I purchased a 2003 Cavalier recently, and I'm looking to start doing some performance mods to it, but don't really know where to start.

Before I get ahead of myself, here's the car.


Now in terms of mods, what I'm interested in doing is the standard Air Intake, Exhaust, and Header work that usually comes recommended as a starting point. Is there anything more that I should look into? Any recommendations in terms of where to get parts, and what parts to get?

I've searched around the forms and all the posts I've found seem to be either old sticky threads with some useful info but no current links, and not the kind of stuff I'm looking to do.

I'm in the same boat as you. I think i'm going to just buy a used supercharger kit and call it a day.

Any idea how much a kit like that would cost? Everything I've found is showing like $2900+.

Yeah, it cost around that much for a new kit. Someone has an almost complete used kit in the classifieds right now for $800. That's more around what I would want to spend on this car. I think there's also a turbo kit for sale there too for $1100.

Turbo Tech Racing usually has good deals on exhaust,intake and other engine upgrade parts. As far as anything more to look into, it all depends on what your goals are for the car.

I'm in the same boat you are, my suggestion is get the supercharger kit for it seeing its GM and designed for the vehicle so its fairly safe. Besides that the car has some good power as it is, you consider upgrading the suspension? I got some new control arms and strut assemblies so hitting corners is super fun! If you figure out something else to do though let me know!

You can get most the parts for a supercharger kit very cheap off cobaltss.net

Ive seen pretty close to full kits for the 600 - $800 range.

So you can have a full kit for around $1200

header full exhaust, intake, pulley, Polly motor mounts and you'll have a good dd b&m quickshift if your auto short throw if your
standard.

im selling my aem cold air, 2.4 manni, and header here soon too.

That's a clean car. Wheels look really small for some reason lol. In my opinion it needs some (proper) lowering. Grab an intake off eBay and throw a K&N on it to start with performance if you're going bolt-on for now.

My advice would be to go through all the forums build sections. If you look at peoples builds, you will get a good idea of what parts do what and at the least generic installation how-to's. Also be exposed to the Pros and Cons of certain builds.
If you just want cheap, safe power..I second the s/c set up. I went that route, but went a bit further than the generic 'stage 1' set up. Ive upgraded everything and am shooting for about 300fwhp when all is said and done. (realistically you'll be around 200-220fwhp with a really good tune and straight M62 swap and some good cooling mods, Im guessing).

-Do your supporting mods first (as some have already mentioned): springs, shocks/struts, upper/lower motor mounts, tires, intake exhaust, shifter, strut tower bars (front/rear), sway bar (rear), etc.
-Then, when your car HANDLES safely and just how you want it, buy the s/c kit.

Plan it out with a parts list and start checking things off. There are a lot of little hidden costs you wont consider at first. Most of those costs are eliminated with a true full kit people are selling (including the programmed ECU). My supercharger setup was about $500 for the basic cobalt parts (pulley's, intake manifold, blower, etc). Then to date Ive dropped about $3,000 to get it where it is now. Thats more than I paid for the car. Ill never get more than $4000 out of it if Im patient and find the right buyer, thats the cold hard truth with any car thats modded unless its a true classic.

If you go boost eventually, do a health check on your engeine and make sure its holding compression. Have a wideband installed ahead of time since you'll need one with boost anyways (or if you get it tuned its almost necessary). With your year cavalier (03-05 cavs), you have less tuning options than older cavs and newer cobalts.

Just so you have something to start with, my build thread on ecotecforum is long but has a lot of pictures and ups and downs of my build to date. Im a 'do it yourselfer' but couldnt have done almost any of the things Ive done without jbody or ecotecforum. Just read a lot and youtube and google are your friends too! lol

good luck and welcome, to Jurrassic Park! Oh wait..I mean Ecotec-terrace!


04 Cav. 2dr. 5spd. My DD. 'Nuff said.

if interested im selling my full supercharger kit of my car
asking 1500$
everything is included, tune, injectors and 2bar map. plus many extras
bolt on and go in a full day



Built&Boosted moar
04 Cavalier Turbo r.i.p my baby
2nd place 2009 GM tuner bash qwick 8--holla

^ what about the cooling mods, ecu?
$1500 for everything is a great deal. I easily spent over that for my setup. I noticed a few people selling their kits actually...just make sure if you buy a prebuilt kit the ECU matches yours...if its a 5spd I dont think you can use it if you're auto, or vise versa.


04 Cav. 2dr. 5spd. My DD. 'Nuff said.

everything derek.
from my car to the next

it its an auto trans pcm you CAN use it on a manual car.
but not the other way around.


Built&Boosted moar
04 Cavalier Turbo r.i.p my baby
2nd place 2009 GM tuner bash qwick 8--holla