BAR-AIR's build up in Buffalo N.Y.

BAR-AIR

BAR-AIR

Well-Known Member
Kit #10 has made its way up to Buffalo. I was the replacement for Dan's kit when he needed a stretched version. So here what I have you far (pictures at the bottom). I have the Cobalt Blue city version Goblin. I purchased ($500) a 2008 Cobalt "BLUE" LS with 70,000 miles that car was disassembled in two days and sent to the scrap yard. Seeing that I was going to wait until Adam had both stage 1&2 complete before he shipped it to me. I had sometime so the engine and transmission were completely rebuilt. Engine received a rebuilt head all new bearings, oil, water pump & head and crank bolts. Transmission gearing was changed to the HHR ratio. Also found a ZZPreformance supercharger kit on the local craigslist with only 3000 miles (owner could not get the tune right so removed it) so that was also installed. As for the rest of the parts and pieces. I am going with the Aluminum control arms replaced the knuckles and bearings due to some corrosion along with one of the trany mounts. Electrical what can I say it is not as bad as it looks but it does take some time (I'm sure Adam cringes ever time he sees an email from me) I'll give an update after I install it into the car still have some questions that will only be answered when it is in the car. Everything up to this point in the build has been theoretical (seeing that I didn't have the kit yet). As I begin to bolt it together I will try to post my progress along the way.
THX, Bruce
 
BAR-AIR

BAR-AIR

Well-Known Member
Was able to get a little bit of time to work on the "BLUE" goblin up in Buffalo. Up to this point it has been a plug and play. Only issues that I have encountered are that a couple of small parts where missing (which Adam has taken care of). The booster and the master cylinders are different on the older Cobalts (2008 and down) so a different master cylinder kit will be required if you have a older donor (actually ordered a newer master cylinder to see if it would work geometry is different along with the internals). The only other issue was, I have a set of Rota V rims 15x7 with 15 offset for the front having interference between the front calipers and the rims (re contouring the calipers helped but will still need to add 3/16" spacer plates.
If you have both stage 1 & 2 kits I found it really easy to mount the entire front end wheels included before installing the engine. What I ended up doing was use the frame as a sort of wheel barrow lift it up set the back down on 5 gallon buckets with pads roll the engine/trany under then take out the buckets I set the frame down on car dollies I was within an inch of the frame. Then used the old steering rack bolts as alignment through bolts to draw the frame and engine/trany together. Literally installed the engine/trany in less then a hour by myself.
Still not have any luck posting pictures. I give it another try later.
Also as for the engine, I did do a complete rebuild I started with a stock 2.2 ecotec (2008). Ended up reworking the head replacing all bearings,timing components, water pump, all the internal bolts are torc to limit so all replaced, ended up reusing the crank (polished) the pistons and rods were reused (they are cast not forged). I am running a ZZPerformance supercharger with a 3.4 diameter pulley so after talking with them (they also sell the forged components) they didn't think the added cost was necessary.... Again as I stated in my first post with the engine it probably would have been cheaper to just purchase a rebuilt engine then to build this one up the internals were a little more then expected. I also rebuilt the transmission swapped out the final drive with one from an HHR very simple rebuild new final drive was just a plug and play.







 
Adam

Adam

Administrator
Staff member
rallyracer said:
You forgot to post up the pictures!
Click to expand...
That's my fault. The forum isn't perfect so some devices have trouble uploading photos. I'll read up on it to see what I need to do to make it easier.

Edit: Four photos were added to the post
 
BAR-AIR

BAR-AIR

Well-Known Member
Electrical after reworking. Looking forward to getting it into the car.
image.jpeg
Here is a quick photo of the "blue" goblin up on is wheels. Just waiting on some spacers and that will complete most of stage 1&2. Will be getting into the electrical next week.
image.jpeg
 
Adam

Adam

Administrator
Staff member
BAR-AIR didn't receive all of the engine mount spacers for the automatic setup. You should have two engine mount spacers that are 1/2 inch long and three that are various lengths, all over 1 inch long. He is also waiting on the strut mount spacers for the rear. We mailed those out to him and the rest of you first builders so expect a package soon.
 
DanPerryy

DanPerryy

Well-Known Member
This is a beautiful car!!! As it was supposed to be mine originally I think that I would like it back now!
 
rallyracer

rallyracer

Well-Known Member
The car looks great!!

If you don't mine, what wheels size, offset and tires are your running? They flow well with the car!


Are these a new style of headlight that the kits will be using?
 
BAR-AIR

BAR-AIR

Well-Known Member
Here is a photo of "Blue" sitting all on her own. Spacers showed up in the mail today. (Just a quick note... I would like to thank Adam and crew at Doyle.... getting all the parts and pieces made sorted bagged and shipped is an enormous task especially on the first couple of kits. Realistically I am amazed at how little that was missing and that Adam has gotten everything that was missing to me as quickly as he could.)
image.jpeg
Here is a photo of the rear rim. Again Rota V rim 15x8 with a 0 offset. (Was trying to get the tires to line up better with the 1" (26 mm) wider rear. I pushed the fronts out with the 15 offset and the 3 mm shim). Tires are Kumho 225/5oR15. As I said in an earlier post if I did it again probably would have went with 16's in the rear there are a lot more tire choices with the 16's.
image.jpeg
Here is a photo of the front tire. It has Rota V rims 15x7 with 15 offset. (Rims are nice) The tires are Kumho 195/50R15 they look good but the balance on them was terrible. Also I did have clearance problems with the caliper. Ended up re shaping the caliper and adding a 3mm shim to the rim.
image.jpeg
 
rallyracer

rallyracer

Well-Known Member
Thanks for posting the pics and info.

Yeah I missed that you had mentioned some info about your wheels earlier, sorry.
 
BAR-AIR

BAR-AIR

Well-Known Member
image.jpeg
Just wanted to give a quick update with the wheel combination on the BLUE goblin. Ended up having an issue with the length of the wheel studs I believe (Adam would have a better knowledge) that the steel wheel studs are shorter then the aluminum wheel studs. That being said with the new aluminum wheels I was only having about 6 complete turns of my lug nut before they were tight. So I was going to have to go with longer studs and still use 5mm shims for clearance with the calipers or go with bolt in spacer plates. Ended up going with 20mm spacer plates and cutting the unthreaded part of the stock stud off for clearance with the rim. All and all not real noticeable you see a little more of the caliper not a bad thing.
image.jpeg
 
DanPerryy

DanPerryy

Well-Known Member
Adam and Lonny have HPTuners software. They used it to modify the program for their supercharged Goblin, although they have more tuning (and learning) to do. They started off with just a mild tune with the supercharger. Theirs is on a MT model. I too have a supercharger but will not install it on my automatic until I have mine running and use it for several months.

Bruce, your engine and transmission are so clean. Please would you CEASE posting anymore pictures! What are you trying to do to me? I am having to see my psychologist nearly daily now to help me work through issues of inadequacy and personal failure. This is preventing me from working on my car in addition to being very expensive. My psychologist just ordered a new Mercedes S class largely due to your car pictures. I thought I had overcome these issues that arose some 60 years ago due to my being rejected by our family cat that preferred my sister. I tried my best to have that cat like me but - NO - somehow I was just not good enough.
 
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