My 03 Alero Coupe. Work in Progress.

[WreckItRoth]

I bought my car from my school for 500 bucks with a messed up tranny but a running engine. The first thing i bought was a tsudo 4-2-1 header from ebay.



i knew it was meant for a cavalier/sunfire but i got it anyways. It curved right into my subframe so i cut out part of the frame and welded a new peice in so that the header could fit properly.



I got it on and although i noticed a significant differnce my exhaust was still being restricted and it looked like shit under the hood. Especially the blue filter shit. I ended up melting the Cat so i figured it was time to finish the exhaust. I ordered a magnaflow muffler and stainless steel tips. Then bought a thrush glass pack to replace the resonator. To trick the cpu into thinking i still had a catalytic converter i bought spark plug non-foulers and drilled out one end. Then removed the 02 sensor downstream and put the foulers in, the sensor. It pulled it out of the exhaust stream enough that the service engine light does not come on and my fuel mileage is still averaged around 30. I cut and welded everything.

Straight pipe where Cat used to be


Here's the 02 sensor trick. (next to a temporary patch)


rest of exhaust






Then i pulled the engine and dropped the tranny in from Sunfire. Only had 40k miles on it.

Pulled it and sanded the block and tran then painted before i dropped it back in.



dropped it in and color matched a few things.




About 3 weeks ago the car was sounding fun and then simply wouldnt start. I checked everything and nothing seemed to line up so all i could think was my timing got effed. I pulled the valve cover and there was alot of slack in the chain i figured i might as well do the headgasket since i was this far and so i pulled the head. Thank God i did. I thought the head was fine however the timing chakn guide that bolts into the head had broke and the bolt had wollow a hole in the head and snapped off.





after looking a little more at the head there was some problems and valves werent all sealing properly so i scrapped the old head got one from a grand am in the junkyard. 100k miles and the head for only... 50 bucks. Lol it had alot of corrosion so i spent about 7hrs sanding and then painted to match the block.





I figured since the header was off i might as well wrap it. In the summer time if i was caught in rush hour traffic that thing would often get so hot it would cause everything else to heat alot hotter and make my engine runner higher temo than normal.


I got kinda sick of the color scheme so i mixed it up some.
This is the finished product.
I just recently ordered a cosmo racing intake but its been stuck in customs or something idk. Shipping feels like its been forever.






I blacked out the center of the front bumper.


Heres some other pics during the project i forgot about




[url=http://s1377.photobucket.com/user/WreckItRoth/media/Mobile%20Uploads/FB_IMG_1417976750409_zpssz2olnej.jpg.html][IMG]

[03glgold]

not a bad car for what you have in it.

[WreckItRoth]

Thanks man. I tried to do alot without spending a shit ton.

[That01Olds]

Doesn't look bad at all man and the engine bay looks nice now that its been cleaned up.

[tw0123]

Looking good man!

[sleepyalero]

That engine after full paint and installed looks bad ass. Nice work.

[WreckItRoth]

Thanks man. I like it alot better with the cast iron grey color. Heres a couple other pics. Its not anything with the engine but i went for a stealthy install with my sound system.






I don't have all the pictures i used to of the actual wiring on my phone but i ran through the firewall and under the door trim all the way back.the fuse is hid below the intake.

[S8track16]

Nice looking engine bay, almost makes me want to take mine out and paint it.

Do you have any issues with the amp overheating there? I know when I had my fosgate p1000 in there, it got really warm.

[Redog]

Nice, looking good

[Papa Rad17]

Looking good indeed. Nice to see another eco. Get an elbow to eliminate the black box on your throttle body, rest of the intake it nearly pointless with that thing still on there.
Are the spark plug non foulers working? I tried them but had other problems so never got a good result.
Good looking ho, where in IL are you? would like to see it sometime!

[WreckItRoth]

I live about an hour away from Aurora, the spark plug non fouler thing works off and on. If i leave the car idling for a real long time itll trip the engine light but like i said, a long time. As long as im driving it stays off and my fuel mileage stays pretty high. Right now im struggling with a vacuum leak with my injectors but im taking care of that. For some reason the middle 2 injectors will not stay seated and i keep having to mess with it. The amp actually stays cool but if i really start pushing it, itll go into a restrictive mode. I order a Cosmo Racing Intake a while ago i just havent got it yet. I plan on opening up the stock hole by the battery and running pvc down to behind the fog light. Then an elbow and connect to the other side of my filter. I love the darker color alot but im gonna leave the block the cast aluminum color. I color matched the fuel line, ac, and etc just to make everything kinda pop. The biggest difference has been the header but i wonder if the trans is geared any different then my old one. I know it was going bad but the one i got was from City Auto and they said it would fit a 2.2 and it only had 40k miles. Since i put the new trans in though it has seemed to be more responsive. I love the car but the body needs some work now so that's my next project.

[Papa Rad17]

The engine bay does look nice. All the eco's got the same trans in the n-bodies with the exception of the 5sp's. 2.2's in sunfires, cobolts, cavaliers, G5s, had some different stuff going on but is all compatible.
What, if anything, did you use for a gasket on the 4-2-1 headers? They have a bad history of leakage so you should keep us up to date on that.

[WreckItRoth]

I havent been able to make a permanent fix but im gonna try something new on wednesday. I got an idea it just depends if i access to some of the machinery. Ill post another thread and show my fix. Odds are it was just my old trans was shit lol

[Papa Rad17]

where did you get/what exsactly did you use for the header wrap btw? and how dramtic was the overheating problem?

[WreckItRoth]

I was gonna buy basic header wrap from autozone but when i pulled everything apart i started thinking about all the bends and shit so i got a 50 foot role of 1" black fiberglass header wrap. It's meant for motorcycles i think but it did the job. It was easy to apply but i barely had enough. i should have got a longer role. The over heating problem wasnt ever bad but if i was stuck in traffic for long it would make it rise. The hottest it ever got was the the third bar on the guage (dont know actual temp) that was when it was 100 degrees out and i was driving to some concert. I know its colder now but it hasn't been an issue since the wrap. I used Mr. Gasket to make my own but im gonna try a different material wednesday. I might also try to fabricate some sort of sleeve i can bolt around the edges. It always blows out in the same areas it seems. Its a real pain but it does seem to make a significant difference