I'm cheap
05-24-2007, 09:05 PM
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: 05-22-07
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 1,001
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I'm cheap
What are some cheap ways to boost performance..i have a stock 2.0 right now.. and i don't really have any money, I've already read the airbox mod thread just haven't done it yet
05-24-2007, 09:36 PM
#4
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: 05-22-07
Location: Northern Virginia
Posts: 1,001
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
not very car smart... who could tune me.. does one have to have a "tuner"?? just so i don't get a moron that says hey i can do it.. then they mess it up
05-24-2007, 11:12 PM
#8
Senior Member
Join Date: 10-06-05
Location: Seneca, South Carolina
Posts: 10,944
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes
on
2 Posts
there is a couple of things that you can do for cheap, and then there is a couple more things that you can do for a "little" bit of money, but then after that it starts to get kind of expensive.
1st- air box mod (totally free and worth your time, if you can afford it though, get a k&n filter)
2nd- DIY tranny mounts. $5 bottle of PL Premium from your local hardware store. Take your front and rear tranny mounts out. EASY to do. Fill them with the PL premium. Let them sit for 24hrs. Then reinstall them and your good to go. No more wheel hop and your putting a little more tq to the ground. Shifting is greatly improved too.
3rd- hollowing your cat. converter (just make sure you put an 02 simulator in there to trick the ecu). $5-10 mod. good for a little more tq.
4th- If your are mechanically inclined and don't mind disassembling the intake side of your motor, you could do the dual pass mod. You just take the endplate off and have a nipple or bung drilled and welded into the middle. It involves removing the supercharger, intake manifold, alternator, and a bunch of lines and wires. I would say no more than $40 but probably cheaper, depends on how much someone charges you for welding that little piece.
what you've done now is improved your launch and shifting and opened up your intake and exhaust a little and kept your engine cooler. You should be much improved, believe it or not, over a stock cobalt, even considering you still being stockish. I haven't hollowed the cat yet or done the dual pass but I walk away from other stock ss's and redlines rather easily. 4-5 car lengths from 40-110. If you do all 4 mods, I'd estimate you could gain anywhere from 10-20whp.
after that, it's gonna be $100 here, $100 there. and it'll add up quickly.
$90- Modular pulley system from nherbst454. for $30, you can rent his pulley puller also. you can do the boost bypass mod at this point for free.
$100-$150- you can pick up some 42lb injectors used with harness.
$100-$200- find someone locally that can give you a tune with hp tuners. even if you are still somewhat stock, you can get them too raise your redline and disable tq management. And if you are a drag strip type of racer, you can get them to lower your boost a little in 1st gear so that you can get traction.
$100 or less- cobra heat exchanger. you can usually find them for a $100 or less. definitely worth the money.drop your intake temps some more, means more power in the end.
If you do all these mods- for a max cost of about $600 roughly, you could make close to 260whp or better. I'd say you would run low 13's at a pretty high trap speed if you are a good driver. I would guess the car would be capable of 12's, but you need more traction mods, I.E. drag radials or something. traction bars. If you auto cross, this car will be real quick. If you road course, it will be real quick. If you did no more and just went straight to a nitrous kit, you would see 12's and the car would be pretty damn quick for the small amount of money put into it.
at this point you can't really do anything else for that cheap. it's going to cost at least $250 for a regular meth kit or better. But you could build your own meth kit for cheap. But I don't know how to do that so. headers are a couple hundred. downpipe is over $100, catback exhaust is a couple hundred. Hp Tuners for you to own yourself is $499 for the standard. You gotta have a laptop to use it. tires are a couple hundred. You could get some 16" wheels and some radials or slicks to use for the strip. that's not cheap though. Nitrous is gonna be $400+. At this point you gotta pay to play. And I'm sure you understand that.
1st- air box mod (totally free and worth your time, if you can afford it though, get a k&n filter)
2nd- DIY tranny mounts. $5 bottle of PL Premium from your local hardware store. Take your front and rear tranny mounts out. EASY to do. Fill them with the PL premium. Let them sit for 24hrs. Then reinstall them and your good to go. No more wheel hop and your putting a little more tq to the ground. Shifting is greatly improved too.
3rd- hollowing your cat. converter (just make sure you put an 02 simulator in there to trick the ecu). $5-10 mod. good for a little more tq.
4th- If your are mechanically inclined and don't mind disassembling the intake side of your motor, you could do the dual pass mod. You just take the endplate off and have a nipple or bung drilled and welded into the middle. It involves removing the supercharger, intake manifold, alternator, and a bunch of lines and wires. I would say no more than $40 but probably cheaper, depends on how much someone charges you for welding that little piece.
what you've done now is improved your launch and shifting and opened up your intake and exhaust a little and kept your engine cooler. You should be much improved, believe it or not, over a stock cobalt, even considering you still being stockish. I haven't hollowed the cat yet or done the dual pass but I walk away from other stock ss's and redlines rather easily. 4-5 car lengths from 40-110. If you do all 4 mods, I'd estimate you could gain anywhere from 10-20whp.
after that, it's gonna be $100 here, $100 there. and it'll add up quickly.
$90- Modular pulley system from nherbst454. for $30, you can rent his pulley puller also. you can do the boost bypass mod at this point for free.
$100-$150- you can pick up some 42lb injectors used with harness.
$100-$200- find someone locally that can give you a tune with hp tuners. even if you are still somewhat stock, you can get them too raise your redline and disable tq management. And if you are a drag strip type of racer, you can get them to lower your boost a little in 1st gear so that you can get traction.
$100 or less- cobra heat exchanger. you can usually find them for a $100 or less. definitely worth the money.drop your intake temps some more, means more power in the end.
If you do all these mods- for a max cost of about $600 roughly, you could make close to 260whp or better. I'd say you would run low 13's at a pretty high trap speed if you are a good driver. I would guess the car would be capable of 12's, but you need more traction mods, I.E. drag radials or something. traction bars. If you auto cross, this car will be real quick. If you road course, it will be real quick. If you did no more and just went straight to a nitrous kit, you would see 12's and the car would be pretty damn quick for the small amount of money put into it.
at this point you can't really do anything else for that cheap. it's going to cost at least $250 for a regular meth kit or better. But you could build your own meth kit for cheap. But I don't know how to do that so. headers are a couple hundred. downpipe is over $100, catback exhaust is a couple hundred. Hp Tuners for you to own yourself is $499 for the standard. You gotta have a laptop to use it. tires are a couple hundred. You could get some 16" wheels and some radials or slicks to use for the strip. that's not cheap though. Nitrous is gonna be $400+. At this point you gotta pay to play. And I'm sure you understand that.
05-25-2007, 08:27 AM
#10
Senior Member
Depends on what your money situation is. Do you just not have a lot of money NOW or is this going to be a fairly long-term thing???? If you're going to be on a tight budget for a while, best thing to do is to put aside $10-20 here and there for "future" mods.
More importantly, make sure you save money for "wear and tear" expenses. Stuff like brakes, oil changes, and ESPECIALLY tires are no where close to cheap for this car. I almost fell into that tempting trap of MODS MODS MODS and wouldn't have had enough money when I needed tires and brakes.
More importantly, make sure you save money for "wear and tear" expenses. Stuff like brakes, oil changes, and ESPECIALLY tires are no where close to cheap for this car. I almost fell into that tempting trap of MODS MODS MODS and wouldn't have had enough money when I needed tires and brakes.
05-25-2007, 08:37 AM
#11
Member
Join Date: 03-04-07
Location: Hellertown PA
Posts: 373
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
One of the best ways to save $$ is to learn how to do the work yourself. Of course that's taking into consideration that you aren't going to break things and have to pay to get them fixed and the part you were trying to intstall installed too. So do searches and ask questions before you attempt anything yourself.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post