New Cobalt SS

Got the new car, couldnt change the name from MZR so just pretend it says LSJ instead :)


http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f59/osiris555/l_4aa9f5df2779d073e5c6a23100f8ea93.jpg

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f59/osiris555/l_a2d7f129114b0356e59c2418fc53a3f7.jpg

congrats on the purchase bro. got any plans for it?

awwww... its cute!!

congrats on getting boosted. you'll like it, i'm sure.

for a second i thought you got the new 260hp turbo charged one.

Grats on you purchase

I really like the color. Congrats!

Nice color choice... I like it.

What dealership did you buy it from?

what dealership did you buy it from?I bought it from one in Dickinson North Dakota. Charbonneau Motors. got up at 7 am on a weekend to go drive there and get it, bring it back, then go to a track meet in the shinny new car. And the color is amazing, not a single blue SS in town like it.

congrats on the purchase bro. got any plans for it?

I am going to get a color matched AEM Cold Air intake in about a month, once i have a solid income. soon after i will get GM stage 2, and eventually full exhaust, not sure if im going to go catback then the rest, or the other way around.

I plan to try to get the thing to around 275whp atleast, by the time my brother buys it from me and I buy something else in a few years.

I am very happy with it, the thing gets up and goes. Already beat a 2004 grand prix :) haha and showed up some local ricers i have had my eye on for a while. Ill keep you updated on the mod status.


EDIT: Gotta love the dead grass and dead trees in goddamn MID APRIL... fuck north dakota.

Congrats on the new purchase...

Glad you actually own a SC'd SS. I see a lot of posers around here acting like their non SC'd SS is actually boosted. Personally, a non SC'd SS is just pointless in my eyes. If Chevy is going to be selling the SS name, atleast give it some nuggets to go with the badge (like your Cobalt).

sweet what are the plans for it? welcome to the LSJ club

sweet what are the plans for it? welcome to the LSJ club



I am going to get a color matched AEM Cold Air intake in about a month, once i have a solid income. soon after i will get GM stage 2, and eventually full exhaust, not sure if im going to go catback then the rest, or the other way around.

I plan to try to get the thing to around 275whp atleast, by the time my brother buys it from me and I buy something else in a few years.



Here's your sign... ;)

haha beat me to the post. But yes, thats what i have planned. I havent seen anyone around here with SS kits on non SC'd cobalts. Not yet anyways, but im sure we will get some soon, we have tons of retards up here. Just saw a festiva with a wing on TOP today at best buy. I parked way the hell away from him, just in case it exploded.

I love the car, draws some looks around here. just...cant...stop...BOOSTING... gas mileage be damned, i need that whine :) its not nearly as loud as Taylor's redline, as i dont have an intake to free that baby up. But my exhaust is stock and sounds great, and is louder than his that he has on there. I would much rather have that whine though.

OH SHIT!
its a Cobalt SS.....
And its Blue....

That looks like my car and my wifes car had a kid.....

Good luck getting the Stage 2 bro. Ive been barking up that tree for over a year now.
GM are a bunch of lying sacks of shit. I'll never buy another GM again cause of this. They promise you a cheep stage upgrade and no problems to the waranty.

Turns out the minimum to stage it is about 2 grand after service charge and it partially voids the warranty anyway.
Ive been to 9 different delears over the last year and spoken to over 20 service managers in 5 different cities.
Same answer all around. Thats why my LSJ is still bone stock.

holy fuck. thats ridiculous. i know of several vehicles that have got stage 2 for about $700 all said and done i think. and my warranty is expired in 2 months anyways :)

musashi please dont scare him with your rehtoric...

I made my own GM stage kit. I got injectors, pulley, belt, for 250 bucks and my buddy with HP tuners flashed the stage 2 program. Hes going to custom tune it this summer for me.

Stage 2 if installed by a dealer wont void your warranty at all. No matter what the dealer says they cant deny warranty work. GM themselves clearly states if done this way it wont void your warranty.

Stage 2 from GMparts direct is like 600 bucks and dealershouldnt charge more than 150 bucks to install it. They can only charge was GM tells them to charge. If they try to charge more or less, just argue with them. Theyd rather make little money than no money.

A further more, GM stage 2 kits are very reliable. I have over 20K hard miles on my car with 2.9 pulley, stage 2 tune, high flow filter, trans mounts, engine brace. I havent had a single problem other than some fouled plugs.

Check out the Harrop TVS 1320 blower. Its a direct bolt on blower replacement and the first cars to get it so far are dynoing around 280WHP, not bad for 2300 bucks with room to improve. You will likely see around 325-350WHP with this blower and bolt ons.

Hey im not making this shit up.

GM advertises whatever they want but when you go with money in hand its another story.

Heres how it works in the real world:
You can buy the shit off of E-bay and have it programed with HPTunners but god forbid anything goes wrong and they plug in the diagnostics they will see its got a tunning and your VIN wassnt registers at any GM service center your SOL.

My GTO is tunned with HPTunners. my dealer knows its been tunned so anyone that tells you they cant find out is bullshiting you or talking from word of mouth. Take it from someone whos lived through it. THEY CAN TELL!

Now say you want to get the parts and have them istall it. They will only work GM Parts and the packing tape with the GM logo has to be intact when you take it for install. If you open the parts to check em out they wont touch em or they will but they wont warranty it cause the parts have been "tampered with" (Potamkin Chevrolete of Dade Service Manager Mike Rego)

Now as for the 150 bucks for install. nah!
See I thought so too so I called a dealer and got quoted 1800 for service alone.
HOW CAN THAT BE! I asked the guy. Thats what it is says he.
Well I call 8 other dealers and the cheapest I get quoted is 1600 bucks for service alone.
I get furious and print out the GM press release and take it to a dealer.
The guy laughs at me and says. " That article dossent have any dealers name on it. You cant legaly hold us to it because its got no ones name on it!

I contact my jobs attourney out of curiousity and he explains to me that since its got no particular dealer name on it you cant do anything about it.
" Yeah but its a GM official press release. GM owns those dealerships."
No they dont. he explains: The dealer ship is a privately owned franchise to which they pay GM royalties and rights. Because it is independently owned they can charge whatever fee they want as long as it falls within federal policy to rate per hour.
The Press release is a base rate before the dealer adjusts to what thier employee makes. A service tech can make anywhere from 25 bucks an hour to 95 bucks an hour. A manager has to supervice or inspect the job thats an extra charge. Any computer equipment used i.e. reflash is subject to rate charge.

Okay well cant GM force them to abide.
Affraid not he says. GM cant even fine them, all they can do is send an inspector to verify that the rate they are charging is permisable.
so I write a letter to some GM service site in Michigan. Guess what they e-mail me back.......the address to a center that will do it for 800 bucks service charge........In New Jersey!

IM IN THE ASS END OF FLORIDA!

Long story short, a year goes by, I try to get someone with HP tunners to do it. HPTunners has to date 12 different versions of the Stage II map. 8 of them will blow up your engine.... I dont wanna risk it.

Damn Musashi that sucks. I have read that you aren't supposed to go over 300whp on the LSJ according to some GM manual. That is stupid that they give their customers that kind of support especially in times where they are about to be taken over by Toyota in the United States. Apparently when Toyota surpassed them in global sales that wasn't warning enough.

musashi you must have really bad luck. I am on Cobaltss.net and part of a local car club that primarily has LSJ Cobalts and Ions in it. I know alot of people who have had stage 2 installed and ive never once heard anything like your saying. I know people who have had warranty work done with stage 2 installed, no problems. Ive never heard of anyone paying more than 400 dollars for a stage 2 install. I think its only like 6 service hours max, i mean shit i did it in 2 with a friend and im no mechanic.

And were the hell did you here that 8 of these 12 tunes will blow your motor? Thats a fucking joke dude. I think to date on SS.net there has been one person who had a motor blow with a stage 2 tune, but it was covered under warranty and he had supporting mods. I dont know of a single incident of a GM stage 2 LSJ blowing up with nothing else done to it.

Now there are alot of shitty tuners out there that have made tunes that blow up engines. Rebel for one has blown up quit a few engines. BUt the GM stage 2 tune is prolly the safest tune you can get. Its timing is so far retarded and fuel tables are so rich there isnt a chance of it blowing an engine.

Its not a risk to put GM stage 2 on your car. I dont know where your getting your information but its not accurate.

And as far as warranty work goes, again i dont know wtf is wrong with florida, that place fucking sucks. Everywhere else you can install the GM stage 2 kit yourself drive it to a dealership have a mechanic inspect it, if he approves the install he will do the flash and you keep your warranty. Thats how it works in the rest of the world. The flash is a part of the stage kit, a dealership at most can charge you one labor hour to do it, cause it only takes 5 minutes.

Maybe they are quoting you really high because they dont know what the install consist of or because you sound despirate so they think they can rape you. Maybe its because its florida...

I made a post on ss.net in the regional section asking for people in florida to tell me what they have paid for Gm stage 2 install and warranty work related issues, ill let you know what they say.

Nice ride you got there. Enjoy her :thumbsup:

I bought it from one in Dickinson North Dakota. Charbonneau Motors. got up at 7 am on a weekend to go drive there and get it, bring it back, then go to a track meet in the shinny new car. And the color is amazing, not a single blue SS in town like it.

You didn't get it from one of my dealerships? Fail.

Just kidding. Its a nice looking car, I like the color. Good luck with the modding. You think your just gonna do one thing, then before you know it, your spending money hand over fist for that last ounce of horsepower that you can't even feel, but it looks good when you spin the rollers.

But we wont get into dynos, not after this last weekend.

Stage 2 if installed by a dealer wont void your warranty at all. No matter what the dealer says they cant deny warranty work. GM themselves clearly states if done this way it wont void your warranty.

Wanna put some cash on that?

The dealer ship is a privately owned franchise to which they pay GM royalties and rights. Because it is independently owned they can charge whatever fee they want as long as it falls within federal policy to rate per hour.
Bingo. We can't do anything. We don't own the dealership, hell, we don't own the cars at the dealership. When you buy from a dealership, you don't buy from Toyota/GM/Ford/Whatever, you buy it from XYZ Car Sales.

musashi you must have really bad luck. I am on Cobaltss.net and part of a local car club that primarily has LSJ Cobalts and Ions in it. I know alot of people who have had stage 2 installed and ive never once heard anything like your saying. I know people who have had warranty work done with stage 2 installed, no problems. Ive never heard of anyone paying more than 400 dollars for a stage 2 install. I think its only like 6 service hours max, i mean shit i did it in 2 with a friend and im no mechanic.

And were the hell did you here that 8 of these 12 tunes will blow your motor? Thats a fucking joke dude. I think to date on SS.net there has been one person who had a motor blow with a stage 2 tune, but it was covered under warranty and he had supporting mods. I dont know of a single incident of a GM stage 2 LSJ blowing up with nothing else done to it.

Now there are alot of shitty tuners out there that have made tunes that blow up engines. Rebel for one has blown up quit a few engines. BUt the GM stage 2 tune is prolly the safest tune you can get. Its timing is so far retarded and fuel tables are so rich there isnt a chance of it blowing an engine.

Its not a risk to put GM stage 2 on your car. I dont know where your getting your information but its not accurate.

And as far as warranty work goes, again i dont know wtf is wrong with florida, that place fucking sucks. Everywhere else you can install the GM stage 2 kit yourself drive it to a dealership have a mechanic inspect it, if he approves the install he will do the flash and you keep your warranty. Thats how it works in the rest of the world. The flash is a part of the stage kit, a dealership at most can charge you one labor hour to do it, cause it only takes 5 minutes.

Maybe they are quoting you really high because they dont know what the install consist of or because you sound despirate so they think they can rape you. Maybe its because its florida...

I made a post on ss.net in the regional section asking for people in florida to tell me what they have paid for Gm stage 2 install and warranty work related issues, ill let you know what they say.

Dude, Im not desperate at all to install anything on the Redline. I asked around and got pissed off at the third dealers-ship I called cause my friend in Huston got his installed at the dealership for 350.00 and he still has full warranty.

The dealerships in Florida say you have to purchase the extended warranty because the stage II parts are only covered under extended warranty. I know this is BS because I have the service bullitin from GM which states the stage parts are covered under regular 3-year warranty. I can argue, I can yell, I can threaten them BUT unless its before a judge they will keep shutting the door on me.

I never said the Stage II was dangerous. I know the LSJ is a solid block and the Stage II is a solid mod. BUT some of the programs out there that HPTunners will install are not GM original maps. Some of the programs running around the redline forums and Cobalt forums are custom tunned from GM maps that guys have experimented with and these will give you hell. They may not blow up you motor but getting lean codes all the time and having the car go into limp after 3 runs is not exactly proper tunning.
You just gotta be carefull what version tune you install. some are writen for the 2.9 pulley, some for the 2.7, crazy enough there are 3 tunes I believe that are written for the 2.9 and work even better with a 2.7 pulley without adjusting the tune.

Now I have 4 offers from guys in Florida willing to install and program my Redline but its not at a service center. My problem has only been with GM centers.

you find out where in South FL they got thier cars done for 400 bucks or so and Im there.

The problem is with florida, the dealers here are greedy assess or they are so lazy they wont want to do any sort of warrenty work for you.

No lets be honest for a moment and call it like it is.
Florida is full of two things, Old people and immigrants.
The combination of which causes havoc on the roadways. Lots of the people who come to South Fla are from countires that dont even have roads. Cuba, Dominican Republic and Haiti are countries in which 72 percent of the transit-ways are open dirt roads.

For decades Florida insurance rates have been the highest in the nation. So much so that last year (2007) the Federal government had to step in and audit State Farm Insurance Co. because they raised thier rates by 42% in one year. When asked to provide proof of accident increase which would justify this State Farm withdrew thier increase.
Gotian is an Insurance agent and can tell you more in detail of all the horror stories that South Floridians are forced to deal with and the rates we pay.

Bad drivers and uneducated vehicle owners dont only affect insurance rates, they affect cost of vehicle and cost of service.
Your average South American and Central American driver does not know how to change his own oil because in poor third world countires like Venezuela and Peru cars run on the same oil for up to 2 years at a time.
Most of the cars driven in those countries are euro diesel blocks which can run forever with minimal service.
Cuban men above the age 0f 30 have a saying that dates back to when Castro got a fleet of brand new Alfa Romeos for his diplomats to strut around in Havana in 92. The cars where donated by the Spanish government and becasue Cuba has no resources and importing the transmission oil required for the Alfas would be a hassle, they where told that its best not to change the transmission fluid and just run em like that.
Word spread throughout Cuba and now any Cuban mechanic or car owner will say " Transmission oils dont have to be changed, the car runs better when you leave it alone."

Think Im lying? ask any latin south floridian over 30 when was the last time they had thier transmission serviced. they will tell you that servicing it actually breaks it!

People here dont take care of thier cars! oil changes happen when the car starts to smoke, tires are never ballanced or rotated, alignments only happen of the car is involved in an accident, people use 85 octane when the manual actually says "premium only". its automotive hell down here.

Because of this ignorance cars are always breaking down and always in need of repairs. Service centers are always full and warranty work happens daily at any local dealership. The owners of these dealers are loosing money so they tighten up thier shit, make it impossible to claim warranty work and say "oh GM/VW/Ford, is not denying you the work, but this center wont do it so try aother and stop hassling us or we will report you of being in violation and no center will touch your car".

Think Im lying or exagerating or making up shit. Ask Chique, he was here in south beach not too long ago. Tell him to describe the condition of the cars on the road, tell him to tell you how many broken down cars are parked on the highway every two miles. We live sorounded by fucking morons and we pay the price.

ok so far heres what ive found out so far.

Saturn of West Dade, talk to the service Manager Roland. They do alot of stage install kits and honor the warranty. They even do alot of Stage 3 Kit installs and are fairly priced.

Avon Plaza in Avon Park Charged one guy 225 for the install.

Ill get you more places as they let me know.

ok so far heres what ive found out so far.

Saturn of West Dade, talk to the service Manager Roland. They do alot of stage install kits and honor the warranty. They even do alot of Stage 3 Kit installs and are fairly priced.

Avon Plaza in Avon Park Charged one guy 225 for the install.

Ill get you more places as they let me know.

West dade was one of the places I went. I'll call up this guy tomorrow and let you know what he says.
Thanks bro. If this shit works out Ill send you a favor basket full of porn and chocolate.

Saturn of Orlando North and Maroone are two more, i think Maroone one guy paid 700 for the install.

LOL im going to hold you to that basket of chocolate and porn.

I can get the parts for 450 or so if i get the job at a local car dealership, and roughly 150 for the install. Sure looks like florida just sucks to me. Shit happens like that.

And i sure hope i dont end up a dyno bitch, spending the extra coin for a few whp. I just want to get the bitch into the legit 13s. By that time i plan to sell it and buy an STi or something. I think the fact i dont make much money to begin with will help me not over spend on the mods.

the fastest time with a GM stage 2 Kit so far is 13.3@104, this was done with slicks. Some people have ran 13.5-13.6 with street tires. A good driver with stage 2 will hit high 13's at 102-104 MPH.

Well im doing more than just stage 2, im getting CAI and atleast catback. god knows what else, whatever i can do for pretty cheap that will get it there.

the saturn dealer in Longwood on 17-92 $225-ish

Well im doing more than just stage 2, im getting CAI and atleast catback. god knows what else, whatever i can do for pretty cheap that will get it there.

If your car is anything like mine even in the most remote way, you'll want to deal with the exhaust up to the catback first. Worry about the catback later.

If your car is anything like mine even in the most remote way, you'll want to deal with the exhaust up to the catback first. Worry about the catback later.


yeah the header and downpipe are the most restrictive parts of our exhaust

Think Im lying or exagerating or making up shit. Ask Chique, he was here in south beach not too long ago. Tell him to describe the condition of the cars on the road, tell him to tell you how many broken down cars are parked on the highway every two miles. We live sorounded by fucking morons and we pay the price.

well, the cars look one hell of a bit better than they do up here, i can tell you that. but our are actually driveable. people get serving done and everything all the time. when we were driving through late at night to studio s or w/e, i saw like 4-5 broken down cars on the side of the road on the way there, and there was at least 2 in the lot we parked at that werent starting and were getting towed. i guess i can agree with mushman on that to an extent, as i havent been down there on a long term basis.

a bunch of my family lives down there, and they get their cars serviced...by the dealership. nothing gets checked on until there is a problem. for instance, i was there last july, and she diddnt kno, but i drove her car 2-3 blocks away to the publix, and the steering wheel was wobbling. she thought it was normal. when i had time, i jacked up the car, and look at the rotors and pads...they were warped. she claimed and insisted that she must use toyota parts so the brakes dont go bad anymore. have any idea how much just front rotors cost? for 2 it was about 220ish. fixed the problem, but its plain ignorance down there unless you are a car enthusiest it seems. my cousin was washing his car with dish soap. i litterally slapped him, dumped the bucket, and held the soap hostage, and told him to take me to the nearest autozone, and i bought him some real car soap. geez. and he wondered why just the turtle wax soap made his car look so much better...go figure.

yeah the header and downpipe are the most restrictive parts of our exhaust

Any suggestions of websites to order from?

read up on cobaltss.net. There are ton of total dumbass tool bags on there, but if you can sift through the massive piles of shit, theres bits of knowledge hidden

yeah i have delved into the depths of that abyss... loads of trolls populate those breeding grounds of mental retardation. There are the ocassional gems to be found, but either they are extremely few and far between or I just suck at looking.