Hey what's up guys new here but not new to turnin wrenches. I'm helping a friend out with her 07 cobalt ss, trying to get it running reliably again. the car used to run decent but right now it does the following:
starts up, idles around 1200 untill it warms up, at which point it suddenly sounds cammed out, tries to and eventually dies.

when driving, the car bucks and sputters in first gear pretty much regardless, and at part throttle (which is 5psi) in second third and fourth (probably fifth too), but will run fine if you floor it.

the clutch is horrible, engages RIGHT off the floor but at the same time near the top, not sure if that's a cobalt thing or what, but it's damn near impossible to get into any gear, like hard enough that the shifter cable popped off of the trans, half the time gears grind, especially reverse...

the drivers power door lock switch doesn't work, mirrors don't work

the ebrake doesn't work, sounds like something came apart and is flopping around inside the center console.

not sure if it's tuned or running a stock tune, need to find a shop that can dig around the ecu here in portland, or

the car was bought mods unknown a year ago from some dealership in milwaukie. thing's i'm able to tell that is done to the car are:
cai
aftermarket down pipe and full exhaust
zzp 2.9 underdrive pulley
some one has done some work to the water to air intercooler, the hoses look new and it does work, was able to see coolant moving around in the reservoir.
autometer boost gauge with pointless narrowband gauge and volt gauge

so far all ive done is replaced the intake with a new one, and replaced the maf sensor (they bought a new maf with the new intake, old intake was chopped into multiple pieces and super rigged up). the cel came on when i parked it but i left my code reader at work so that's the next step, along with changing the plugs, vacuum lines, and repairing the down pipe, which has a blown out flex pipe.

as far as plugs go, are bkr7e good to run in this thing? at wot it's hitting around 15-16 psi, was thinking of gapping them at .28 to start then going from there.

i'm hoping to get this thing all road worthy, it's a fun little car when it was running right, and since my friend is stuck with it we might as well enjoy it right?? thanks in advance guys!

 

Reading codes will go a long way to figuring out why the car is dying right after warmup. Sounds like it's either having issues getting air or fuel.

Clutch you can try bleeding, it's a self adjusting system so engagement should be at a decent height.

You can try reconnecting the connectors for the driver's door switches to see if that fixes it, otherwise there might be a break in the wires.

E-brake is probably a loose cable in the center console, pop out the rear cupholders and check for tightness in the Y connection there.

 

thanks man. i'm hoping its an air issue, it's dumping soot all over the engine bay from the flex pipe leak right now. going to get that fixed asap and get a wideband installed to get an idea what the afr's are. motor seems healthy enough though, no oil smoke and and has about 20in/hg of vacuum at idle. has like 101k on it

 

Check shifter cable bushing where it connects to bottom of the shifter itself. The stock plastic bushings tend to wear out and pop out easy.

 

0.028" is wayyyyy too small of a gap for your given mods.

Start at 0.034"-0.032".