Hello everyone. I am currently driving a 2003 sunfire 5spd. I would like to get some more power out of it for as little $$ as possible, still in high school working part-time. I am looking at a price range somewhere less than $1000, and it will probably be a summer project. I know about intakes and a short-ram would be better for me than a cold air because of wet weather. Which short ram is best bang for the buck? Is there anything to be done to the exhaust ( don't want something with annoying drone). What else is there for power? Not looking to smoke any v8's or anything like that, just have one of the better naturally aspirated 4 bangers around. Any help would be appreciated as I am new to this. Thanks

A cheap ebay intake with a K&N filter will work just fine. There is no noticeable gain between CAIs and short rams on sunfires/cavaliers. Throttle body spacers and "chips" are scams, they provide no gain at all. If you go with a 2.25" exhaust(all cat backs for sunfires/cavaliers are this size), header, add a high flow cat and good size resonator you will get a decent gain.

Sounds good, hopefully I will be able to do some of this over the summer. What would be a approximate price range for what you listed?

depends on a number of things.

the type of catback you buy
if you install it or have a shop do it
what type of header and high flow cat you buy

you can easily get your entire exhaust done for under a thousand dollars with quality parts if you know how to shop around and be patient. or you can spend massive amounts of money.