what, do you wanna dress up the motor or are you trying to get power out of it? there are alot of parts you can replace... just go learn how to use google... idk of any sites off the top of my head but google is the best place to start.... or Ebay... i think i seen a turbo kit up to 15psi on ebay for like 500 bucks... it was the whole kit... turbo pipeing...
Andrew Teeter wrote:i think i seen a turbo kit up to 15psi on ebay for like 500 bucks... it was the whole kit... turbo pipeing...
good luck w/that
welcome to the site man, you will learn a ton on here just by surfing around checking stuff out, but if your looking to produce more power, its going to take more than 500 bucks for a turbo kit.
there are a lot of "stickys" in each forum, check them out, you will learn a lot just from reading them.
Yeah... I'd never trust a $500 ebay turbo. Definitely take 04PearlCav's advice, lots of great info in the stickies, from the very basic to advanced. Remember that more speed = more money. Ebay and amazon are full of shortcuts like $500 turbos but they are often made cheaply and more likely than not, you'll spend more money fixing what the cheap turbo does to your motor than if you just spent the money and got it done right. Personally, my '04 cav is pretty close to stock, but I have plans to beef up the suspension and making it a lot more fun to drive... handling > speed IMO.
Lots of valuable info... and a lot of misinformation also. Keep that in mind as you explore JBO.
Also, post some pics of your cav!
first remove all your emblems you can!!
welcome
hmmm removing the emblems sound good... do you think it would look good with some tinted/smoked headlights?
I'd debadge, take those uglyass stickers off it, drop it and think about upsizing your wheels, I think I saw someone selling 16'' LSS wheels in the wheel & tire forum..? Smoked headlights can look cool, but make sure you arent breaking any local laws by doing so (Illegal in NY anyway). If you do, consider getting HID headlights to replace the halogens, because if you tint the headlights too dark, you can accidentally make your headlights useless. I'd consider doing a seat swap... I hate those style seats; uncomfortable as all hell on long trips.
As far as speed, are you looking to turbo or SC? Not well versed on either, but theres a lot of good info on here if you're into it. Get a short ram intake, really good starter mod to get a modest boost. I'm assuming you have the 2200 so if you're looking for speed, you have a long road ahead of you. Not saying it isnt possible, there are guys here who did it. They could give you more advice.
Anyway, nice looking car, its rare to find a car thats 10 years old and not all beaten up or covered in dents. Welcome to JBO, good luck with the mods
it sounds to me you want to start small,
remove all emblems,
tint the front windows *f*uck the police* hahaha
then get some wheels, at least some 17s you can get some on craigslist for like 500.00 if you wanted to go cheap way,
then lower the car
get some clear headlights or the ones that are black on the inside... or tint them black but then you give up visibility...
and thats a good start i think...
Cavaclysmic wrote:I'd debadge, take those uglyass stickers off it, drop it and think about upsizing your wheels, I think I saw someone selling 16'' LSS wheels in the wheel & tire forum..? Smoked headlights can look cool, but make sure you arent breaking any local laws by doing so (Illegal in NY anyway). If you do, consider getting HID headlights to replace the halogens, because if you tint the headlights too dark, you can accidentally make your headlights useless. I'd consider doing a seat swap... I hate those style seats; uncomfortable as all hell on long trips.
As far as speed, are you looking to turbo or SC? Not well versed on either, but theres a lot of good info on here if you're into it. Get a short ram intake, really good starter mod to get a modest boost. I'm assuming you have the 2200 so if you're looking for speed, you have a long road ahead of you. Not saying it isnt possible, there are guys here who did it. They could give you more advice.
Anyway, nice looking car, its rare to find a car thats 10 years old and not all beaten up or covered in dents. Welcome to JBO, good luck with the mods
thank you... im not sure... right now im leaning towards a turbo, but im not sure yet, and the stickers came with the car lol... i hate them sooo much... i have to get some goo gone and remove them... and i want to drop it, but the problem is, when it rain in florida, where i am it floods, and im not sure if i will lower it, maybe an inch, but that would be it. im going to leave the interior alone for right now....
thank you for your help
yes lowering it even an inch will look better,
what kind of springs/shocks would i be looking to get?
depends on what kind of drop you want man. Everything on here is personal preference basically, you do what you want to with your car. But if your going to lower it please do it right the first time and get a good set of struts (D-specs, Koni's, etc) just search the susp. and brake forum and you'll learn about all kinds of stuff. As for the drop, just depends on how low you want to go, just look around here and search google you will find tons of different springs and coilover set-ups.
Im not sure about ur situation with rain and all that, but if its flooding that much to the point where your only going to lower 1 inch i wouldnt even touch it at all. Im guessing you could lower it and not have a problem, unless you live in like a swamp or something lol, then you wouldnt be driving a cavalier.
Justin H wrote:Cavaclysmic wrote:I'd debadge, take those uglyass stickers off it, drop it and think about upsizing your wheels, I think I saw someone selling 16'' LSS wheels in the wheel & tire forum..? Smoked headlights can look cool, but make sure you arent breaking any local laws by doing so (Illegal in NY anyway). If you do, consider getting HID headlights to replace the halogens, because if you tint the headlights too dark, you can accidentally make your headlights useless. I'd consider doing a seat swap... I hate those style seats; uncomfortable as all hell on long trips.
As far as speed, are you looking to turbo or SC? Not well versed on either, but theres a lot of good info on here if you're into it. Get a short ram intake, really good starter mod to get a modest boost. I'm assuming you have the 2200 so if you're looking for speed, you have a long road ahead of you. Not saying it isnt possible, there are guys here who did it. They could give you more advice.
Anyway, nice looking car, its rare to find a car thats 10 years old and not all beaten up or covered in dents. Welcome to JBO, good luck with the mods
thank you... im not sure... right now im leaning towards a turbo, but im not sure yet, and the stickers came with the car lol... i hate them sooo much... i have to get some goo gone and remove them... and i want to drop it, but the problem is, when it rain in florida, where i am it floods, and im not sure if i will lower it, maybe an inch, but that would be it. im going to leave the interior alone for right now....
thank you for your help
Not a problem... goo gone is your friend, only thing I trust on my paint finish. IMO, you should also take the factory pinstripes off and give it a more clean look... but thats your call...
As for the drop, if you are concerned about the water, you should probably just keep your stock ride height if you only want to drop an inch... lot of work for not too much payoff. my car is stock height right now, the roads in southern NY suck, but Im still thinking about a doing a 3'' drop because my car looks kinda funny at stock height w/17'' wheels. Listen to what 04PearlCav said about getting quality struts and springs, unless you like fixing stuff you did already. I hope you know this already but whatever you do DONT CUT THE GODDAMNED SPRINGS! Remember theres a more expensive, correct and one time way of doing things, and theres a cheap, value way that will be more expensive when you are replacing parts that got @!#$ when trying to cut corners.
Anyway, keep us posted, I really like to read progress threads. Just remember if you do, expect criticism from others, and dont get offended when they do. lots of sandy vags on here, but most people here will actually try to help.
i use 3M adhesive remover for mine.
i hear you guys, do it right the first time, i got that down pat lol... i think the first thing im going to do is a short ram intake, and remove those damn stickers, and maybe the badges too... thank you guys for all your help, i really do appreciate it a lot, and i will keep you updated with pics and stuff...
as for lowering it personally if the roads are bad it aint worth it. jus look into maybe a body kit or lip kit. it drastically improves the look of the car without sacrificing the ride comfort. and as for tinting the headlights and taillights i did and even with a 12000k hid kit it made it hard to see on dark back roads. taillights were great though. if u want to do them use the duplicolor shadows for chrome it works well and aint but like 17.00.
nobody's a virgin, cause life screws everyone.
from experience, if you do NOT lower your car, and you put a body kit, wheels, all that good stuff on, its going to look so out of place. Such a simple thing as lowering a car will make a world of difference in appearence of your car. Putting a body kit on it with stock wheels and stock suspension will make the car look way worse than it did just factory.
Do what you want to do though, if you just want to put a kit on it go ahead! just giving a little heads up, mad wheel gap is a cars worst nightmare.
97&04cfcavy(04pearlcav) wrote:from experience, if you do NOT lower your car, and you put a body kit, wheels, all that good stuff on, its going to look so out of place. Such a simple thing as lowering a car will make a world of difference in appearence of your car. Putting a body kit on it with stock wheels and stock suspension will make the car look way worse than it did just factory.
Do what you want to do though, if you just want to put a kit on it go ahead! just giving a little heads up, mad wheel gap is a cars worst nightmare.
i wouldn't put a kit on with the stock wheels, i think im going to work the the performance first, and then move on to the looks of the car. and im thinking about just tinting the tails and leave the headlights stock...
that would be a good idea man, our factory headlights suck as is, let alone tinting the lenses.
would never hurt to look into swapping in the ecotec engine if you are looking to boost, much more gain for the same money, a supercharged ecotec will do work compared to a turbo 2200 most times.
the dont have my engine there.... i have the 2200 SFI,
and what would be the pros and cons of swapping... i mean the end HP and stuff like that?
