depends what your ending goals are. if you want over 300hp you should start with an ss there built for boost and already have upgraded drive train parts. The LNF more so than the LSJ.

if you looking200-250 hp then just get a used SC kit from an lsj and do a build small build. Coil overs a Sc used supercharge upgrade kit. Exhaust mods. and a clutch upgrade. you would have a quick sleeper. for less than 4000$(in mods). you would likely want to do motor and tranny mounts as well.... you could go the more expenive route and get a zzp turbo set up as well. but like i said more monies...

if your planning to do asthetics like body panels and hi rise as well as interior seats door pannels and what not(as well as performance). your starting to look at 7-8grand if the panels are body colour already. if not plus paint... and it will never be as fast as a lightly modded TC or SC (without pushing it right to the edge and breaking stuff)

Personal opinion is buy an ss sc for cost effective reasons. pick one up for 9000-10000 and throw a stage 3 pully and tune on and you have a quick car for 11000. instead of putting 5-10grand worth of mods on a lt that wont be as fast... or as reliable with that much power.

 

in the end you can beat a ss tc or sc with a lt but when we mod the ss its game over and now i have a turbo swapped lsj; there is no chance unless you spend mad cash on a built motor and i doubt the op is going to do that. like rissa stated; the vin says it all i love the ss and i am not trading it in, im keeping it till the day i die or it gets wrecked but if i could do it again i would get a c5, mustang gt, and minimum a evo or sti. not riding on the bandwagon but its so much much easier to achieve power.

 

Yeah so what did the turbo one have done to it?

and there's more to racing than just drag. Did the 2.2 SC have handling anywhere near as good as the TC? Yeah STis can beat TCs stock for stock in a drag but hand us some corners...

 

Last I checked, building my car is $$$


Link for free parts, to "build"

 

That isn't the point though.

 

IMO Build the 2.2L by turbocharging it.

 

just find a LNF totaled and swap parts.

 

It cost money to go fast. If you lose a race it really doesn't matter if the owner bought it like that, or bought the parts himself and installed them, that's not a good justification for being slower.

 

^true frickin that. my dad always says "all it takes is money"

 

where the F you see an evo for 12k that ain't raped on miles lol

 

Never has a truer statement been said.


OP I'd just buy an SS. I went from an LT to an SS and I have 0 regrets. I was gonna build mine, then realized it was gonna be much cheaper to buy an SS, and have a much better building platform.

 

This is where I'm at. Currently in a 2.2 S/C and I could spend money buying rods/pistons and the whole works. I want out of the automatic though and would rather start on a better platform and a more sound car like the SS/TC.

 

a few of them are sold by now but when i was looking for a car i saw some, yes they were probably abused and put back to stock but the ones i found were at dealers. in tampa fl they always have good car for a wicked price.....you just have to look my friend.

 

its obvious that getting a ss/tc is better to start from. the money you would spend making it as fast as a tc with boltons you can make the tc even faster/reliability; but do you want car payments????

 

haha i looked into buying a 2.2 and turboing it like right awasy when garret still made the disco potato kit and yea its not just the engine its the suspension seats bodykit brakes at least on a ss/tc lol

 

EXACTLY! In the end, there is still a TON of stuff that needs to be upgraded besides just power the power levels... You can buy an SS for about the same price of all the mods alone! Save yourself time and money.. Just buy the SS

 

i have invested a total of just under 20K into my base model cobalt over the past 6 years (that includes the cost of buying the car from the dealer) and i would have to say that i have upgraded to parts that are better than factory SS/SC but when you can buy a used ss/sc for 10k now-a-days, its much more worth your money to do that, unless your going for an all out track car that you plan to fully build the engine and put a turbo on it (roughly $7000 just there) then go trade it in for the ss/sc

 

Sometimes built not bought......... ends up broke and blown up.

The SS is so much different than an LS .... so basically you have to swap the drive train and suspension .... a whole interior ... the computers ( i know atleast the PCM is different) All the brakes and steering components ...... bumpers and body kit .... It's just not worth it .

If I had a 2.2 I would throw a SC or turbo kit on it .... the GM ground effects kit for the SS with both bumpers done ...... and a set of coil overs with a 5 lug conversion (if your 4 lug ) and a set of SC or TC wheels and call it good. Thats prolly 5-7K of work ...if you do alot of it yourself.

Either that or take a lose and trade it for an SS/SC or TC ..... Throw a grand into the SC and have a great car around 250- 260whp . Or go the more expensive route and buy a TC and throw a 300 dollar tune on and be around 290-300 whp

 

to answer martel18ss. my buddys 2.2 is bone stock except for the sc kit. plus he doesnt have any cooling mods yet. the ss/tc has intake, dp, catback, charge pipes, and tune. they went from a 45 roll to 120

 

Somethings wrong with that..

 

Well I appreciate all of your opinions, Im just gonna build. I like the whole "built not bought" personna, my dad builds engines and my bro does too and I know some stuff too looking for some horse power tho, thinking a pacesetter header back exhaust, or a gm performane cat back, gm performance cold air intake, and a performance chip for now and in the future forged pistons and all that fir a 100 shot of nitros? Who knows but thanks again. Oh and I am pretty knew to this forum so if I say something dumb I apologize.

 

ditto.

 

No kidding. The TC must have had traction control on and just stayed below 3000 rpms the entire time haha.

 

Honestly, you can do what ever you want. Just don't put SS badges on it.

 

What? Are you somehow suggesting throwing corners at an STI will give you some sort of advantage?

edit: As to the original question, if your goal is to make an SS and have *everything* up to par with the SS. You're better off just buying one. If you're just looking to boost your LT's straight line performance to best stock / lightly modified SS's levels without worrying about all the other stuff (suspension, handling, RELIABILITY) then go for it. I personally feel this will be more trouble than it is worth, unless you are mechanically inclined as these types of modifications don't typically result in superb reliability.