Hello peeps. It' been a serious while since I've been on with any post. However, in my time away from posting I have tuned in and read a note from time to time. I usually don't add anything to any post unless I have some facts to back me up. With that being said, I can't understand why the same old question keeps popping up..."How do I get more horsepower or MODS for cheap".....Can you all please Stop the Insanity. There simply is no way. More Power equates to spending more money. End of that discussion.
I'm an old school Hot rodder who recently came on this site looking for answers and found a choice few who helped when it came to the entire tuner world. I wanted to take my daily rider and beef it up so to speak. Stock 140 HP and auto trans with no after market turbo or SC available and no ability to tune an OBDII...All in all the 2005 Ion is a tough nut to crack. There's not much for it. However, to help those who are in my world of hard choices. Here's the package I came up with that fuels my ride....
Best of all it's all BOLT ON....

I'm at 140HP Base with a 2005 Ion plain Jane.
CrateEngineDepot 2.4 Intake Kit +13 HP
Injen cold air intake +6 HP (Do yourself a favor and add a K&N cone at the end. Gives you better results)
Down pipe +5 HP
Pacesetter Headers +5 HP
Pacesetter Cat Back exhaust +10 HP
Pace Setter High Flow Metal Core Cat +10 HP
PaceSetter High FLow Muffler +2HP
Pure Synthetic Oil +2HP
Champion Iridium Spark Plugs +2HP
Total gained +55 HP 195HP Simple Saturn Ion. All for no more than 2000.00 if you do the work yourself. It will be about 6000.00 if you have a pro do the work for you.
I got this recipe from several Import tuner seminars/shows and tons of research. Thus, after they ran a multitude of test and dynos for the results. The series was 9 months long.

Another goodie (and old trick of the trade) done was adding 215/60/R14 tires to the original wheels as apposed to spending thousands on new 18 inch rims and tires. Your speedo is basically the same, but the cornering you gain by going to a sixty series tire over the stock 70's is in a plain word..."WOW". Even better yet you can get a set of four tires for under 200.00. Now that's a sweet upgrade...

Hope this helps...
I'm enjoying my HP gains...still running 87-89 octaine and no big difference in gas miles...Saweet!

PS
Adam thanks again for your help in the past.
Did I get myself out of the novice division here? LOL!!!!


It's not how fast you go...But how you go fast.

What formula did you use to convert your gains from wheel HP to crank HP after you dynoed with each mod and came up with 195HP on an 05 ION after all your modifications running 87-89 octane?

Mike2200 wrote:What formula did you use to convert your gains from wheel HP to crank HP after you dynoed with each mod and came up with 195HP on an 05 ION after all your modifications running 87-89 octane?

I forgot to add, what were your torque gains for each modification?

I learned long ago that you cannot just add up the hp.
Please show the dyno and pics of mods.

I am not trying to be mean here, but I heard you had proof to back it up and I want to see it.

Oil usually never add hp, nor spark plugs.
The difference in up and go is just putting you back to where you are supposed to be.
The degradation of the oil and fouling of the plugs makes you lose performance.
Replacing these land no gains, although some oils and plugs react better than stock plugs or standard 5W30 oil.
The beter components doubtfully made +2 hp a piece.

I know from the three dynos I have seen from people in Cavalier 2.2 Ecotecs with a CAI, H, DP, Cat & Exhaust has always been 162-165hp 'at the motor'. It is usually around 146hp 'at the wheels' though with a manual tranny. Torque is usually about 10 more than hp on the dyno, just as the rating is as such also.

I have talked to a local speed shop that worked on tuning a few Ecotec 2.2s with the above mods and some with cams and then tuned it via HP Tuners. The gain they land with tuning is around 14hp maximum. On a stock engine they have gotten under 10hp. But this then makes the car require usage of 91+ octane.

Like the X-files, I want to believe the 190+hp, but I have to see this to believe it.

-Please note, some dynos are not accurate and sometime that are even rigged to make the owner of the modded car happy. At a car show, I can imagine them rigging the dyno for affect.




2003 Sunfire with 2 1/4 inch turbo muffler, 2 1/4 piping, 2 1/2 inch resonator, a 2 1/4 inch catalytic converter, 2 1/2 inch down-pipe, a 4:2:1 RK Sports 'clone' header, E-bay strut brace, ground wire kit and an AEM true cold air intake NOPI edition.

Some mods just cancel hps of others already made,theres good combinations to do but i think we cannot add horses like that!!


Hi guys,one thing i need to know,does the solstice 2.4 or 2.0 turbo ecotec 5 speed trany fit the 2.2,Thanks!

If the GM supercharger kit puts a J body from 140/145HP to 200HP and requires larger fuel injectors, higher octane fuel, and a tune for the PCM how could just these modifications you listed not require the same?

Lets see a dyno cause adding horsepower for each mod you put on is bullcrap. you are probably pushin 160 if that

If i has to guess i would say you added a good 10hp. 15 with a tune. If you reply to argue have the dyno sheet handy and I will take this back.

Well would that 2.4 intake kit work on an 04 cav with the 2.2 eco. Its the same as the 05 and 06 cobalts.

Yes it will work on the 2.2 eco on a cav

just a note, the 2.4 intake manifold adds 13 or so HP, but it shifts everything higher in the RPM band, making drivability a possible issue, I'll keep my flat HP and torque curve

well I plan on camming later on thats why higher rpm's don't bother me, I live in the country and so I normally have higher revs cause the way I drive out here. I was just curious, Anyone have hp tuners to make me a tune for a 2.4 intake manifold?

I got mine tuned by trifecta performance, they increase your rev limiter to take advantage of the power at the higher revs. they'll also tune the rest of the engine for you, too, mine runs around 160 HP after my tune with no MPG hit and only a K&N filter and muffler on my car. I live in a hilly area and I keep my revs below 3000 unless I want to get my blood moving or I have a smartass in a mustang next to me.

Where is trifecta and what is the number

Well I got a cav not an hhr or cobalt, my pcm is different, they only got it for the hhr and cobalt, unless there is something I don't see. I got the number tho and found the website.

this thread is about saturns, which have unique ECUs to even the cobalt and HHR, much less the cavalier/sunfire. even though the ion and cobalt share ECU models, the programming is not interchangable, the saturns have additional hurdles in communication that needed to be solved, that's why tuning took so long on them.

This guy is nuts to think he is at 195 hp with these mods. They don't just add up like that, he will be lucky to get a 15hp gain total. If he sat at 140whp I would be suprised. I think he is still a novice.