I have a 2005 cobalt ss with stage 3 from zzp performance, 2.9 pulley, 60 lb injectors, 3 inch intake, dual pass inter cooler. I bought it 2 months ago and dealer replaced the ecu with a stock because it was giving lean codes bank 1. after that it was running rich. The car was having a hard time starting up and progressively worse,finally didn't start, so i sent the ecu to zz performance to get it tuned. I replaced the spark plugs thinking they were bad because it was running rich. When i finally got the ecu back from zzp, i thought it was going to start right back up with the brand new plugs and tuned ecu. I tried to start it,but didnt and white smoke came out of the engine compartment,it smelt like plastic or something. I dont want to take it back to the dealer . Please help . I dont know what whats wrong, is it something major?

 

White smoke means you are probably burning coolant. Could be coolant from the engine cooling system or from the intercooling system but not sure why it would smell like plastic.

 

i checked for any loose hoses that might be spilling coolant,but there nothing . what else should i look for ?

 

Is your coolant tank or filler neck low? If one of them is low and you see no external leaks its one of two things. If the coolant tank is, that means you have a head gasket issue. If the filler neck is low, it means coolant is leaking into the intake mani

 

Could be gasket on your dual pass/cores around that area

 

i just looked both the filler and coolant are full, but i asked around and got feed back that it did smell like coolant.i dont know where else to look. could it be that something inside the engine is bad since i ran it on a stock ECU and running rich?

 

Nothing that could cause it to smell like it's burning coolant. I believe the car running rich could possibly damage the cat but nothing inside the engine

 

well time to get it towed to the mechanics shop. thanks for the help. ill update her condition when i get news

 

You ran it on a stock ECU with 60lb injectors? Probably melted part of a piston or something. That's nearly double the fuel it's supposed to have, all the time. Puddling up fuel on a cyl will burn it right through the piston in that spot. Not saying for sure that is what happened here but it's a very real possibility.

 

if it was a piston, wouldn't it still start up?

 

Depends how damaged it is.

 

well i feel like an idiot i didnt check the obvoius. it is the starter that was slowing dying and finally did.