Project disappointment lol

[daveshapellSVT]

Hey whats up i own a 2002 saturn sl1. it'sa very slow pile. which is why i have desided to waste my money to achieve less then satisfactory performance from it. my goal is to run high 14's. reason for this is i think it would make a cool sleeper to take out moded civics and other sport compacts lightly moded. Now i've done some research and i think i'm just gonna help it out as much as i can with bolt ons and then run a shot of nitrous. stock the thing makes like 80whp. so i wanna try and at least break 100whp with just standard bolt ons. once i do that i'll run at most a 75 shot. with some good tires and some minor suspention mods like bushings, springs, strut bars and swar bars i think i'll be running high 14's. i'm not going all out on this one cause i'm currently building my formula. this is just for shits and giggles.

I started some baseline testing. i can't get to the track cause its closed and i can't help but laugh when i consider getting this thing dyno'd. So.. i used my G-tech pro. i've noticed that my g-tech is on target 1 out of 4 times. so i always do at least 4 runs. even if it's not very accurate i can still use it as a scale. stock i am pulling .28 G's of acceleration. so hopefully when i add some stuff i'll see that number go up a little. only mod i have is a home made AEM intake used from my 04 sentra i used to own. on the g-tech my quarter times were around 16.7 with 0-60 ranging from 8.5 sec to 9's. i'll post more the further i get. be cool if this thread could be stickied cause i'm sure i'm gonna havea lot of info to share that will help other ppl that would like to do the same to there cars. at least they could check this thread out and see what it takes to run what times and make certain power.





P.S. I'll be keeping a list of all expenses on this project starting now:
LIST
Fog lights $ 19.99 plus tax= $ 21.58

Total to date= $21.58

[saturnspeed_12]

so you arent going with a head swap? if you get a 93-98 you will achieve your goal of around 100whp alone. and also it will help with the nitrous since the compression will be a little lower. add bolt ons from there and you could range from 115whp to i dont know 125-130whp depending on what you do.

just like to see all that you plan, dont want to push you for the head swap but its probably the cheapest way to make the most power and will flow better and help loads more. but do you already have a list of everything you want to do?

[daveshapellSVT]

I've been doing research and checking out parts and reading forums so i kinda have a decent idea of the bolt ons i'm gonna try and get. i was looking into the head swap, but i don't have much money and the motor and head i have have low miles so i'd hate to ditch it. i wanna try and do this on a real tight budget which is why i'm gonna run nitrous. i know i won't make impressive gains from bolt ons, but i figure it can't hurt to have the engine take in more air and put out more fuel. Heres some of the bolt ons i have in mind:

-SPS or SDA throttle body( they seem to be the same thing)

-SDA race manifold
-Motor mounts
-custom exhaust
- under drive pulley set

then i'll go through a lightening up faze where i wanna get a carbon fiber hood, lighter/wider wheels, and then maybe find some weight to ditch within the car. once i've done that i wanna run a small shot and work my way to a max of 75. one thing i have noticed is that third gear is a dog and when i shift the rpms drop real low. i'm thinking to help that i'll get a lighter flywheel and at the same time a clutch. i know the gearing is the main problem, but no one sells gears so.

[daveshapellSVT]

oh i have a question.. i have been looking around for a header, but i guess the only way to get one is an older one made for older sohc? is that right or does someone still make a header for a 1.9 sohc

[saturnspeed_12]

ok the headers, i dont know anybody off the top of my head that has them. they got rid of them because of everyone doing head swaps. the older manifolds i dont think are any better. if you want headers on it then your going to have to cut the flange off the stock ones and have a custom set made.

as of the low rpm thing, ive never heard of such a thing. most guys want the mp2 tranny, what you have, in their saturns. it mainly depends on where you shift. now i have an aluminum flywheel on my car and it revs up quicker but i have lost torque. also if your doing the flywheel and clutch and plan to be able to really use the car, you better crack open the transmission and weld the differential pin so it doesnt blowout. the retaining pin tends to shear and then the pin goes flying out, but mainly happens on cars that have the wheels spin on unslick surfaces or like spinning the wheels in snow and then it grips. it wont happen first try and may take quite a while but it will most likely go. dont want to scare you away with that but all saturn tuners deal with it and the transmission are easy to tear apart.

ok now as of the underdrive pulleys, for the accessories it will be fine but dont use the crank pulley! saturns crank pulley acts as a damper so if you install a underdrive crank pulley then you will prematurely wear the bottom end out. also a magical little thing on a saturn is megasquirt. that system is something many saturn tuners praise about. if your thinking about using it, check out http://www.plastikracing.net/cart/home.php . they have the complete megasquirt set up made for a saturn and at a pretty good price too.

[daveshapellSVT]

I'm pretty sure you bolt the balancer thats on the engine to the aftermarket pulley. thats what i had to do with my mustang. i'll look further into that. now what is that nega squirt thing? nitrous? what is it and what does it do?

[saturnspeed_12]

the saturn balancer is the pulley too. one guy is making underdrive pulleys with a damper built onto it for saturns but probably wont be ready for a long time.

the megasquirt is like a standalone fuel management just not that extreme. it now supports spark too. you can tweak with it and make some power from it and would probably really benefit from it when you use nitrous. it will modify injector pulse but you have to tune it. it seems to be a very good thing on saturns, whether modified or not.

[daveshapellSVT]

yea the yare externally balanced motor versus internally balanced. the cobra 4.6 is externally balanced as well. the way the pulley works with that is you bolt the balancer to the after market pulley. at least thats how it's supposed to work with externally balanced eniges. that mega squirt deal. what software or hardware is used to actually do the changes? does it hook up to a lap tap?

[saturnspeed_12]

yeah the megasquirt hooks up to a lap top unless you have a full day or more to spend at a dyno using there computer. im not sure how long it takes to get it tuned. the software just depends on what you want to do with it. you pretty much have to read up on it. on that link, there at the top right it says forums, if you go there and look around you probably will find everything. im a member on there. there are topics on software and tuning with the megasquirt, if you still dont understand it all just ask. quite a few guys on there use the megasquirt. i plan to use it on my friends eclipse 420a thats been turboed and we added quite a bit and it needs tuned real bad now with the new injectors.

[daveshapellSVT]

sweet. my buddy uses a aem ems stand alone unit in his GSR. he's making 350whp. his car is nasty. he learned how to tune so if i do use that mega squirt he'll know what to do.