at a time.

In hindsight you shoulda come down and practiced more during that 3 month sabbatical you took, that was valuable practice time dude!!

just keep at it!
you'll see!!!!

 

I understand how you could be disapointed. Thats a lot of money and no gain. But, I had the completely opposite experience with my stage 2. It made a huge difference, but give it time to learn and you will be impressed, or at least put ay ease that you didnt just blow $1500.

On a side note, hows your clutch holding up? Any slipping?

 

i agree with zenkat... intakes and pulleys on these cars really can f things up. Hence why I kept my stock plumbing and just made a CAI out of what GM gave me. Take her to the dealer have them run a diag and see what is wrong. I am willing to guess you are not getting all your ponies from the timing change. The Computers in these cars are really fragile.

 

oh i forgot what was you r 60 ft time ? If it was anything over a 2.1 I can see why you got the time you did.

 

Very well could be.
I have an AEM and am lean at certain throttle positions, 3/4 up hills, but WOT it goes really well, and normal driving it is fine too.

I felt a huge difference when going to the stage 2 w/ the 2.8". So he may have something not right.

 

I'd say you can't drive. don't blame it on the car.

just keep going you'll get better I can't say I'm great either but I def. feel you should be able to hit 13's. Just keep practicing you'll get better sooner or later

 

I got my Stage 2 Friday and i already notice the vast change in power. I havent taken it to track but i have no shame in saying i am shitty at my lauches i getting better slowly i am alot better then i was but so far i love my Stage 2

 

Andrew buddy thanks for the advice and support. Im diffenetly going to go out there Aug 4th and many more times to practice. I am also going to try these spark plugs that some people have been recomending.

 

But I ask again, if i was running lean wouldnt i see a engine light come on???

 

Its the driver, not the car. Not anyone can just goto the track with a stick and run amazing times. Do you have your timeslips for both times???? If so, then pull the best timeslip from each day. Whats the 60ft and trap speed of each?? then we can tell you whats wrong.

 

Nope

 

mine stops at 6500 and then spikes up to 253 at the redline and i dont know y though, can someone tell me.

 

my run with the stage ii kit was 0.05 seconds slower to 60 ft, not that big of a difference.