OMG This car is slow !!!

[Capt-Z]

Hi All,

To make a long story short I had an 03 Sunfire which was my dream car (This is a parent directory) http://www.capt-z.com/Posted/
(member j-body.org)
The pictures are of what was left of it after a run-in with a fedex truck.

Next up: a p.o.c. Dodge Stratus that had a 2.6l in it and it was kinda quick and I shaved it and did some performance work to it (what little I could do since the only dodge performance parts out there are old mopar - never by a dodge if you want to mod!)
http://www.capt-z.com/stratus/index.html
(member StratusSphere)
but it turned out to be a basket case and I finally decided to get rid of it.

I happened to find a deal where I traded in my stratus and got the se model GrandAm 04 with 2 yrs warranty, no body defects and a mint interior with the full Monsoon System and sun roof, low profile chrome an all that for next to nothing.
(member GrandAm Owners Club)
I figured the car couldnt be that slow, after all, I'd had the same motor in my fire and that if it did seem slower then I'd hop the car up a bit to get some hp and it'd be ok, well, I havnt done any hopping as of yet (Lack of $$$, ya' know) and I'm wondering now if I should even keep this car (don't get me wrong, I love Pontiacs and prefer them hands down against the competition) I mean my wifes old minivan had more get-up-and-go than this car.

Ah hell....

Descisions, Descisions...

Anywayz, I geus what I'm wondering is if some of the standard free mods such as openning the airbox and removeing the air-bong are at least gonna make even a little bit of a performance difference so I can at least begin to like the car again?

[urweak]

was your fire a 5 speed or auto, is the GA a 5 speed or auto?

[tenspeed]

Check through the 2.2L specific area. The engine is slow compared with everything else offered in the N-body. If you're lucky enough to have the 5 speed, you can rev it up a little higher to get some decent speed out of it.

I also have a '96 2.4L/ 5 speed and it seems to have a lot more power than the 2.2L. The brakes are better too.

[Capt-Z]

Originally posted by urweak
was your fire a 5 speed or auto, is the GA a 5 speed or auto? both cars auto

[Capt-Z]

urweak, Great links in your sig

Tenspead, nice gas cap and I love the interior paint, my car is almost a bronze and I dont know what color I'm gonna do the interior as of yet.

[urweak]

well, i would say that the GA probably runs a mid to high 16 and the sunfire ran a mid to low 16, so maybe a .5 second at the most between the two cars. and of course the GA weighs alot more then the sunfire, thats a free mod your could do, although not very pratical for a DD, you could gut the interior.

and yes quad4fourms is nice, although GMPT is good, theres alot of arguing that goes on over there for no real reason (which kinda hurts the site)

[tenspeed]

Originally posted by Capt-Z
Tenspead, nice gas cap and I love the interior paint, my car is almost a bronze and I dont know what color I'm gonna do the interior as of yet.

That's a Ford Mustang gas door that I turned down on a lathe.

Dupli-color Mirage comes in a Gold/Magenta that might go with your exterior color. I like the two dimension look a lot better than a solid color. I found the full selection of colors at Advance Auto ($20), the popluar colors are at Wal-Mart for $19 a kit.

[XtremeGrandAm]

Well of course its going to be slower than the sunfire. Its bigger and heavier there is about a 500- 600 lbs weight difference. The only thing I have on my car is an intake. If you were wanting stock performance you definantly shouldnt have got the 4 cyl.

[RickHigginsHtbr]

Just a K+N filter / bosch plugs seemed to help me out a bit.... There's a header, a turbo, pulleys, TB's, etc available for this so far. parts are still comming out for this engine, it seems to me and many it does have potential.... until then, lighten the car up and you'll be fine.

[Capt-Z]

Tenspead, discussed it with the wife and she thinks some flavor of the dupli-color is the best bet for a custom look, I'm only going to get so fast no matter what I do with the exception of an engine swap and i's still got two years left of original factory warranty so I'll make it show instead of go!

XtremeGrandAm, Too good of a deal to pass up, I really didnt want a 4 but thems the breaks. BTW: Nice site as well as yer ride!

xxkewlguyxx, Gonna do the usual intake/exhaust combo and maybe a feul rod/jets to go with it and that should at least clean the engine bay up and increase the hp enough that I dont mind and throw the saved cash from not doing performance mods into lighting/body mods and turn into a low profile pimpin' ride/showcar what have you.BTW: Love those headlights!

Anywayz...

Thanx for all the info/advice and we'll see ya' around the neighbor hood, I kinda' like it here!

[XtremeGrandAm]

Originally posted by Capt-Z
XtremeGrandAm, Too good of a deal to pass up, I really didnt want a 4 but thems the breaks. BTW: Nice site as well as yer ride!

I hear you. Back when I bought my car I actually wanted the GT but my dad was co-signing and he had this stupid price in his head that I couldnt go over and the GT was $1,500 over that price. So I decided to go with the SE1 4 cyl fully loaded...Thats been 3 years now and really having the engine and the car hasnt bothered me. I also added a new throtle body and sparkplugs (I forgot to mention that). Then I got the G6 just out of luck because my mom didnt want it.Which has now got me a little more addicted to speed. And thats where the Cobalt SS Supercharged comes into play I decided to lease that because I really want a manual, but I want it to have decent power and features and be fun to drive.

Thanks for the compliment about my site and my car. There are actually quite a few parts for the 2.2L Ecotec engine but they arent really cheap. There was a lot I was planning on doing to my car but since the accident which happened 6 months after I bought it. I felt that it would be wasted money to spend on a car that was hit as hard as mine was.

[Capt-Z]

XtremeGrandAm,

My mom just picked up the Cobalt (Pontiac Family:1 Sunfire, 2 GrandAm, 1 GT, 1 GTP, and a Cavy) decided she didnt like the wing that came with the 4-door so she ordered w/o and bought aftermarket (my mom the modder!, Her Corvette, Cleveland Browns, and Las Vegas website--> http://www.capt-z.com/nita )

She loves the Cobalt though and is already planning on getting the top shelf model in a year or so (After the warranty gets a little older but the car is still worth something).

Coming soon:
throtle body and sparkplugs - K+N filter / bosch plugs

Thanx for the input

[Capt-Z]

xxkewlguyxx,

This is gonna sound bad, but, where are the plugs?

I chopped the bottom off of my airbox and dropped in a K&N filter which made it run faster/better right off the top but now that I've got the plugs ordered I'll need to put them in and I havnt looked all that hard but I didnt see them on initial glance.

I've also got a Borla exhaust ordered.

I'm gonna order a wing or drop kit shortly after that as well.

Starting to get used to this car and starting to like it, even with a 2.2 it's not too bad.

Anywayz...

[Capt-Z]

Sorry, just found a similar post, shoulda' checked before posting.

http://www.gaownersclub.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3782

[02eco]

Supercharge it, you'll be happy.:)

[RickHigginsHtbr]

Originally posted by Capt-Z
xxkewlguyxx,

This is gonna sound bad, but, where are the plugs?

I chopped the bottom off of my airbox and dropped in a K&N filter which made it run faster/better right off the top but now that I've got the plugs ordered I'll need to put them in and I havnt looked all that hard but I didnt see them on initial glance.

I've also got a Borla exhaust ordered.

I'm gonna order a wing or drop kit shortly after that as well.

Starting to get used to this car and starting to like it, even with a 2.2 it's not too bad.

Anywayz...

Sorry it took me awhile to get back to you.... I never got the e-mail.. anyway, when your looking at your engine, you see that black plastic thing with ecotec written on it? take off the 4 10mm bolts, move the cables out of the way, and they're down in there. When you put the borla on this engine, try to get a good sound clip, I want to hear it. I just got my Eibach springs in today, so after inspection next month the exhaust comes next on this car for me.