Ecomodding a Cobalt SS/TC

[cityboy]

OK, I think the question on most people's mind (like motogp) and myself would be "why would you buy the "turbo" if you drive around like a little old lady. never breaking the speed limit, timing the lights....
why not buy the regular Cobalt LT, or LS or even better the XSI
It just makes no sense to me, why you would need to buy the Turbo??
(in Canada, the Turbo is about $5000 more than an LT)

I have a friend that owns a Mustang V8 & he drives like my mom, why would he not buy the V6?
I guess I just don't understand the logic behind this?

[armygreywolf]

I do like to have fun with it, BUT I have a very long commute to work. I did alot of reserch and learned alot about GM's direct injection endeavors, test drove a few and read alot about their fuel economy, epa says 30 and that's coming from a turbocharged car.

Is it so much to ask to have power on tap, and get very good economy in any situation your not choosing to use all that power, peak power output should not dictate fuel economy and this car fits that bill very well. Alot of people get lost on smaller engines, lower power levels and they don't understand that an engine's efficiency is dictated by its operating load range not it's peak outputs. I make well over 300HP with the tune, yet gained additional mpg in the process. It really is a win win with this car. You can have your sport compact and rather than killing its efficiency with bolt ons and turbo kits, it's an out of the box eco friendly sporty car. And that's why I bought it, it fits closest to my commuter life AND my weekend pleasure drives.

[pgfpro]

I understand your choice

Thank God there are more people out their like me!!!

[armygreywolf]

oh and to add to that, you gotta remember, this engine is built for turbocharging, so it will last a very long time if it's taken care of and driven at least a bit less harsh than it's design intention, at least more so than the XFI model.

[dwtaylorpdx]

Originally Posted by bhazard

Gotta love the turbo 4's huh? Ultimate compromise between speed and economy. You don't hear much about cylinder deactivated v8s anymore huh?

Uhm, All the Caddillac engines do it, Most of the cars w/ V8's from the big three have it as an option or standard, (Hemi's)

Its called Variable Displacement technology. They skip fuel injectors in a pattern to keep all the engine warm and not dry spin any cylinder.

Its how the Northstar engine works and manages to go in limp mode if it loses coolant and still drive 100 miles.

Dave

[cfg83]

armygreywolf -

Originally Posted by armygreywolf

oh and to add to that, you gotta remember, this engine is built for turbocharging, so it will last a very long time if it's taken care of and driven at least a bit less harsh than it's design intention, at least more so than the XFI model.

This is pretty neat. Racing enthusiasts will sometimes have two cars, one for racing and one for ecomodding. It reads like you did your homework and found a balance that allows for the best of both worlds in one car.

Apologies if it's already been asked, but is there any way to bypass the turbo for increasing MPG? I think I already know that the answer is NO from other threads I have read in the past, but that would be my holy-grail interest.

CarloSW2

[motogp34]

You bought a car that was engineered in Germany at the famous Nuremberg race circuit, designed to corner hard and drive fast. Makes no sense if you intend not to drive aggressively. You want to improve your hp to 300, which would cost you thousands of dollars. But your not even going to use the 260hp you have.
My 06 SS/SC got better gas mileage then my 09 SS/TC dose.
Looks wise there is no real difference between any of cobalts, they all look the same only the rims are different. If you wanted something a little sportier the 2.4L SS with 177hp would have been way better choice for fuel eco. But i do think for eco would have been the XFI model.

[motogp34]

Originally Posted by armygreywolf

to answer your comment. The car comes with a factory wideband sensor.

And the car has everything on my personal checklist...

Blow the doors of a mustang gt...check
Blow the doors of a Honda...check
Looks good...check
Turbo...check
Direct Injection, Accurized MAF and Wideband O2 sensors...check
34mpg in a car designed to go very fast, make very hard turns, and stop on a dime...priceless

The SS/TC dose NOT blow the doors of the
Mustang GT
0-60 5.5 Sec.
Top Speed 145 mph

Cobalt SS/TC
0-60 5.7 Sec. some articles say 5.5 ?
Top Speed 160+ without the big wing...

http://wrmag.nextautos.com/issue/46/145
http://wrmag.nextautos.com/issue/41/35
http://www.roadandtrack.com/assets/d...risonchart.pdf

[MadisonMPG]

Originally Posted by motogp34

The SS/TC dose NOT blow the doors of the
Mustang GT
0-60 5.5 Sec.
Top Speed 145 mph

Cobalt SS/TC
0-60 5.7 Sec. some articles say 5.5 ?
Top Speed 160+ without the big wing...

Winding Road Magazine | Issue 46
Winding Road Magazine | Issue 41
http://www.roadandtrack.com/assets/d...risonchart.pdf

How many times have you "blown the doors" off of a Mustang?

[armygreywolf]

Ok, to respond to all at once, first, to the Multi-Displacement V8s. It's still a V8, it is still reciprocating against friction, vacuum, consuming energy to increase economy, sorry it can be done better than that. It'd be the arguement of saying I only need one lung, I have two, but need one, are you as efficient with one as you are with two at half the capacity? No of course not, neither is an engine that's alternatively firing cylinders to reduce consumption, the first generation MD Hemi actually got pretty bad mileage.

And to "motogp34" First, to tune the car cost $656.88, I bought the HP tuners cable and program so I could at least have a look at the tables and make minor adjustments, the price also includes the availability of proven tunes for certain amounts of power, all available for download, it even includes the ability to "live" tune the car via datalogging and uploading to HPtuners so their staff can custom tune your car remotely. A mobile mustang dyno at Capitol Raceway outside of Baton Rouge logged just over 300WHP and 313 lb-ft TQ. At this very same track I had an enjoyable weekend, which is where an almost factory 2006 Mustang GT got his butt handed to him. He had the intake, the exhaust, maybe a programmer, I doubt anything else, and he was on street tires.

As I said initially before an obvious attempt at trolling, this car is DUAL purpose.

Things I have done so far include removal of the trunk interior, removal of unnecessary plastics, the spare tire and jack, An HPTuners custom tune with a lean cruise feature. Muffler delete, which was the heaviest thing thus far on the car, at least 50 lbs. I have also added corrugated plastic sheeting, black in color via aluminum rivets to the dead space behind the air damn in front of the tires, while cutting a small directional vent towards the inside of the brakes. I have also added the same material while avoiding the exhaust to everything behind the rear axle. I had also tried wing removal, it turns out I actually LOST .9 mpg on two tanks in the same general conditions with it removed, has since been reinstalled. I also run 43 psi front, 46 rear. I fixed the rear brake problem most SS/TCs seem to have which is nothing more than a lack of lubrication when it was factory installed, that alone gave back .5mpg. The presence of a boost/vacuum gauge gives me a great tool to measure my driving, this is probably the best thing for me in the eco-sport quest.

And yea, I've embarrassed many cars on the track, I don't need to list, but the Mustang is on it, the Camaro SS is on it, the charger SRT8, challenger SRT8, v8 s10, 8100 Vortec Silverado, Several Hondas, including the newer K20 Civic, and an unknown year Eclipse GST, who by chance is also an ecomodder, and he is on this forum...i wish I could remember his screen name, I don't believe the eclipse is on his eco car list though, I've looked for eclipses.

In any case, the car has more than 15K miles on it, I've had no problems with it other than the brakes which was an easy fix, and the shift linkage, which was a warranty fix. I haven't yet broken my 40mpg goal, but I hope I can.

And one last thing, show me a Mustang "faster" than this car, from the factory that can match it's efficiency, or at least come near it's efficiency. OR better yet, HP for HP, find another 300HP car that can break 30mpg. Or at least Chevy's 260SAE BHP and the epa rated 30. The point is I bought it because it is quick, it is nimble, it's efficient and not as expensive as having two cars for two different purposes.