Alias1429's Supercharged 2002 Cavalier LS Sport

[alias1429]

@Pythias

Nice, looks like it was done nicely, question though, why stay auto? And how long will the auto hold up?

the 4t40e holds up pretty well with boost. i haven’t seen anyone break one yet. the auto seems to hold up better than the five speed. i went with the auto cuz i like a challenge. its really easy to take a 5 speed cav with the ecotec motor and slap on the hahn turbo kit and run 13s, but doing that with an auto is not as common. having a 13 second 5 speed jbody is nothing impressive to me. i have only seen 3 auto jbodies break into the 13s and they were all turboed. i have yet to see a supercharged auto in the 13s. thats where my project is headed.

@tjZ28

Sorry, I wasn’t trying to be a d!ck or anything. I actually dig the car for what it is, other than the sound. Yes, you will give up a few HP, I’m guessing 2-3 wheel HP tops, going to a chambered style muffler. But honestly on a DD, and a Cavy isn’t it worth it to not sound like ass? Just for reference my car is putting out 450 RWHP, so let’s assume you have 200 WHP (I wasn’t sure if you meant wheel or crank when you said 200… probably crank but let’s give the car the benefit of the doubt). I’m making about 2.25 times the power. Assuming the same brake specific fuel consumption (probably not an accurate assumption me being NA vs you SC, but close enough for this discussion) I should have about 2.25 times the exhaust gas to deal with. My car is running 2 2.5" pipes (it’s 3" off the headers but necks down to 2.5" at the end of the X-pipe to connect to the factory tail-section of the exhaust) which have a lot of big bends at the back of the car, and run into factory, baffled mufflers.

Dyno testing has shown a Z06 at my power level will pickup maybe 8-10RWHP going to a good chambered aftermarket exhaust, and 10-15RWHP going to a straight through muffler and pipe routing (eleminating the big 180 bends both tail-pipes make before the muffler). Not a very big change between the chambered setup and the straight through. We’re talking about 1% change between the chambered aftermarket vs. straight through. And still only 2-3% between the stock tail-section all the way up to a straight through.

Apply the ~1% to your car at 200 wheel HP moving “down” to a chambered muffler (certainly not the stock one, but a quality aftermarket unit) shouldn’t cost you more than about 2 HP at the wheels. In reality each of my 2.5" pipes is supporting more HP though than your single 2.5", so the change would probably be less than 2HP.

-TJ

you make a good point. so basically whatever i might lose performance-wise is negligible. i appreciate the help and explanation. most of you guys on here have roughly 8-10 years on me and you’ve all definitely been around cars longer, so you guys know what you’re talking about.

time to start searching for a nice sounding chambered muffler