Chevy Cobalt Forum banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

Want to Beef Up My Cobalt

24K views 32 replies 7 participants last post by  BboyTaktix 
#1 ·
I just bought my Cobalt about 2 months ago and the people I work with are all about speed and fast cars and have me interested in speeding it up. My cobalt is the basic LS, no turbo or super charge or anything, and I was wondering what I could do to add a few horses under the hood. I am no mechanic by any means and do not know much about messing with vehicles. I do plan to have my Cobalt for some time so I don't want anything that is going to destroy the engine, car, etc. Reliability is more of a priority than speed.

So I was wondering if y'all could help. Again it is a 2008 Cobalt LS, Coupe.
 
#5 ·
My bud said a cold air intake, exhaust, and some headers would help. But he also said it would be a little bit of money for not much a difference. I don't know anything about super chargers other then that they make a car faster. Nothing about how they work, prices, and risks.
 
#7 ·
You can estimate 150 for each part you listed on the low end. parts only go up from there.

Search the engine mod forum, you will probably find threads on all the what's better than what and install instructions.

SC might be a bit much right away.
 
#10 ·
Again, basic bolt ons will give you decent gains and is safe. Go full exhaust (header dp and cat back exhaust with a high flow cat) a cold air intake with a 2.4 IM/TB and a tune. You won't be the fastest by any means but you'll get noticable gains. Also look into beefing up your suspension while you are doing this.

You can sc or tc safely as long as you keep a low boost. If you wanna run a higher boost you will have to start changing out engine internals which is VERY expensive.

Anything is possible tho, just matters how much money you are able and willing to spend!
 
#11 ·
Damn. Well as my daily and only driver, rebuilding the motor is not something I have the time/money/know-how to do. And as I am still paying on it I do not want to do something to it to make it in any way unreliable. So if basic bolt ons are the way to go how much of an increase could I expect? Is it worth the money?
 
#13 ·
I'm happy with my cars performance. So to me it was worth the money. With full bolt ons and tune you are lookikng at 150-160 at the wheel. The highest hp I've seen on a 2.2l cobalt without SC or TC was 181, but he was fully bolted with light weight pullys and swapped internals.
 
#14 ·
I gained 2mpg average after all my mods, its a dd too. Do you're hw and ask us questions if you are confused
 
#15 ·
Also the beauty of bolt on mods is that 99.9% of the time, they are easily done with no modifications. They are easy to do, and you can do things one at a time. Put in an intake today, 2 weeks from now do a catback. A little later buy a header, dp or both and put them in. It doesn't need to be done all at once. And the only mod you HAVE to have a tune for is the 2.4 TB. So you can do all the other mods first, then save the TB for last and get your tune and you will finally feel ALL the gains from all of your mods.

Do a little research, feel free to ask questions, and you'll be g2g.

---------- Post added at 05:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:14 PM ----------

I lost Like 5 mpg's but that is due to my tune...lol
 
#24 ·
[/COLOR]I lost Like 5 mpg's but that is due to my tune...lol
I have Trifecta too, how did you loss 5 mpg, I gained shortly after. Or are you talking strictly city driving because my city mpg it garbage now!! Mostly because I can stomp on it!!
 
#16 ·
Well guys I do appreciate the help. I'm guessing bolt ons will have to be the way to go. agita I know you listed a few things to get earlier. Is there anyway you could give me a list of specifics that you recommend? I don't know much about engines as I stated earlier so whatever you suggest is probably what I will end up getting lol
 
#17 ·
Intake:
Injen or K/N

Exhaust is up to you really and there are a ton of options for catbacks, but I highly suggest getting a badmab shorty header. I got a custom DP made so I'm not much help there.
The main thing for the exhaust is to not go bigger than 2.5 inch pipes.

Grab an upper engine mount from turbotechracing.com

Buy an intake manifold on throttle body from a 2.4l cobalt and it will bolt right up to your 2.2L but you will need a tune for the throttle body.

For tuning go with trifecta (Trifecta Performance Custom Tuning :: Home Page and News I think)

MRZ makes light wieght pullys. They have an option for an underdrive pully, but stick with the stock size to save yourself some heartache later on.
For suspension I'd go with FE5 shocks and struts (they are the stock shocks off of the SS/TC cobalts and will bolt right up)
There are tons of options for springs so I'll let you do your own research on that.
FE5 lower control arms
Moog swaybar endlinks
Rear sway bar. I have an eibach one but I don't recommend it. I think turbo tech racing has a decent one.
And a front strut bar. I have an MRZ strut bar and I love it!

If you have a manual trans, grab a short shift kit from TWM.

This is all my opinion, other people might disagree with me, and I'm sure that they will give their opinions as well.
 
This post has been deleted
#23 ·
No, possibly port and polish. It will help but not a whole lot.
 
#26 ·
Do you have to do premium? Why would you loss that much? Shouldn't the SC be helping a little or does it drag on the pulley that much?
 
#29 ·
One more bit of advice for the OP; sign up for all the different cobalt forums. Onve you get a higher post count you can start browsing the 'for sale' sections. There are tons of good quality parts to be found!
The forums I'd join (other than this one)
www cobaltuniverse net
www cobaltss net
Just put a period where the space is :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top