I drive a 2009 Cobalt SS and im trying to find a better intake. Right now there a lifetime K&N air filter in there.
i was looking at the Secret Weapon R Cold air intake.
Does anyone have that?
if so how it go?


Im also tying to find a better exhaust Kit.. ive been looking around and im looking at either Magnaflow catback or Megan racing. any suggestions?

I'm not up on the latest on intakes, but I can tell you this. Almost every time I get a new vehicle and want to mod, I find a company that makes them custom for the vehicle and you can get better materials or better performance for less money.

The best piece of advice I can give you is hit up some Cobalt forums. Those guys will have looked into EVERYTHING about your car and you can search for some good info there. Those guys should know your car inside and out.

Welcome to the board though. In the meantime, you're welcome to hang out and discuss cars here too. We don't have any Cobalt people here yet.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/INJEN-COLD-AIR-INTAKE-08-09-CHEVY-COBALT-SS-SP7027BLK_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trkparmsZ65Q3a12Q7c66 Q3a2Q7c39Q3a1Q7c72Q3a570Q7c240Q3a1318Q7c301Q3a1Q7c 293Q3a1Q7c294Q3a50QQ_trksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em14QQhash Zitem1c09a9e904QQitemZ120421214468QQptZMotorsQ5fCa rQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

Injen makes some of the best intakes imo along with K&N

As for the exhaust, megan is going to be a bit lower quality then the magnaflow. i have both magnaflow and megan exhaust parts on my car. Magnaflow will be better quality, megans going to be cheaper though.

Here is what K&N won't tell you though. Few years back I wanted to get an induction put on my Trailblazer SS. I looked at the K and Ns and they claimed 14hp. I talked to guys who actually put inductions on their vehicles without tuning and they LOST hp from creating too lean of a condition. We started seeing this trend on all inductions.

So, we all started contact K and N and everytime they stuck to their story...14hp and no tune needed. So, we started doing our own testing and found that you can, in fact, gain the EXACT 14hp that K and N was claiming, but only with a tune.

I stay away from K and N now. Not only was the kit $450, but there were a couple custom shops making really nice ones for $300 that were proving to produce the same hp numbers.

As for Magnaflow, I am def a fan of them. In testing, they had some of the best flowing mufflers on the market.

Megan racing makes great products for the price. I tested two different coilovers on my wrx as well as spec V struts and tanabe springs, and the megan overpassed the spec V and tanabe combo and proved to be superior compared to the more expensive coilovers I had. So if I would trust them with coilovers I would certainly trust them with an exhaust...As far as K&N goes, I wouldn't trust them. They claim numbers and claim performance that does not exist. They are a shady company and would never put their product on any car or bike I ever own

yea i like magnaflow..but do you think a 3" full exhaust with a 4" tip would do good on a cobalt?

Opening exhaust on any forced induction vehicle will benefit you. 3" being the most common. It will certain help performance.

check out soundclips on youtube to decide which one you like better. always nice to hear it before you buy it.

yea thats what i did..but now im trying to decide between megan and the magnaflow cat back

Ravant knows everything Cobalt. PM him or wait for him to post.

whatever you decide, get a tune afterwards.

4 inch tips look ridiculous, IMO. Get something a little more close to stock or stay with 3 inch. It will look alot cleaner and less ricey.

I have heard that the tuning on the new Cobalt SS is pretty sick. Better save up for some really sticky tires. xD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4eSVmK9ndE

this doesnt sound that bad

btw this is the vid that made me consider magnaflow XD

Your turbo should sound better than that. That one sounded like a turd and was probably not even supercharged.

From what I have noticed over the years. Injen usually always makes a REAL deep in the fender well CAI. All the rest are posers. For GM's I have noticed that the air box is more than capable of flowing large CFM numbers but the tubing is the part holding it back. Airaid makes the smooth tubes and that's what I would buy. I dunno if they make one for the SS/TC but that's what I would do keep the stock box and put a high flow K&N stock replacement in and change the tube out to a smooth one.

Just build your own intake system. Cheaper than that and you get the sound you want. I haven't bought an exhaust system since the Silveado cause I wanted dual exhaust on a Borla muffler and they had it cheaper than what I would be able to build it for. Damn expensive muffler.

Why not just do a straight through 3" exhaust and a tip, a small resonator to cancel out unwanted chatter and be done with it. Mufflers are for pussies, on my ranger it's catalytic converter than turn down. Done.

Do a magnaflow. Look at 3" the whole way back. If you do a 3" in, two 2.5" out tips, you're looking at a better looking, better working system, IMO. As for the intake, go with a custom setup. Most of what you're going to find from the more popular vendors are going to allow some hot under-hood air into the intake instead of cold, dry air. Injen isn't bad, if you have to have a "name brand" however.

The stock intake is actually not all that bad in terms of bringing in cold air. It does a wonderful job on its own. I'd argue, save up your money, and instead of doing an intake, do a computer tune. You'll see much more horsepower/torque gained from that on an LNF than you ever would from the intake. Once the stock intake becomes your bottleneck, then replace it with something custom. But either way, definitely do a 3" exhaust to the Magnaflow and do two 2.5" outs from it. With the tune and exhaust, you can expect 300 WHP and 300 ft-lbs of torque at the wheels. Considering that's roughly a 60 horse jump and 40-50 ft-lb jump from increasing boost, changing the fuel maps, changing the cam phasing, and opening the exhaust, I'd argue that won't be too shabby.

You should never do an induction and exhaust on newer cars without a tune, so I hope that the OP was planning on that anyway.

You should never do an induction and exhaust on newer cars without a tune, so I hope that the OP was planning on that anyway.
As do I, but a tune on these cars is a step above just making sure the air/fuel tables are properly mapped.

I agree, it's a big mod for the cost.

I guess I am just one that feels all three of those is always a packaged deal. I never do one without the other two. Same deal on my motorcycles, whether they are NA or FI, doing all three gets you more hp dollar for dollar than just one at a time.

Meh, leave everything stock and do a 45r turbo.

no homo

so basically get a tune up.
magnaflow exhaust and a custom intake?

45r....

so basically get a tune up.
magnaflow exhaust and a custom intake?

Not a tune up, a tune, where you adjust the amount of fuel that goes into the engine.

45r....

Nick is our forced air guru...he's also a ricer though. He thinks everything needs to be big, like his wheels, wings, lambo style doors.... :rotf:

well there was a guy offering me a tune for about $100..he said it would boost my psi by around 7...is that the kind of tune your talking about?

45r....
whats that?

well there was a guy offering me a tune for about $100..he said it would boost my psi by around 7...is that the kind of tune your talking about?
Ehh - sounds like a crock to me. At least for a hundred. I wouldn't go with that guy. But - yes, a tune that cranks the boost, but not only changing the boost but the cam phasing, the air/fuel tables, etc.

He's refering to a turbo.

Be careful who you take your car to to get it tuned. They usually have a disclaimer that they aren't responsible if they blow up your car. $100 sounds really cheap, I would be careful of that.

Check the Cobalt forums and see what they suggest in terms of tuning. They might be able to get you pointed in the right direction for a reputable tuner.

Nick is our forced air guru...he's also a ricer though. He thinks everything needs to be big, like his wheels, wings, lambo style doors.... :rotf:
:rockon: Only way to live.:thumbsup:

I tend to disagree. Most manufactures have a fixed map at WOT. IN most cases, they tend to tune the map rich in order to save the motor. This is especially true in your forced induction cars like the EVOs and STis. So without knowing too much about the TC Cobalt, I would say a intake and exhaust would help by a good amount.

With that said, I suggest building your own. you can get universal pipes from email for REAL cheap and a K&N universal filter. For the exhuast, have your local exhaust shop bend some custom 3" piping and weld on 3" flanges. You can make some real power for real cheap.

Ehh - sounds like a crock to me. At least for a hundred. I wouldn't go with that guy. But - yes, a tune that cranks the boost, but not only changing the boost but the cam phasing, the air/fuel tables, etc.

If I get a tune will I need to get more stuff?

with any FI motor a better intake and/or exhaust flow will give you instant noticeable gains. Head flow patterns are irreverent since the air is forced in there compared to N/A. Your cam profiles have a lot to do with it. As far as the tune goes, stock every manufacturer bumper WOT fueling to keep detonation from happening, but a leaner mixture will always produce more power. You need to watch how lean you go too lean especially on FI will result in ruined sleeves and a rebuild. IMHO the best thing you can do in the tuning aspect is buy HPTuners and learn to do it yourself. It's all about LTFT's and bumping timimg untill you hit detonation and pulling back two or three degrees. With HPT you also have rea ltime datalogging and reading dtc's and have the ability to have multiple tunes store. One for low octane one for DD one for when you vallet the car and it's limited to 20 mph. one for the track ect. Learning how to tune, now a days, is bar none the most valuable tool you can learn. The computer inside the car has its fingers in everything and so much can be learned about your car.

I love the new Turbocharged Cobalts!

If I get a tune will I need to get more stuff?

you can tune for anything. you can leave it stock and tune and make more power. go balls out and mod the living piss out of the engine and then tune to bring those mods together in a badass HP gain.

with any FI motor a better intake and/or exhaust flow will give you instant noticeable gains. Head flow patterns are irreverent since the air is forced in there compared to N/A. Your cam profiles have a lot to do with it. As far as the tune goes, stock every manufacturer bumper WOT fueling to keep detonation from happening, but a leaner mixture will always produce more power. You need to watch how lean you go too lean especially on FI will result in ruined sleeves and a rebuild. IMHO the best thing you can do in the tuning aspect is buy HPTuners and learn to do it yourself. It's all about LTFT's and bumping timimg untill you hit detonation and pulling back two or three degrees. With HPT you also have rea ltime datalogging and reading dtc's and have the ability to have multiple tunes store. One for low octane one for DD one for when you vallet the car and it's limited to 20 mph. one for the track ect. Learning how to tune, now a days, is bar none the most valuable tool you can learn. The computer inside the car has its fingers in everything and so much can be learned about your car.

...ok now can you say that in english......im dont understand any of that car talk and you confused the hell out of me.

I love the new Turbocharged Cobalts!



you can tune for anything. you can leave it stock and tune and make more power. go balls out and mod the living piss out of the engine and then tune to bring those mods together in a badass HP gain.

haha i dont know much about cars so i dont want to do too much...

Okay, here's what you do. Do the exhaust like I said. The 3" back to the two 2.5" tips. Go to a Cobalt SS/Tc forum somewhere and look up custom cold-air intakes using their search feature. Follow those procedures to get yourself a working, useful CAI.

Then - check around those same forums to find out who's a reputable place to get a tune from. Get the tune from them, and you'll see incredible improvements.

haha i dont know much about cars so i dont want to do too much...

ravant's last post is hands down the only one you need to follow then. thats gonna be your best direction to go with the car.

one word


Borla


im done.

Okay, here's what you do. Do the exhaust like I said. The 3" back to the two 2.5" tips. Go to a Cobalt SS/Tc forum somewhere and look up custom cold-air intakes using their search feature. Follow those procedures to get yourself a working, useful CAI.

Then - check around those same forums to find out who's a reputable place to get a tune from. Get the tune from them, and you'll see incredible improvements.
Or...Give me $5,000 and I will do everything for you.

Or...Give me $5,000 and I will do everything for you.

What do you mean by everything??

Okay, here's what you do. Do the exhaust like I said. The 3" back to the two 2.5" tips. Go to a Cobalt SS/Tc forum somewhere and look up custom cold-air intakes using their search feature. Follow those procedures to get yourself a working, useful CAI.

Then - check around those same forums to find out who's a reputable place to get a tune from. Get the tune from them, and you'll see incredible improvements.

So how much do you think all that's gonna cost??

So how much do you think all that's gonna cost??
If all of it combined ran you $650 including labor, you spent too much and didn't shop around enough.

If all of it combined ran you $650 including labor, you spent too much and didn't shop around enough.

what?! i can get all that for pretty much under 650?

That price does seem low. I am guessing if you get a custom exhaust, you can save some money and it will be about $400 total for the exhaust alone (Borla will be about $700), $250 for the induction, maybe a bit more, and $250 for the tune. That's $900 and typically when someone asks what an exhaust, induction and tune costs, I tell them it's usually about $1,000.

Ravant, where did you get $650, can you break it down?

I dunno he is doing his own thing....Megasquirts costs $700 HPtuners is $650 or so...and to get a custom tune done by a name shop is like $550 plus core. $400 for a full turbo back even custom built is cheap...expect it to be more like $600-$800, $400 yea...for materials. intake $250 is too much for a custom built one.

If you find a company that will do a generic flash, like I had done to my TBSS, it only costs about $250.

HPTuners is a good system, but honestly, after discussing this entire thread, I don't think the OP has the knowledge to use it and also, if you plan on only tuning once, it's not worth it.

Right now I'm still learning about my car and cars in general..so I don't wanna do to much..an exhaust kit and intake for now

Check the forums before doing that. You could potentially lose hp if you add an exhaust and induction without a tune.

Well how much on average does a tune cost??

That price does seem low. I am guessing if you get a custom exhaust, you can save some money and it will be about $400 total for the exhaust alone
He's only going to need one muffler. The stock cat flows about as well as a magnaflow high-flow cat, and IIRC, it's 3" to the resonator, then shrinks. A resonator delete and a muffler install is not going to cost $400.00 unless you live someplace rediculous like NY or CA. Hell - two mufflers, a resonator delete, and high-flow Magnaflow cat on my '96 Monte cost $290 including labor, and I live in arguably one of the most expensive counties to live in, in the country.

$250 for the induction,
:eek: Holy f*ck, really? Last one I did was $85 including the K&N cone filter. The one before that was $117, and that was because I got a kit and was too lazy to do a DIY. $250 is entirely too high for an intake.

and $250 for the tune.
That's about right, if you don't return the core. It's usually $250 with a $100 refundable core charge for the Cobalt SS/Tc.

For the SS/Tc, $125+$250 = $375 for intake and tune. Even if the exhaust DOES run $400, he's looking at $775 at most. Like I said, chances are, he's only going to need a single muffler and resonator delete, and be done with it, so possibly looking at a $250-$300 bit of exhaust work, which would make $625-$675. As for my original $650 estimate being an off-the-top-of-my-head pull coming from my time reading about the LNF in the Cobalt from their forums, that's pretty spot-on. And that's assuming all brand new parts with full retail markups. If he really wants to go budget, he can e-bay some shit or go to wholesale venues and get it even cheaper.

From a parts perspective, a magnaflow with 3" in, 3" out costs, at most, $150. A K&N cone and some smooth-walled intake tubing runs about $90 including the cost of the cone. And that's assuming he goes to a full intake system rather than keeping the stock air-box and just replacing the tubing with smooth-walled tubing instead. Would get roughly the same gains anyway. The stock air-box is, once again, very well-done in these cars. It's the tubing that's causing issues. (Ridges = turbulent air = restriction.) And the tune, as a general rule, will run about $250 including a $100 refundable core charge. Toss in a couple hundred for a few pipes and labor on the exhaust, and there you have it.

If he's gonna go all-out, get a brand-name intake, a brand-name turbo-back exhaust, a fully licensed set of tuning utilities, and spend the labor to have it fully dyno-tuned, yeah - I could see how it could hit $1,000 or more. But I somehow doubt he's going to take that route.

But I somehow doubt he's going to take that route.

lmao your damn right im not gonna take that route...i dont know nearly enough about cars to make sure theyre doing it right...