Well it's good to be back! I used to have an account on here but I decided to do a new one since that was so long ago. I used to own an 08 victory red Cobalt SS that I had built at zzp and tuned. On 93 octane it was pushing 430whp out of a precision 5858. It was a fun car but it had some issues from day one that were never able to be solved.

As much as i loved my lemon of a car and enjoyed surprising people with it, a time came that I moved out of moms house and decided to grow up. This ment getting an apartment which ment the car had to go

Threw my years I grew bored with my work vehicle which was a 96 Honda civic hatchback. I hated not having power anymore so I decided to join the Honda community and did a K20a2 swap Into the car. This car had bad damage on the rear qtr so I eventually parted it out and kept the power parts for the next car. I bought a 95 civic hatchback and gutted the interior. I literally have a steering wheel, dash and 2 seats. Over time I have pieced together a turbo setup for the Honda with a Garrett gt3076r with a billet wheel. Also I have a complete awd setup for it that will be done upon completion of the turbo setup. Just a week before starting the build I was with my cousin in it and he was driving. A lil b18 Honda rolled up and I convinced my cousin i didn't mind if he spanked it's ass in a roll race. Well.....1st gear went great. 2nd we were pulling ahead hard. 3rd gear we had pulled a bus length or more. 2nd gear again? Oh ****! Then boom!!!! The engine couldn't take the insane over rev and the 4th cyl threw the rod threw the block in 2 spots and the rod cap is now hanging out the bottom of the oil pan.

With the turbo build being held back how could I get mad after I had convinced I didn't mind him running it hard? The worse part of this story is the reason my red cobalt was built is because I let a used to be friend drive it and the same thing happened in it....I know I know I should learn something here lol that was years ago so honestly I had not even thought it would happen again. So the Honda is on hold!

Now it's been years since I owned a Cobalt SS and man how I missed mine. I bought the red one with 6k miles and sold it with 34k miles so I didn't want something ragged out if I was buying another one. And due to these things becoming more rare I spent a few trips to find the right low mileage car. Well finally I found the one for me.

2010 summit white Cobalt SS/TC with some very tasteful mods but not too extreme and 68k miles. I'm told they only made 50 in this color that year! I am now the proud owner of probably the only Cobalt SS in my area haha.

 

Welcome back to Cobalt land, nice looking ride you have. I wanted a white one, but when I was looking to buy I had the choice of a modded and beaten black 2010 with 50k miles, or an unmolested 1 owner yellow 09 with 72k and full service history. I'm guessing you can figure which one I took.

 

Welcome back, nice looking SS
Hope it's better to you then your last one

 

Welcome back. What was you screen name before? Oh and don't let anyone drive this one...
My wife hasn't even drove mine in the 4.5 years I've owned it. It's not worth near as much as it was 4.5 years ago but now it's got a lot of sentimental worth in it for me. What plagued you in the red car?

 

Sorry for the huge reply but here goes!

I really don't think anyone shall touch this one much less drive it haha. My screen name was etnies69. Unfortunately when I got the red car I was fairly new in the car world and 100% new to turbocharging. It had an issue with the bov at first due to the stock tune and no maf relocate. Seems simple to most but when the platform's only been out 2 years and you don't know squat. This can be a nightmare. Finally I figured it all out and blocked of the bov while installing a bpv. That worked but then I got a zzp canned tune and had no idea that a turbo car needs a break between pulls. One good long haul full of boost and I blew out the turbo. Keep in mind guys I was young and had no idea I was being harmful. I loved the car and took good car of it to the best of knowledge. After replacing the turbo I had little Miniscule issues here and there. Replaced the IC with zzp. Then my ex friend happened lol. After the build the car was never right. Zzp did the build in house and it was legit. zzp gen 3 2.1 girdled block zzp rods wiseco pistons zzp cams and valve springs. 4.45 gears and a clutch masters stage 4. They were very insistent that I get rid of the treadstone turbo kit and precision turbo however i wasn't about to sell it to some one at half price just to buy there's. From day one the turbo smoked on deceleration after a pull. No other times Just decel. It was leaking through the compressor housing. I sent it off after countless photos of proof that the system was correct but precision didn't want it but they did the warranty work. I don't feel they did what they could because the next day after reinstalling it I had the same problem. I always had an eval problem too which looking back now I wish I had ran catch can. But knowledge is power!

 

welcome back man! nice car and i love the color! then again im a sucker for white haha. anyways if i were you i would take that intake manifold off and get those valves cleaned up and then purchase Powell Racings PCV system. it works wayyy better then your typical run of the mill catch can. it will keep those valves nice and clean.

 

Welcome back man nice color

 

Thanks for the tip I'll definitely keep that in mind. My first order of business is to either get rid of this bov or the bpv. Idk how but it's running fine with both. I can't help but feel under light throttle it's leaking boost which makes me fear over working the turbo.

Thanks man I didn't know how I would feel about it but when I seen it in person it was hard not to drop the poker face and just say ok where's the title cuz I have cash lol.

 

I would say just get rid of the bov, the k&n intake will give you enough sound. I know what your talking about man definitely a great buy

 

I believe you are correct! now is the time to search for a block off plate and reuse the HKS bov on my Honda!

I swear this is the strongest pulling stock turbo Cobalt I have rode in! I look to dyno it soon just for poops and giggles

Now that I have computer access I will list the mods

68k miles
G85 transmission

Trifecta tuned at 23ish psi and a 25psi spike
Dejon intake (he said it was but I cant find a label)
Dejon charge pipes
ZZP small intercooler
ZZP trans mounts
Modern Performance 3 in catted down pipe
Modern Performance 3 in Catback (muffler deleted)
Clutchmasters stage 3 clutch (worst clutch chatter I have ever heard)
Eibach lowering springs
plasti dipped stock wheels and brand new tires!

 

Well at least you learned, albeit the hard way, the first time around. I've never had a bov as the stock bpv works just fine and I don't like attention anyway. I would get rid of one or the other as it's just more to check if the car isn't running right. They are right about the valves, mine we caked at 32,000 miles, but a woman drove it the first 20,000. I am running the 2nd gen Powell pcv setup for 2 years and it's helped a lot. Last year I pulled the intake to change out valve seals and the valves were pretty much the way I had left them a year ago.

 

thank you for the follow up on Powell's setup. I will have to add that to the list for the future. Any luck using seafoam on a regular basis? I realize some believe in it and some dont. I have used it in the past with good results.

With direct injection I assume thats why the intake valves get so gunked up so quickly? Did her casually driving it contribute to gunk? I dont have a problem blowing the soot out from time to time haha

Just spoke to RIVA Racing about this block off plate. They could only confirm it works with an hks port so I had him measure it. its 2.121 inches so I took the trusty micrometer out of the box and set it to 2.121 inches and sure enough its an exact measurement to my bov. I will be ordering it tonight, once its here I'm reverting to the stock bpv. I've already spoke to Trifecta about a slight issue with running both, but my opinion is like yours. I prefer the stock bpv at least for now!

 

With DI, Seafoam will not work and that is because the Injectors are in the cylinder head vs Port injection where the injectors are in the Intake manifold. So with Port Injection, the fuel will spray in the intake tract and pass over (wash) the valves and keep them relatively clean, this is also why Sea foam will work to clean valves on a Port Injection Engine.

Sea foam will only clean the top of the pistons with Direct injection which is essentially useless.

 

^ what he said, seafoam cant reach the intake valves and if you spray it through the intake it's not strong enough to take off that gunk.
I would also rescind you saving up for a better tune through hpt. Trifecta isn't real good and the guy who started it and tuned a lot of cars early on I don't think does them anymore. I had it, and can say there is a difference with a good hp tune( like 20hp and better drivability, and milage) trifecta usually won't spend the time to dial in the car like a tuner will. It's more of a canned tune.

 

hi

 

By stating seafoam I was implying to run it through the vacuum line that is almost centered on the intake manifold. By doing this it will hit the valves. I did this on my first lnf about everyoil change if not every 5k miles and I can't say much about that car went well but I will say that when i pulled the head my intake valves were pretty clean given it is a direct injection engine. I may be able to fish up some photos tomorrow on my photo bucket account.

I did consider doing hptuners as that's what I had before and liked it. I do like the option of the stock tune too though with trifecta. I guess I'll decide on this to come. If ever the day comes for more performance oriented goods such as a zfr.....there's no question HPTuners all the way!!!

And very nice brxttz!

 

And I do absolutely agree nova. I am a firm believer that a drum or hub dyno should be involved when tuning a car. I've not tuned but it's my understanding that once you reach peak numbers it's a good idea to back your timing off a couple degrees. Because although the engine is making peak hp that little amount of timing reduction will greatly increase the life of your engine. Something to do with firing at the perfect time to burn it but being too rough on the rod Bearings I would assume.

 

It's usually about making sure you don't have any knock, or pre detonation, more than anything. Trifecta tunes tend to have more knock than they should, at least that's been brought up a lot. Knock will kill your Pistons.

 

So do you think that's why trifecta is notorious for a rich mixture? Attempting to avoid knock? Maybe the timing is way to high. Idk a great deal about it so if I sound stupid I'm really just curious lol

 

I really wish I had my dual scan gauges from my old car so I could monitor knock. However I was happy when I went through the stock rpd and seen all the information it offers

 

Went and bought a block off plate for the hks bov port and wouldn't you know it they sent the package to me the day before Thanksgiving! I got all excited openned the package and was blown away. They accidentally sent me a hks super sequential with a vacuum line and one way valve. Being the honest person I am I'll be sending it back on Monday to hopefully get a quick turnaround time for the block off plate. Maybe a free tee shirt too? Haha

 

I bought my LNF trifecta tuned and everything seemed great until I got a aeroforce gauge and took a look at how bad my short term fuel trims were.

Plus it was knocking up the ass on pulls, I had Mike at trifecta take a look at it for me and he told me nothing was wrong.
"All lnf's knock 3-4* at WOT"

Got it taken off that day and went HPTuned the same day haha. I talked to the local trifecta dealer and he remembers flashing my car before I had it, there was 0 revisions done to it.

Not saying all trifecta tunes are garbage, but I had garbage experience.

 

The only thing trifecta has on anyone else is the dual tune. That's only handy if your wife needs to drive it. Once you get a good tune from hpt, and get used to it, you find out how poor the trifecta tune is. I was always upset that they called it "good" even though you paid for the tune that's supposed to be tweaked to your car, and didn't do 1 revision. I would rather have a gms1 tune than trifecta, because at least you know it's decent enough to not blow your motor.

 

Yeah you guys are starting to make me question trifecta. I had hptuners on my last cobalt and didn't have any issues. I do love having a dual tune though for one reason. If someone wants to ride in the car before running them I can do a pull on the stock tune. Incognito dawg lol

 

It's cool but in the end you will be more on the power tune than the regular tune. Plus if you have a good tuner you don't have to worry about anything