I was wondering as to what mods i could buy that would show me better acceleration. I like the acceleration in which i have now but i figured top speed wasnt such a big deal in my area so i'd go with more acceleration parts. I have a lower motor mount now, a b&m shiftplus(yes i finally got it hooked up and working), a dc sport 4-1 header with a vibrant catback. I was planning on buying a gp alternator pulley off the gp part of this site anyone know of what increase i would notice here? Any suggestions on what else i could do to increase acceleration? Thanks.


- 2003 CHEVY CAVALIER LS SPORT ECOTEC -

- Current Mods -
-- Vibrant Exhaust & DC Sport Header --
-- Lower Motor Mount & TTR Upper Motor Mount --
-- B&M ShiftPlus & Vibrant Front STB --
-- K&N Typhoon Short Ram Intake --

RIP DAD<3 We love & miss you so much!

Cold Air Intake? Short Ram Intake?



Milt Burns, milt@neverenoughauto.com 877-609-6727

Intake, high flow cat, pulleys, lighter weight wheels and tires, cam, port-n-polish head..........

Anything that gives you more horse power for the most part is going to make you accelerate faster.



PRND321 Till I DIE
Old Motor: 160whp & 152ft/lbs, 1/4 Mile 15.4 @88.2
M45 + LD9 + 4T40-E, GO GO GO

anyone know what it takes to get to the crank pulley on the l61 engine? Is it an easy diy ? I was thinking of getting the lighten crank pulley off zspec.


- 2003 CHEVY CAVALIER LS SPORT ECOTEC -

- Current Mods -
-- Vibrant Exhaust & DC Sport Header --
-- Lower Motor Mount & TTR Upper Motor Mount --
-- B&M ShiftPlus & Vibrant Front STB --
-- K&N Typhoon Short Ram Intake --

RIP DAD<3 We love & miss you so much!

Well Good Luck. Many people do not like Z-spec. Search and you'll find a lot of posts on it. It is held on by one bolt. An impact and or breaker bar works nice. Just remeber to torque it back down to the proper torque. also a pulley puller is needed. Since it is a press fit.



PRND321 Till I DIE
Old Motor: 160whp & 152ft/lbs, 1/4 Mile 15.4 @88.2
M45 + LD9 + 4T40-E, GO GO GO

Take off passenger side wheel and inner fender...right in front of you. Yes, its an easy DIY.

if your going to do a pulley do a lightened crank pulley. it will let you rev up faster.

acceleration and high HP are not the same thing. youre telling this guy to do exactly what he doesnt want.

Does anyone offer crank pulley's for the LN2?

RFOGALX wrote:I was wondering as to what mods i could buy that would show me better acceleration. I like the acceleration in which i have now but i figured top speed wasnt such a big deal in my area so i'd go with more acceleration parts. I have a lower motor mount now, a b&m shiftplus(yes i finally got it hooked up and working), a dc sport 4-1 header with a vibrant catback. I was planning on buying a gp alternator pulley off the gp part of this site anyone know of what increase i would notice here? Any suggestions on what else i could do to increase acceleration? Thanks.

Most all mods that increase you're H.P will give you better acceleration. But i kinda understand what you're saying. You want better acceleration without turning it into a huge build. With what you already have try an Intake, Upper Motor mount, Lightened Crank Pulley, Lightened Alternator Pulley, and also look into a LSD. I know it's crazy but improving your traction will allow you to put more H.P to the road thus making your pull faster. If at all possible look into making your car lighter! Less weight is easier to get rolling.


When I step on the gas, I want people to think the world is coming to an end! - Homer J. Simpson

Golden Trojan wrote: I know it's crazy but improving your traction will allow you to put more H.P to the road thus making your pull faster.

good point. You have more then the engine to tune, do not forget chassis (flexing uni-body), suspension and tires. "the package combo" Getting rid of my 10yr 120k suspension and replacing it with a tunable setup and firming up a few flex points, huge difference in accelerating. Reflected in the 60' times.

Golden Trojan wrote:Most all mods that increase you're H.P will give you better acceleration. But i kinda understand what you're saying. You want better acceleration without turning it into a huge build. With what you already have try an Intake, Upper Motor mount, Lightened Crank Pulley, Lightened Alternator Pulley, and also look into a LSD. I know it's crazy but improving your traction will allow you to put more H.P to the road thus making your pull faster. If at all possible look into making your car lighter! Less weight is easier to get rolling.

Acually, that first line is not quite to the point. You want to look for mods that give you more low end to mid range torque. Look for things that make the highest power between 2500 and 4500 RPM. Don't be looking at the high RPM stuff. That's where you start feeling like you don't have an improvement in the throttle response during every day driving.

The chassis and traction attention is very good advice. If you build your motor up too much and don't address the chassis, you'll just find yourself spinning your tires, getting wheel hop, and also suffer from a lot of torque-steer.

Quiklilcav wrote:Acually, that first line is not quite to the point. You want to look for mods that give you more low end to mid range torque. Look for things that make the highest power between 2500 and 4500 RPM. Don't be looking at the high RPM stuff. That's where you start feeling like you don't have an improvement in the throttle response during every day driving.

And what mods do you look for if you want any sort of decent gain in low end or mid range? Larger displacement? It's sorta beating a dead horse, but these are 4 cylinder engines. There's only so much torque you can squeeze out of the lower RPM range - we just don't have the displacement to give you that really really powerful low end.

If you're looking to increase your power immediately off the line, well, I'd say (and I don't usually say this) you need to look at a different car, or look at swapping in a V6 or something. I sorta have the same viewpoint as you do - I'm not that interested in how fast my car can go, top speed, I'm more interested in how fast I can get it up to speed. With a 4 cylinder engine, if you want the fun of accelerating quickly, you still have to mod the same RPM range that you would mod if you were building it for all out racing (high speed) - that is, the upper middle and higher RPM range (think like 3500 RPM to redline). You're not going to get off-idle to 3000 RPMs to be extremely powerful, it's just physics. But if you're really looking to accelerate quickly, you're (hopefully) not going to be shifting at 3000 RPMs anyways, but rather closer to redline, so after the inital second or so, you won't see the lower RPMs again anyways, and increasing the power down there doesn't matter anyways.

Cliff's notes - If you want quicker acceleration, the mods are pretty much going to be the same mods that you would do for higher speed, really - more air in, more air out, less rotational mass, etc. And yes, improve the traction if you haven't already - good tires, good shocks, and springs (or coilovers) - to help you stick to the road better.

ditchen wrote:good point. You have more then the engine to tune, do not forget chassis (flexing uni-body), suspension and tires. "the package combo" Getting rid of my 10yr 120k suspension and replacing it with a tunable setup and firming up a few flex points, huge difference in accelerating. Reflected in the 60' times.

Forgot to mention trans converter. Very important it is setup to the engine's operating range.

It really all comes down to the wallet. Given enough $$$$ and properly applied,,,, well,, just make for a bigger grin when used.

If you want acceleration, get a turbo...

My car dyno'd out 280ft-lbs at less than 4000 RPM. I surpassed 150ft-lbs before I hit 2800, all at 7psi.





4cyltuner.com - Information Source For 4 Cylinder Tuners
Buy stuff from CarCustoms Ebay! Won't be disappointed!

Marcus, to answer your first question, it's not exactly the type of mods, as it is picking the specifics. For example, if you're looking at cams, look for a cam that has the powerband where I stated. I'm not talking about the 1000-2000 RPM range. I'm talking about the midrange torque where you spend most of your time on the street. Most people building a 4 cylinder just automaticly go to the high RPM range. However, if you drive your car everyday and want to feel it more there, you need to focus on where your engine spends most of it's time. And yes, there are some mods that make sense either way, such as cutting down on restriction with intake and exhaust, but you don't necessarily want to just go with the "bigger is better" approach. Until you get to about 5000 RPM or better, you still want to be focusing on maintaining air velocity, not just on maximum volume. You can dial a cam to bring your RPM focus down as well. A degree or two of advancement will give you a noticeable difference in throttle response.

Of course you're not going to get V6 or V8 torque out of our engines, but there is a difference in building one for good daily driving accelleration and building something for the track.

My point is simply that for what he said he wants, you don't just go all out max horsepower and high RPM.

Yeah, my cars my dd so i figured i'd give it some performance mod's but i wanna notice them. I dont hit the higher rpms on the streets and i dont really get to test the top speeds out, unless i wanna lose my licenses, so i figured acceleration was the way to go. Thanks for the help.


- 2003 CHEVY CAVALIER LS SPORT ECOTEC -

- Current Mods -
-- Vibrant Exhaust & DC Sport Header --
-- Lower Motor Mount & TTR Upper Motor Mount --
-- B&M ShiftPlus & Vibrant Front STB --
-- K&N Typhoon Short Ram Intake --

RIP DAD<3 We love & miss you so much!

Shifted wrote:If you want acceleration, get a turbo...

My car dyno'd out 280ft-lbs at less than 4000 RPM. I surpassed 150ft-lbs before I hit 2800, all at 7psi.

hmm, so a super charger and or sprayed is not as quick as a turbo???

ditchen wrote:hmm, so a super charger and or sprayed is not as quick as a turbo???

They function differently, and you can't make a broad statement like that. It comes down to the overall design and what you are trying to accomplish. For some reason, a lot of people on here think that one way or another is the only way to go. Everything has to be taken into consideration with what your goal is, and then you can chose which is best for you.

A SC will get you power quicker, but a turbo will get you more as your engine winds up and the turbo spools. Turbos tend to work better on our cars for the reason that they don't give you instant response as the SC does, so it gives our cars a chance to get moving before breaking the wheels free and spinning.