What are the most common engine and transmission problems that people are having with the SS/SC?

 

Lots of people complain about the clutch. The engine suffers from fuel starvation in the #4 cylinder when any upgrades from stock are made due to what we believe is too small of a fuel rail.

 

it shuting off!! and the annoying funny idle, and the bad wheel hop

 

ya i understand the wheel hop and the fuel starvation in the 4th piston. im talking about stuff that would be a major problem once the warranty is up. people keep bitching at me about looking at buying the ss/sc because its an American car and according to them its automatically a pice of ****.

 

we havent had that much for "major mechanical problems" show up for these cars yet.
at least not anything that wasnt directly related to modifying.

but we dont have that many people with ALOT of miles yet....
so its hard to tell.

but so far? looking pretty bulletproof to me. I see no reason this car wont comfortably break 200k miles without major problems

 

The car does seem pretty bullet proof. The engine seems well built and without extensive moding its seems pretty reliable. Im just curious if my planned mods in my sig would do much to engine life and transmission life. I cant imagine it would do much.

 

instead of just going pully, i would save and do stage 2 properly.
then not only is it safer, and faster....but GM still has your back if somethin happens.

 

ya i know. i have stage 2 listed there. i was thinking about adding on a 3.0 pulley since that is the smallest I can go and still run it safely on the GM stage 2 reflash. I dont wanna mess with hp tuners and void my warranty. i know a some of the mods will void the warranty but my buddy and i are going to go speak to the owner of the dealership who is a close family friend and run it by her and see what she says about those mods. hopefully she will be okay with it.

 

the only thing they will likely not like would be a different pully.
if they are any ways decent, stage 2 + intake + exhaust should be no problem at all.

 

ya the different pulley will make things interesting. Hell, i may just try and get the GM stage 3 pulley rather than a zzp or anything like that. Maybe that would be a little bit better of a move, if Im even able to order that without the rest of the stage 3 kit.

 

Cost you about $100. The stage 3 pulley is a true 3" pulley (2.99" to be exact) compared to the stage 2 pulley which is a about 3.07".

 

wow its that small of a difference. is it really that worth it?

 

You could do like I am planning to and buy the stage II. Then get a 2.9" lightweight billet pulley from nerhbst (sp$) that seem to be of high quality. I plan to only change to the 2.9" on a night when I go to the track, and then any other time I will switch back to the stage II pulley.

For tuning, I'm going to get a dyno tune for the stage II and request that there is a little room added in for the 2.9". I know the tune won't be spot on for the 2.9" but seeing as I am only going to use that setup once every few months it will be okay.

 

ya that wouldnt be a bad idea. I would like to go 2.9 but I dont want to have to get another tune unless the stage II reflash from the dealer runs like crap on the car.

 

You can get away with a 2.9" on the Stage II tune (May not be great but it would be okay for a few runs). If you would do this, I would recommend running 93 octane if available.

 

ya i dont think it would run that great either. i dont think ill do that though. i want to keep the car running well all the time.

 

hey guys, is the GM stage III available yet? i have not located it yet. i will keep looking anyways.

on a second note, i have 20, 700 miles on my car and i have a miss at idle and during acceleration, the car seems to studder if you will. like its just missing like crazy or struggling to find the correct air/fuel ratio. i am not sure but it is definatly annoying. for instance racing a vet last night, i was getting on it and it seemed like it didnt want to go, it was just studdering and finally got over it and went until i shifted again. i know its not because i was shifting too low, i mean i was running to 6k rpm. it will do this during normal driving as well. does anyone have any information on this or had similar experiences?

i took it into the dealer because it has been bothering me and they drove it and took snap shots of when it was doing it with the tech II but said everything looked normal. sooo they said maybe it was normal, but i have a hard time believing that....

i read mention of a possible undersized fuel rail causing problems in the #4 cyl. can someone please explain this a little more to me? and could this cause the problem i am having? thanks

 

Im pretty sure all cobalts have that laggy little cough when revving from an Idle.
Ive been told its caused by having a throttle by wire system.

 

I would like to modify my first post concerning the fuel starvation comment. That isn't true. It physically isn't possible with regard to fluid dynamics.

Now, there is something going on in the #4 cylinder, but it's not fuel related. I am beginning to think it is actually coolant related. Fresh coolant enters the top left of the engine at the #1 cylinder, and then flows from right to left. By the time it gets to #4, its as hot as it it's going to be before exiting the engine.

 

Sauced, check your plugs and plug wires. Also consider changing your fuel filter if you haven't changed it yet. Take a look at your air filter too.

 

i have checked the plugs, i put new ones in and pulled them back out one day to inspect thinking maybe it was related, they were fine. good color and everything. the wires, no damage and the boots fit tight. i had the injen on it, i took it off and it was dirty, so i put the stock back on so i could drive while servicing the injen. however, the screws that hold the MAF stripped out cuz they corroded in there and so i have to come up with a fix for that before i can put it back on. the problem persisted and the stock air filter was fine. it only had a couple thousand on it. and i have not looked into the fuel filter, i didnt think those needed to be serviced this soon. i have run nothing but premium in this car since the day i took it home. i would like to think its clean, but who knows. i will look into this fuel filter and if its easy enough i will change it just to see if it helps. thanks for the info and the help. seems several people are dealing with the same challenge so i am anxious to get this figured out.