I have a 2004 cavalier. I want to gain a little more performance.
I got a Weapon R Secret Weapon intake, and a B&M ShiftPlus+
I was wondering what other things I can upgrade to gain some more performance.
How about motormounts? Do aftermarket ones really help a lot? Are they worth the money? What do you guys suggest, rksport?
How about electrical? I plan on doing "The Big 3" tuesday.. I plan on getting an optima yellowtop battery, and running 4gauge:
*Battery to alternator w/300 amp fuse
*Battery to ground
*Alternator to ground
Correct me if I'm wrong.
How about spark plugs? wires? What else can I upgrade to unlock some more performance? I plan on doing exhaust later, not right now tho.
Thanks for the help and suggestions!
[M wrote:ATTRESS]I have a 2004 cavalier. I want to gain a little more performance.
I got a Weapon R Secret Weapon intake, and a B&M ShiftPlus+
I was wondering what other things I can upgrade to gain some more performance.
How about motormounts? Do aftermarket ones really help a lot? Are they worth the money? What do you guys suggest, rksport?
motor mounts are fine, alot of people complain about vibrations... theres plenty of posts to read reviews on em.... thing is, with the more performance you get the more luxury you sacrifice... its a give and take...
all of em are pretty much the same, rksport, gravana, carcustoms...
the FAQ at the top of the posts in this forum has plenty of places to buy from.
Quote:
How about electrical? I plan on doing "The Big 3" tuesday.. I plan on getting an optima yellowtop battery, and running 4gauge:
*Battery to alternator w/300 amp fuse
*Battery to ground
*Alternator to ground
Correct me if I'm wrong.
not really a performance mod... stock stuff is usually adequate, optima is good, upgrading wiring doesnt add power really. maybe a bit more efficiency, thats it....
Quote:
How about spark plugs? wires? What else can I upgrade to unlock some more performance? I plan on doing exhaust later, not right now tho.
Thanks for the help and suggestions!
theres also plenty of posts on sparkplug wires and spark plugs....
you dont really get a gain from em.... you dont have enough mods done to your engine to really gain anything besides faster startups and maybe extremely slight better response which most do not even notice from 12$ a piece plugs....
take some time, read the FAQ at the top of the forum and read this searched link on sparkplugs, esepcially #1
http://www.j-body.org/forums/search.php?f=2&search=sparkplugs&globalsearch=0&match=1&date=0&threadtype=1&fldsubject=1
also when done, plug some other words in there to search other words and learn about things...
thanks for the information. as you can tell, i'm kinda nooby
I am looking to gain performance and efficiency.
So if I were to get aftermarket motor mounts, I would feel more vibrations from the engine? like idling or what?
I read the FAQ, that's where I started. I learned to stay away from all the ebay scams haha.
I'm just looking for other suggestions. Since I plan on being under the hood tuesday upgrading "the big 3", I was just curious what else I could do while I was under there.
Maybe a new ignition coil? Anything else I should do? I'm almost at 20,000 miles and had the car for about a year and a half.
I'm kinda just looking for some stuff to do as a hobby. I cleared the corners out myself, and am now looking into "angel eyes", i love the way those look.. and I plan on getting the windows tinted later..
oh, and by the way ... what would you guys suggest for exhaust?
I was told magnaflows are really nice for our cars. I was thinking of getting a magnaflow muffler, and running 2.5" pipe with a 20 to 30 inch resonator, all done at a reputable exhaust shop. would this be ok for an otherwise stock ecotec? I don't want to get pipe too big and have no back pressure, and don't want to go too small..
thanks for more information
with the exhaust, i would def reccomend reading in full this article...
http://www.magnaflow.com/05news/magazine/05sportc.asp
the whole no backpressure, i need backpressure thing is a myth....
ignition coils wont really do anything right now with the mods you have,.... suck squish bang blow as you know is the engine cylce....
increase in air, fuel and spark, creates power....
theres quite a few suggestions you might have overlooked in the FAQ.... but basically, make a plan where you wanna go with the car and not just look to buy things that really dont further your goals...
alot of people do this when they start cause everything is new to em, and 2 years later, they see it as a waste of time....
focus on one area of the car and then finish it, then move onto another area is my advice.
the link i gave you above at the end of the paragraph..... click on it....
in the search box, type in "engine mount"
and read the replies to learn more about em.... but like said the more performance, the less luxury.
motor mounts dont so much as add power, just recover lost power, and yes the vibrations will be worse..i cant say how worse because its differnt in every car, but my vibrations are horrible...but you can alway get dynamat. i suggest a maganflow catback system...2.5 is too big in my opinion unless you're planning on boosting your car. i have the 2.25 single magnaflow catback and love it. all i can say is start small if you dont know that much...get an intake, exhaust and all that stuff and work your way up.
Cavalier z24......A poor man's Camaro....close enough, right?
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How about motormounts? Do aftermarket ones really help a lot? Are they worth the money? What do you guys suggest, rksport?
i have them. i realyl dont notice the vibes any more. unless its a cold day. but they go away once the car warms up. the mounts you see on Carcustoms, GravanaTuning, Rksport website, are all the same. just pick whichever ones are cheapest
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How about spark plugs? wires?
you have an 04 cav. your car dont have spark plug wires.
get a magnaflow muffler and have some local muffler place bend you some pipe. add a resonator to cut down on the raspyness.
but above all, research and search for what you might want. to make sure you actually want it and is worth the money
Im a Xbox 360 fanboy...and damn proud of it!!
HaVoC187 wrote:motor mounts dont so much as add power, just recover lost power, and yes the vibrations will be worse..i cant say how worse because its differnt in every car, but my vibrations are horrible...but you can alway get dynamat. i suggest a maganflow catback system...2.5 is too big in my opinion unless you're planning on boosting your car. i have the 2.25 single magnaflow catback and love it. all i can say is start small if you dont know that much...get an intake, exhaust and all that stuff and work your way up.
i have an 02 ecotec
im gonna go ahead and agree with ^^ i have the weapon R header along with magnaflows highflow cat and muffler running with 2.25" exhaust. its great, if you go to my profile and see my time slips, thats what i ran just with the exhaust, nothing else.
recently i added RK SPORTS upper and lower engine mounts, the vibrations people are talking about is the cabin vibrating. personally its bearable to me..I added myself a BM Shift plus kit to my tranny and a secret weapon R intake. stay away from touching spark plugs, i learned the hard way.. event seems to know his stuff, just search around and ask questions before you buy or add anything. some people may flame you, but thats what these guys are here for.
[M wrote:ATTRESS]I have a 2004 cavalier.
How about electrical? I plan on doing "The Big 3" tuesday.. I plan on getting an optima yellowtop battery, and running 4gauge:
*Battery to alternator w/300 amp fuse
*Battery to ground
*Alternator to ground
Don't put a fuse that big in your car. if there's a short your car will burn to the ground before the fuse blows.. I've seen it in stereo installs.
Go th this site for a chart of wire sizes and fuses to use
12 Volt
Always over wire and under fuse. Also you might consider a circuit breaker instead of a fuse. That way if it blows you just need to reset the breaker and your on your way.
josh
