Ive got some questions on tuning my engine

I figure i should probably start tuning my engine in my 2003 Sunfire before i go ahead and turbocharge it, for safety sake! I am looking for some pointers on where to get started and what to buy first. I know my way around under my hood and a decent amount about cars! so let me have it if you know it:) Thanks!

Sh1ftY420

1 thing ive leared here is that CRJ knows everthing about J-Bodys from what i've seen and Schister66 is the turbo guy <---- hes helped me on some info on what i need to know b4 i turbo.If you want i have a thread below this 1 i stated asking what to do b4 boosting it has some very usefuel info also you can look at the sticky on how to boost your car on the 1st page at the top of the performance section

So i can get in touch with CRJ on here? about J-bodies? How about you is your car the black Cavalier? I think i want to start with the motor first cams pistons crank that sort of stuff than move onto boosting, ive already picked up the intake, exhaust, super chip, drilled and slotted rotors and ceramic breaks, and both Strut tower bars. now that i have some easy mods done over the winter i want to do cams, pistons, crank, and port and polish the heads this is all stuff i need advice on before i just dive into it.... haha as tempting as it is! anyhow bro ill get some pics up on that page your on to show my ride a bit peace!

Sh1fT

wow...judging by a few things you said in your last post, you have no idea what the hell you're doing just yet. You're going to build w/ pistons, a crank, etc....wtf is that supposed to mean??

You dont have to build in order to boost. I dont know what kind of REALISTIC budget you're planning for this, but if you want a good turbo setup, i'd plan at least $4k for it. After that you can get all the extra BS that you listed. One thing....forget the "superchip" because that shit is not going to help or even be useable on a possible turbo setup. You need to research A LOT!

Tons of people come on here talking about their amazing turbo plans and only about 1% of them are ever realized. This is why i'm hard on everyone who outlines some bullshit, unachievable goal....

Easy now i am only hear for advice buddy i was only asking questions as i have never gone further than bolt on mods, maybe you could provide me with any sort of ideas as to where i might start? rather than stomping me into the ground and making me feel like an idiot:P

-thanks for the tip on the superchip

he does it to everyone when they first mention they wanna do a turbo. dont let it get to ya. just listen carefully to wut he says.

I noticed you own a sunfire, i am really right now trying to research, i am only looking for do's and dont's i am not going to just jump into it head first, if you have any advice or tips on where to find parts and what not? let me know:D Thanks man!

Like schister said, if we knew what kind of budget your able to work with we can help point you in the correct direction. The Ecotec motor is a very well designed motor for boost up to a certain point. The most common failure on the 03-05's are the ring lands giving out and those chunks beating up the head pretty bad. The 02 version ecotec, they were snapping connecting rods and those were going through the block which is a costly repair. This was mostly the guys trying to push every dime out of their motors up in the 10psi plus range on stock motors tuning with HPtuners. At our shop we have 3 turbo'd vehicles all of which we ran them boosted on stock internals, but all have since had something pretty significant go wrong with them and needed a rebuild.

I killed our Chevy 3500HD 2 weekends ago #2 connecting rod decided to let go coming home from our big Sport compact and truck blast in town when the boosted spiked to 20psi. ( ran beautifully for 9,000 miles and 2 trips to texas)

00 Sunfire's oil pump failed last season and over the winter we fully rebuilt the piss out of that thing from top to bottom. ($3k alone for engine parts and machine work) Then had the entire engine balanced and blue printed.

95 civic with Si motor- Pop'd his H/G while being boosted at 8psi and running a 50 wet shot.

But back on topic here. Once you have every bolt on you can pretty much buy, the cost of parts goes up significantly when you get inside the motor. let us know how much power you'd like to make and a budget we can work with. I'm pretty bored at college right now away from my car. I'll leave you some links to a few really good j-body oriented websites for parts and you can go from there.


Now if don't already know, there is other alternatives out there for the eco guys.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e182/ecosedan/EatonM62002.jpg

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/4773/20070823image0005ac1.jpg

http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/2866/20070823image0003eq1.jpg

http://img484.imageshack.us/img484/3466/20070823image0006ri4.jpg

GM produces a kit for the 02-05 cav/sunfire with the Eaton M62 Roots super charger. This is mine i have waiting around for my motivation to get my eco swap done. It comes with EVERYTHING and once you install it, you dolly your car to the local GM dealership and they then reflash your PCM and right after that you can go beat the piss out of your car running safely at 6-7psi from the charger. Car is even still under warrenty to since its a GM part. I got mine after shipping $2,642.95 from www.paceperformance.com