GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Alright! My 2003 GT is pretty quick, but the other night I got outrun by a seemingly stock cavalier ! In other words, I need to squeeze some more power out of my 2zz. I know that a lot of you guys have more knowledge about modding these engines than I do, so I want to hear from you guys how you think I should make the car faster. Hope to hear some responses soon! Thanks!

P.s. I already have an Injen CAI and a Magnaflow cat-back system.

Since I haven't gotten any replies, I decided to go ahead and order a Unichip for the car. Hopefully it adds enough power down low to help with my launches.

Wow...beat by a caviler. That is rough. You said out run though so I am guessing this was from a roll. I am going to
Have to say driver error, no way a 140 car can keep up with a 180hp car on the roll. Though the colbolt ss have caught me by suprize more than once.

From a stop I can see it because we drive wind up toys. And you have a wile to putt along till you can keep it in lift.

That should be fixed with a good clutch. Something that can survive a 5k drop.

Oh crap....that was from October? Not much traffic on this board.

Here ya go !!!!

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=19315&hilit=bolt+on+guide" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If that doesnt help I would recommend a good Celica or Matrix forum. Those cars also have the 2ZZ engine.

i read that post when i first signed on here. i thought that there would be a section on weight loss.

jschorr wrote:Oh crap....that was from October? Not much traffic on this board.

I agree it didn't happen unless running some boost. Gotta respect those Slobalts SS

jschorr wrote:Wow...beat by a caviler. That is rough. You said out run though so I am guessing this was from a roll. I am going to
Have to say driver error, no way a 140 car can keep up with a 180hp car on the roll. Though the colbolt ss have caught me by suprize more than once.

From a stop I can see it because we drive wind up toys. And you have a wile to putt along till you can keep it in lift.

That should be fixed with a good clutch. Something that can survive a 5k drop.

I said out run, but he really only had me for the first 100 or so feet from a stand still. I found out that he had pretty aggressive tires on his cheap steel wheels. That and the fact that he had an automatic with no one in the car gave him less weight and much better grab-and-go off the line. It is the "putting along" that kills the car off the line, which is why I went with the Unichip for my next upgrade. Most people have recommended this to me saying that it helps a lot at lower RPM's before lift. I hope it's as good as they say it is.

cptnsolo77 wrote:Here ya go !!!!

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=19315&hilit=bolt+on+guide" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If that doesnt help I would recommend a good Celica or Matrix forum. Those cars also have the 2ZZ engine.

This is only for the 1zz-fe engine. Thanks for sharing though.

There's not much you can do for worthwhile gains for the $$$ without some boost. These aren't like old Chevy engines where you can slap in a cam and BAM like 30 horsepower pops out. Lowering the lift RPM engagement is great, though.

EDIT: Don't do a header, by the way. The 2ZZ header is great already. You "could" straight pipe, but that probably wouldn't yield much. That's about it for "cheap" mods for increasing power. You could go with lowering and and the rear sway bar next.

What's cheap?

For a 2zz a standalone and set of Piper stAge 2 cams.

Well this is the reason why my username is Medic and not Doc. I just got my Unichip in today and went to work installing it. After an hour of install, I rehooked the battery and behold, the car wouldn't start. I double-checked the connectors and tried again, but to no avail. Could it be a bad chip?

VibeMedic wrote:Well this is the reason why my username is Medic and not Doc. I just got my Unichip in today and went to work installing it. After an hour of install, I rehooked the battery and behold, the car wouldn't start. I double-checked the connectors and tried again, but to no avail. Could it be a bad chip?

Uninstall the unichip and try starting it again with the stock computer.

Got the car to start with the stock ecm. Called Jack from unichip and he said the best thing to do would be to send it back to them. And I found out that the switch in the kit doesn't fit the matrix/vibe chip, so it could be the wrong chip all together. I should know by next Monday what the issue was.

NO TO THE UNICHIP!!! If you are going to spend the money but a AEM EMS4 from MWR.