[TheCruzen]

Just received a set of Rokblokz mud flaps that I ordered recently 'cause I'm tired of how much mud gets thrown up on the side of the car with the extra width and offset of the current wheels.

Ordered a TruBendz 3" cruze exhaust and plan to just run a nearly straight (because of the glasspack) pipe for a little while. Was going to fab the pipes myself but realized it was beyond my talents to do the axle back section. Just bought the exhaust on a whim really, I might try to incorporate the cutout again in the future but it will be gone for a bit. Hope it's not too loud for my second job of delivering pizzas....

(Evil thoughts about a Cruzen3.?)

 

[TheCruzen]

2.0 contributed to the fog this evening (7/4/19) with a 2 car-length set of rubber stripes on the road I live on (adding to the number of burnout marks from the rest of the neighborhood). First burnout with the current wheels and tires! (245/45/18 on 18x8.5 2017 malibu wheels)
Lots of fun listening to 2.0 bouncing off the rev limiter and the turbo responding in kind.

 

[TheCruzen]

New exhaust setup

 

[TheCruzen]

Got told by the supervizor at my 2nd job (delivering pizzas) that the car is too loud, looking into 3" mufflers that will fit in the tunnel

 

[Blasirl]

Cherry Bombs for the Win!

 

[TheCruzen]

@Blasirl has a 24" glasspack on it now

 

[Blasirl]

 

[TheCruzen]

Lets see how a couple of these do in series

Stock image, the ones I bought are center center

 

[MP81]

Meh, I'd have just put a resonator on it and called it a day.

Friend of mine just bought an '09 Cobalt SS pushing probably 350whp or so (on an LTG block), and has the TurboXS RFL exhaust on it. It's loud, but not too obnoxious. Good tone, too. Well, for an Ecotec.

 

[TheCruzen]

3" to glasspack to stock buick verano muffler setup with duals

 

[TheCruzen]

Engine and trans out to replace trans, lost second. Will post pics after im done getting it back together

 

[TheCruzen]

This is the post with all of the pics that I promised so long ago.

I apologise for taking so long to upload pics from the trans swap, couldn't get pics to upload on my phone and I couldn't be bothered to get them onto the computer to upload them that way. Only reason I have now is so I can show a few more things that have happened since.

Trans was stored on a shelf, get it down first

Shot for Instagram, all of this was posted pretty much as it happened.

Bumper off

Crash bar and rad out

Engine out

Lining up new trans

Next day when I got it all back together

Putting things back in

Got the flex sensor installed while I was at it. Wired it in on another day and send BNR a tune request. @rjones1214 I still have the plastic fittings on there but have yet to put E85 in the car as shortly after receiving the flex enabled tune some other things have happened (those following on Instagram already know, that will come in the next post).

Next day sitting in the driveway all put together and pretty

 

[TheCruzen]

OK, lets see if I can get all this bullsh!t straight and update all of you on what has happened.

Pulling into work about a month ago and I heard what sounded like a slight rod knock. Had the car towed home. Sorry for it being so blurry, having problems with my phone camera

Got the pan out and rod caps off.

Looked OK, but they weren't the usual fit with the rod and caps that I was expecting. Decided to replace them since it was apart anyways. Meant I had to order new rod bolts as they are torque to yield. GM strike had just ended and it took a while to get them. Actually I had ordered one set from gmpartsdirect.com and then another from a dealership on ebay, still have not received the non ebay set.

Here is a picture of the old bearing on the left and the new one on the right (that fit the way I was expecting)

While the car was down I had a few other things to do. On top of just the oil, filter, and sealant for putting the engine together again, I also had 2 new O2 sensors, maf cleaner to get all the oil off it, and new lug nuts, as well as some new and less broken grille parts.

Reason for replacing lug nuts, new are one-piece

Have this pic, not sure why. You can see I put the winter lower grille cover on though.

All back together and running with winter tires on it, didn't last long.

About a week after I got it back on the road I was delivering pizza and it threw a rod.
This was during the stores dinner rush so about 5:30-6:00 maybe. I was trying to cross over a main road from the store driveway the the opposite street. Took off, traction control kicked in, holes in engine. Drove the half mile to the customers house, shut it off, oil smoke pouring out from under the hood as oil got all over the downpipe with the new holes. Made sure it wasn't on fire, delivered the food, started it back up, drove to the end of the street and ditched it in the parking lot of the jewelry store across the main road from the pizza store. Went back to the store and called for my dad to bring me one of our other cars, carried on working. It was a bad and busy night already, this didn't make it any better. At the end of the night I ran back across the street, started it up and drove it across the now deserted main road to keep it from being towed when the jewelry store opened in the morning. Next day got a tow truck, tried to start it to move it for the guy, went clunk and now no longer starts. Now it sits waiting on me to spend the money to replace the engine. At first it was also waiting for me to decide if I was going to do a built engine and what I actually wanted to do with the car. Now looking at getting an oem LHU longblock from ZZP as a used one with 80k+mi is like $1800 already so 2k for a brand new one sounds great. Trying to make up my mind if I want to order it with the smaller ZFR turbo or not, costs as much as the d*mn long block

Shot in the Howie's lot. Again, camera problems. That same night I dropped my phone and broke the glass covering the cameras. Got this shot after I knocked all the broken glass out of the way of the cameras.

Going to be sitting here for a while.

In better news, I might get the title for the one in the background soon. Only been 4 months...

 

[Blasirl]

OK, lets see if I can get all this bullsh!t straight and update all of you on what has happened.

Pulling into work about a month ago and I heard what sounded like a slight rod knock. Had the car towed home. Sorry for it being so blurry, having problems with my phone camera
View attachment 284419

Got the pan out and rod caps off.
View attachment 284420

Looked OK, but they weren't the usual fit with the rod and caps that I was expecting. Decided to replace them since it was apart anyways. Meant I had to order new rod bolts as they are torque to yield. GM strike had just ended and it took a while to get them. Actually I had ordered one set from gmpartsdirect.com and then another from a dealership on ebay, still have not received the non ebay set.

Here is a picture of the old bearing on the left and the new one on the right (that fit the way I was expecting)
View attachment 284421

While the car was down I had a few other things to do. On top of just the oil, filter, and sealant for putting the engine together again, I also had 2 new O2 sensors, maf cleaner to get all the oil off it, and new lug nuts, as well as some new and less broken grille parts.
View attachment 284422

Reason for replacing lug nuts, new are one-piece
View attachment 284423

Have this pic, not sure why. You can see I put the winter lower grille cover on though.
View attachment 284424

All back together and running with winter tires on it, didn't last long.
View attachment 284425

About a week after I got it back on the road I was delivering pizza and it threw a rod.
This was during the stores dinner rush so about 5:30-6:00 maybe. I was trying to cross over a main road from the store driveway the the opposite street. Took off, traction control kicked in, holes in engine. Drove the half mile to the customers house, shut it off, oil smoke pouring out from under the hood as oil got all over the downpipe with the new holes. Made sure it wasn't on fire, delivered the food, started it back up, drove to the end of the street and ditched it in the parking lot of the jewelry store across the main road from the pizza store. Went back to the store and called for my dad to bring me one of our other cars, carried on working. It was a bad and busy night already, this didn't make it any better. At the end of the night I ran back across the street, started it up and drove it across the now deserted main road to keep it from being towed when the jewelry store opened in the morning. Next day got a tow truck, tried to start it to move it for the guy, went clunk and now no longer starts. Now it sits waiting on me to spend the money to replace the engine. At first it was also waiting for me to decide if I was going to do a built engine and what I actually wanted to do with the car. Now looking at getting an oem LHU longblock from ZZP as a used one with 80k+mi is like $1800 already so 2k for a brand new one sounds great. Trying to make up my mind if I want to order it with the smaller ZFR turbo or not, costs as much as the d*mn long block

Shot in the Howie's lot. Again, camera problems. That same night I dropped my phone and broke the glass covering the cameras. Got this shot after I knocked all the broken glass out of the way of the cameras.
View attachment 284426

Going to be sitting here for a while.
View attachment 284427


In better news, I might get the title for the one in the background soon. Only been 4 months...

I've been wondering when you were going to post again. To bad for all the issues. I am usually in that boat as well. two forward three back ... How do those "extra" fogs work for you?

 

[TheCruzen]

@Blasirl Too high up to use in fog but great for lighting things up otherwise

 

[TheCruzen]

Ended up ordering the LHU long block from ZZP along with the smaller 6758 ZFR turbo, I ordered during their Black Friday sale so I ended up saving almost a grand on the 2 combined. The next day they had a 10% off everything sale so I got their LHU intake cam with upgraded fuel pump lobe and their 3" Ecotec resonator. A while ago, before it blew up, I also ordered a blemished ZZP dual gauge pod off ebay and another 3" Trubendz exhaust, this time stainless and with a muffler. Don't care much for the tip that came on the new exhaust, looks like it will stand out more than I'd like, but I'll have to see it on the car before I make up my mind. Already have the supplies to weld the new exhaust up instead of just using clamps.

Been really busy with life lately so even though the engine arrived on Monday (12/16) and I've had the car in the barn for a while, no progress has been made to disassemble or otherwise work on the thing. Plan to check tomorrow to see what gaskets and such I need to order to put it all back together.

EDIT: I know I will have to make or order the correct length flywheel bolts again when I get to that point as I don't remember the length I will have to measure them when I take them out (the spec flywheel is thicker than the oem).

 

[-loki-]

What size is the verano stock turbo exhaust?
Would it bolt up to stock 1.4l car?

 

[TheCruzen]

@-loki- No, it will not bolt up, the 1.4 and 2.0 are quite different, the exhaust is on opposite sides of the engine and (perhaps as a result of this) the exhaust system is split in different places. The inlet of the secondary cat for the 2L is 3" and (if I remember correctly) the outlet of the cat is 2.5", I no longer have the original exhaust beyond where the secondary cat was to measure.

 

[-loki-]

Just curious if you remembered... I might score one from the boneyard just to see the differences. If it flows for 250 hp stock it will be enough for what I'm wanting to do. Can fab the inter connecting bits my self. Thank for the reply.

 

[TheCruzen]

Still no real progress, but I have ordered some gaskets and such.

This is pretty though.