2002 chevy cavalier ?'s

first let me say that im new and dont exactly know which section this should go in...

ok well just like the title i have a 2002 cavalier, auto. i have a cai, full body kit, new header, new cat., and a new dual cat-back exhuast. i have new pioner 4x6" speackers in front and kicker 5 1/4" in rear stock head unit.and last but not least a liquid cooled turbo that hasnt been installed yet.


what i want to know is what other performance parts could i possibly put on the car that i can do myself and that are relatively inexpensive. what kind of engine swaps are possible with least amount of work and even automatic to manual tranny swap(since i have a auto and would prefer man.)if this is possible along with what would be involved interior wise.

does anyone now what kinds of head units work in the car cuz i bought on from crutchfield and when i put the dash together it didnt fit right. and according to crutchfield, it was supposed to fit. also does anyone have better speaker suggestions?


one last thing.....i have a 12" kicker sub in a ported box in my trunk connected to a 2 channel 1100 watt pyramid mosfet amp. now i have the power running from the battery to + on amp, an 18g. wire run. from + amp to a rocker switch in the dash to remote turn on on amp,ground on amp to metal part on car. i have all speaker wire connected correctly. now i have my low level input connecter tapped into my rear speakers. when i connect the speaker to a single ch. on the amp there isnt enough power to drive the sub. but when i bridge the 2 chan. there seems to be too much power and the amp grounds/kicks itself off. i would like to know what is wrong, if its the amp/wiring/or even if the fuse isnt high enough (it only came with a 15 amp fuse.)




thanks to all that respond.:runaround:

Welcome to AF!

What engine do you have in it? Why would you be thinking about an engine swap if you just bought the turbo for it?

The next thing you need to do to that engine if you're going to add power past the turbo, is upgrade the engine internals. The pistons and rods can't handle infinite power. If you do swap the engine, from what I hear the 3.8L is a common one. Check out this turbo 3.8l Cavalier (http://www.cardomain.com/ride/526752). I'd like to build something like that :evillol:. Sounds like he put tons of time and money into it, but I think it would be worth it.

For the amp, try grounding it to the battery instead of the body. The body isn't designed to carry high currents through it.

3.8 turbo?....weak.

Link him to the Northstar V8 swap.

No way, man! I'm trying to keep that one quiet so I can be the only one on AF with that engine in my Cavalier! :evillol:

I think you were joking(?), but incase you weren't... I really don't think that's a good idea for anything but a show car, the top of that 4.6 is so wide... wastes a lot of space in a car that doesn't have much to spare. It also comes so close to the firewall and radiator support that I really think you'd need to have solid engine/trans mounts. I don't think you'd ever fit a turbo under the hood behind a Northstar, which would mean you'd be limited to the stock HP, unless you used NO2. I also seem to have lost the link, I was gonna post it to let him decide for himself.

tis no northstar, but it is 454 cubic inches of raw power....

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y31/jakegday/cavalierv8.jpg

it was on ebay a long time ago, completely steet legal...

Where do they expect you to put your legs in that thing!? The trans would have to go back to where the seat begins!

You've got to wonder about the person who would do that... I like going fast, but I like to be able to turn also, I don't think 1,000lbs up front would help with the later.