Right now I am in the process of trying to decide what type of charger system to get for my Sunfire, so I thought I'd check here for some opinions. To help, my car is a daily driver that I drag race at Gateway occasionally and put in shows, and my tuning experience is limited. I've done some electronic installs on my car and my previous Sunfire, as well as some routine maintenance and a CAI install, but I know nothing about things like tuning a turbo setup or remapping an ECU, plus St. Louis doesn't have much in the way of decent tuner stores that respect J's.
1980-2004
The roads of Heaven await you, Brian, may you rest in peace.
if you are drag racing, i would suggest a supercharger, no worries with turbo lag.
i am assuming that you arent building for huge amounts of boost and will be using stock internals too.
if you want to build for huge amounts of boost and dont mind turbo lag, then a turbo is the way to go, it would also go well with some n2o to get it spooling faster.
thats my view. hope thats what you were asking.
Yeah, I don't have the time or money to mess with the internals on my car. Thanks for the viewpoint.
1980-2004
The roads of Heaven await you, Brian, may you rest in peace.
a moderately low boost turbo system if properly assembled will deliver lots of power and have almost NO lag. as far as price goes the turbo wins hands down.
"Racing is life Everything else is just waiting"
Phil
I installed a hahn racecraft stage two kit on my 03 cavalier. the engine is factory with under drive crank pulley, trans and motor mounts and 2 1/2 cat back. I have changed several other things like springs, struts drag radials, fuel injectors, ect. I ran my car for awhile now at 9 psi 13.4 @108 and at 13 psi 12.52@ 114. I really have not had any problems with factory internal just when I had a fuel problem witch cost me a engine. But other wise pretty good.
Blown Ecotec wrote:if you are drag racing, i would suggest a supercharger, no worries with turbo lag.
i am assuming that you arent building for huge amounts of boost and will be using stock internals too.
if you want to build for huge amounts of boost and dont mind turbo lag, then a turbo is the way to go, it would also go well with some n2o to get it spooling faster.
thats my view. hope thats what you were asking.
Please do not always associate a turbo car with having "Turbo Lag"...
Turbo lag is due to lack of matching a turbo to a motor properly. There is a such thing as a turbo being too big on the turbine side where it takes slightly longer to spool. Even with turbo lag, it's not as dramatic as people make it sound.
Now, if you're into bracket racing and you NEED consistency, a Supercharger would be the answer.
As far as using nitrous to spool...if you have a properly matched turbo to your motor, you shouldn't have spooling issues and nitrous wouldn't be needed. The reason some people MIGHT use nitrous to spool is to help produce more exhaust pressure from the oxygen being added from the nitrogen. It's not something that 100% neccesary or even in most cases, used. If people use nitrous while turbo'd, they are using it as a power adder, not a means of spooling.
Also, if his a/f ratio, he can run a very good and respectible 1/4 mile times. As long as his a/f ratio is on point, he'll be fine.
Philip Roda wrote:a moderately low boost turbo system if properly assembled will deliver lots of power and have almost NO lag. as far as price goes the turbo wins hands down.
It's not about how much boost someone is running, it's about the size of the turbo (more so the turbine) when it comes to turbo lag. A .42 a/r turbine will spin faster than a .63 a/r turbine even if they are both running 5 PSI.
www.kronosperformance.com / 732-742-8837
from what ive seen first hand at the tracks everyone is turbocharging everything even mustanges and other muscle cars, the only turbocharge kit offered is by hahn racecraft and i use it with a k&n intake and magnaflow exhaust at 5lbs of boost on the stage 1 turbokit and i easily run 14.65 with better racing experience and better tires in the front for racing i can easily hit the high 13s. right now im at 184hp and 177lbs of torque. stage 1 will cost you roughly 3500 w/ install
i just bought the gm supercharger from a dealership for 03-04' cavalier. paid 2459.00 for it. great deal comes with all parts needed. new injectors, air to water intercooler, all brackets, everything. have it reflashed from the dealer you bought it from for free. runs strong. check paceperformance.com for price.
The ecotec supercharger that you got from Pace is the same one they have in the GM performance showroom at a local dealership. I took a cloth measuring tape in with me to get the dimensions of some of the parts, then measured under the hood of an ION Red Line across town at the Saturn dealership. They appear to be identical parts!?
Does anyone know if the fuel/fire control from an S/C ION or Cobalt would work out on a 2.2? I know outside appearances can be deceiving, however I have ran into stranger instances before.
Hey Bryan Hughes or anyone, what is the fuel problem you encountered that cost you that engine??
Yes, they are the same parts as the GM dealer becuase pace performance is a gm dealer online. I also just purchased the GM supercharger package for my own car, it is reliable, I am very pleased with the power increase, and it does not void any factory warranties (if your car still has that).
That's good to know, however I am looking into a different route. I recently required a new/unused Powerdyne head unit with an output of over 8 psi (using current pulley/capable of increase,) and I am considering making use of it. It would be an easy fit, but fuel control becomes the new issue.
Does anyone know if , waivering any liability to the dealership, if the dealership would flash the computer with the same info/settings that they use for their equipment? Theoretically, with all other factors/parts being equal, the forced induction unit shouldn't matter. I would think that a lower maximum boost potential and better cooling would actually make it safer...theoretically of course.
And, the belt drive centrifigul units usually require less turning power at the crank.
Equal rail, injectors, map, and bov as used in the pace kit (O2 sensor, if different from stock) ; I think it should work?
If it does, this could open the door to a lot of custom stuff.
Any input, advice, criticism, or at least a solid 'why or why not' reason?!
I am itchin' to try it, if you can't tell already!
