dumpyloser

Hey I'm new here and just as new to the world of cobalts. I plan on looking around for information and looking around the site for information, as there appears to be a lot of it here. Some of the questions I may find answers to in searching, but I may can get an abbreviated answer quicker this way, so I'll appreciate any answers or info....


My Story. I have just bought a 2008 Cobalt 4 door with the 2.2L motor in it for $725. It was previously wrecked. (flipped into a ditch) but other than a bent rear axle assembly, it doesn't have a great deal of damage.

We will be stripping the inside out to make room for a roll cage as this will be used as a FWD dirt race car. It is not road worthy anymore, but we are hoping to get it worthy to turn left on saturdays.

I will post the rules to our racing class directly under this post so that people can refer to them.

My questions start with trying to find the cheapest/most efficient way to tune the car. We won't come out of 2nd or 3rd gear, so only those specific gears and high RPM's (while staying together hopefully.) will be likely. I guess we don't need something very elaborate, just want maximum gas/air flow and no rev limit.


What simple things can I do to get that 1-10 extra horsepower that won't be obvious rule violations. Is the 2.4L fuel rail/injector/throttle body worth trying to put on or will it stand out as a non-stock part?

I just need to get as much horsepower out of the motor without spending much money. The reason being is that 2nd place can purchase your car for $1500 after the race if the want to. (see rules). I'm sure I'll have more questions, but I'll let this be it for now. Thanks in advance!

dumpyloser

People get away with small rule infractions all the time, It is just a matter of making sure they are not obvious. It is nearly impossible for them to know tech specs on the broad spectrum of cars that race in this class.


Rules:


Stock unless otherwise stated.

1. 1980 or newer front wheel drive, 4 Cylinder passenger cars only. No all wheel drive or all wheel steering allowed. No station wagons, vans or pick-up trucks. 2. Body must maintain original dimensions, standard as from the manufacturer.

3. Floor pan, trunk pan, front and rear inner wheel wells must remain stock and in stock location.

4. Interior trim must be removed. (carpet, headliner, side panels, etc)

5. Hood must be held shut with at least 2 hood pins.

6. Must add at least 3 crash bars in front of driver.

7. Fabricated dash board OK.

8. Must add 20 gauge sheet metal cover rear of seat ( where back seat was located)

9. Doors must remain in stock location.

10. Doors must be welded shut in an approved manner.

11. Doors may only have metal removed to allow for clearance around the roll cage door bars. NO OTHER REMOVING OF METAL PERMITTED!!!!

12. Fenders and quarter panels MAY NOT be trimmed for tire clearance.

13. The inner fenders/wheel wells must remain stock and un-altered.

14. Must have at least one hoop bar with 3 door bars on drivers door.

15. Aftermarket wing/spoiler OK on rear of car.

16. 1 ź” bar to the radiator allowed for safety issue only. Radiator must remain in stock location.

Engine:

1. Engine must remain in stock location.

2. Stock 4 cylinder engine only. (2.2 max) Engine must remain stock as delivered by the factory.

3. NO Cosworth or rotary engines allowed, No quad-four engines allowed. NO turbo-charged or supercharged engines allowed.

4. All engines must be used in the model of car for which they were manufactured.

5. NO factory or after-market high performance components will be allowed in the engine or drive train.

6. Stock carburetor or fuel injection system for the make and model of car being competed.

7. Stock production air filter element required. NO high performance will be allowed. (K&N ok) NO cold air system allowed. Cone type must be bolted to intake.

8. Only water allowed in radiator and cooling system. NO anti-freeze allowed.

9. May remove exhaust pipe and mufflers.

10. Weight-2100 lbs.

Suspension:

1. Only stock suspension parts allowed. NO cutting or lightening of suspension parts allowed. Springs MAY NOT be heated or shortened to lower car.

2. NO adjustable strut bushing or altering of stock location on shocks and struts.

Wheels & Tires:

1. All wheels on car must be the same size and offset. 7” racing wheel OK.

2. Tires must have DOT stamp for highway use. No performance, trick, gumball, fancy or exotic tires of any kind allowed. No less than 300 tread wear rating allowed.

3. Cherokee Speedway reserves the right to disallow any tire from use in competition in the Extreme 4 class.

Seats & Belts:

1. Passenger seat and rear seat must be removed..

2. Aluminum racing seat recommended but may run stock seat. MUST run 5 point racing seat belts no matter which seat is chosen.

3. ANYTHING TO PROMOTE SAFETY MAY BE ADDED WITH APPROVAL FROM TECH. $25 visual protest in Extreme 4 which must be filed 30 minutes before Main event.

After 1 win, driver must start his/her next race from the rear. ONLY exception is 4 Cyl. Natl’s.

Buy rule - $1500.000 - selling driver may keep seat, belts, steering wheel & fuel cell. Top 4 cars only eligible for buy rule. Must finish directly behind in finishing order to be able to take advantage of buy rule. Only drivers on same lap can claim. If more than one person claims, the driver finishing the farthest back gets 1st choice. (Top 5 finishing positions only) Each driver may only buy 3 cars per season. NO exceptions! Refusal of buy will result in loss of points & winnings for that race event.

Swap rule - ONLY driver being bought will have the option to swap with driver who is buying. The driver being bought will keep $200 of the $1500 and buying driver will receive $1300 back. If either refuses buy or swap, points & winnings are forfeited for that race event.

Computer Buy Rule - $150 - 1st-5th place finishers. Driver finishing farthest back gets first choice.

REDi DEViSTATOR

I think I'm missing somthing... Sounds like this "race car" is a waste of time. Well, as far as being on this board.

REDi DEViSTATOR

You would have been better off with a vtech honda. They rev a lot higher so they can stay in a low gear longer.

dumpyloser

Vtec Hondas get blown off the track by saturns and others. I have only seen one cobalt race and it was the fastest thing I've seen.

It is not a waste of time, it is a low budget racing class for those who can't spend tens of thousands of dollars to have fun on a Saturday night.

ItalianJoe1

iTrader: (10)

You can't do much for performance on the cheap with those N/A setups, but there isn't a lot to gain anyway.

You can tune the car for max power on whatever fuel you will use and set the rev limit as high as 8192rpms via the stock PCM but you might break stuff at that level.

I like the claimer idea but at such a low value it seems a bit strange, any halfway decent setup car will cost you way more than $1500...

dumpyloser

I agree Joe about the claim rule. It adds an aspect to it that keeps people somewhat more honest. Getting a newer car for a good price gives us a head start on others. The roll cage and the rest of what we need shouldn't go too far over the $1500 so we probably won't lose anything if we get bought.

I do realize that there isn't much that can be done, I just don't know much or anything about where power is held back in these cars. The exhaust for sure will but cut off and re-done to something simple (likely a straight pipe) to get rid of the cat. and muffler.

The reason I ask about the fuel rail is because I had a mitsubishi mirage years ago that you could interchange the 1.5L and 1.8L injectors and get more fuel and more HP at certain RPM's

What method should/can I use to tune the stock PCM ?

Gunney_07

iTrader: (3)

How many other cobalts are there to for the tech's to compare you to? You can get a 2.4 intake and throttle body, some valve springs and tune to keep the revs a bit higher, remove the ac from the system, If your not afraid of being caught little bit of home done porting on the exhaust manifold, If its in your budget and you think you can hide it a electric water pump, balance shaft delete kit.

Gunney_07

iTrader: (3)

hp tuners is what you need, and stock fuel system will be all you need with what little your going to do to it.

Gunney_07

iTrader: (3)

what do you run for fuel ? what can you legally run?

dumpyloser

Thanks for the Info Gunney. I will look into the items you mentioned and I may have more specific questions about them as I go.

Something else I wanted to add is that we could not get the car to start upon buying it. We thought it was either a security thing or had something to do with the starter. We took the starter out and tested it hooked to a battery and it worked, so we had it bench tested at O'reilly's and it passed all of the tests. We replaced it anyways because we were running out of options and it crunk last night for the first time. It was boiling smoke because of the oil that had come into the intake manifold etc from being flipped. I said all of that to say this. We put it in park and revved it and it wouldn't go past 4000 RPM's without cutting back. Is that normal? I was using my bluetooth OBDII transmitter and watching the throttle percentage and it would shoot up to 80 something percent and then drop to 35% as the ECM took control of the throttle. We tried this in neutral as well and it wouldn't go over 4000 before cutting back.

dumpyloser

Gunney I am not sure what everyone is running. it doesn't look there is a rule specific to this class, so I'm guessing turbo Blue racing fuel is okay, but It may be too much for cars without modded internals. What do you think?



Edit: It looks like the track rules say "track fuel only" which I'm assuming is racing fuel

Gunney_07

iTrader: (3)

yes its normal they have a rev limiter in park thats lower than in gear

Gunney_07

iTrader: (3)

im not real familiar with how well 2.2 n/a take to racing fuel and bumped up timing... but you should get a nice little bump over pump gas with a good tune. Also you might be able to shave the head a smidge and bump compression.

dumpyloser

I forgot to answer this question. There are very few to none at my local track. I have seen one and that was at a track about a half hour away from the track we normally visit. no one else stood a chance. even the saturns.


I can't figure out why saturns are so fast compared to other makes like Honda lol. DOHC and 128HP stock Vs. the Cobalt at DOHC, 2.2L and 145HP gives us a head start I believe.

Gunney_07

iTrader: (3)

I would think its the torque for coming out of the corners that helps them

dumpyloser

Is there a place to get a mail order tune for this 2.2 ecotec? Even if it is someone on this board who is credible I'd be willing to try it rather than pay HPTUNERS $499

Gunney_07

iTrader: (3)

You're going to either need HP tuners system or trifecta tune and cable. I'm sure some one in the area can rent/ lend you the cables and software. If you are just looking for the easy route not the most power check out trifecta.

Spanky's Monkey

iTrader: (6)

yeah deem ecotecs be beast on da dirt track. Go HPtuners or bust, Trifecta in my opinion is only good on 05-06 Cobalts, anything else and it's a waste of time and money.