Modded the DD Cruze some more

[Boricua SS]

I've also been busy with my Cruze as well making it unique to me...

I added some gauges to monitor boost and volts since there not on the car from the factory. And I had the windows tinted.

"T" off the vaccum line on the manifold for the boost gauge.

Cleaning up the lines and running them into the cabin. I had to remove the coolant reservoir tank to get to the grommet on the firewall...

ZZP 2 pillar OEM replica gauge pod

Installed...

Windows tinted 35%

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

She is looking good. I am thinking once the Impala finally dies, one of them could be the replacement.

 

[Boricua SS]

Thx! In your case, it'll definitely help with gas mileage. I fill her up at the most twice a month. Loving it more and more everyday

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

I am getting 29 with the impala, what do you get?

 

[Boricua SS]

On the highway I've seen as high as 43. But I mostly do city and I'll touch 28-30 on city mileage...

 

[Capote]

What's next for this DD man?

 

[Boricua SS]

I'm thinking I want to lower it actually lol.. go for that whole "stance look" but not retarded negative camber rim lip bs that's out there now. I do my stuff right. But up next is definitely led's or hid headlights. I already converted all exterior and interior lights to led's. I just need headlights now. I hate halogen!

 

[Boricua SS]

I'll just add to this thread instead of making a new one.

Next mod up was the K&N short ram intake for the 1.4L turbo's. I never knew the true difference in turbo motors compared to NA motors when it comes those little "basic" mods such as CAI's, exhausts, tunes,etc... this intake COMPLETELY changed the tones and somewhat performance of my motor. It's amazing how many restrictions are in those factory tubings/air boxes. The turbo spool is outragously loud now and the bpv (bypass valve) just pops beautifully, psssssssh!

Here is a stock sounding Cruze 1.4L
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZi4MZAd8o8

Here is mine with the new intake.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deOCKxONFpA

Close up pix...

I'm really loving this car more and more everyday. The Suttle little mods that I am doing to the car are making a huge difference... next up will be lighting for sure. I'm deciding if I want to take the plunge into LED headlights or stick with what I know, good old fashioned HID's

 

[Blckshdw]

Wow, that actually did make a world of difference in the sound. Impressive, and way to keep that mod bug fed!

 

[Boricua SS]

Thx for the edit. I'm on tapatalk and just copied the url so I see the embedded videos but I guess on the site they cant.

But the video just doesn't do it justice. It is extremely loud in the cabin. Almost to the point of being annoying. Everytime I touch/tap the gas you hear the turbo starting to spool so that's a little annoying. But the bypass valve. That's another story

 

[Blckshdw]

YW man, I dunno why, but the site doesn't like the abbreviated link from the "share" box, only the full one from the address bar.

Luckily it's WAY too expensive of a proposition for the I6, otherwise you'd be having me window shopping for a turbo option right now instead of working I think it would take quite some time for that sound to get annoying, and if it did, that's what I have subwoofers for

 

[fletch09]

keep it up w/ engine mods and pretty soon you be buying drag radials for the front

 

[Boricua SS]

Luckily it's WAY too expensive of a proposition for the I6, otherwise you'd be having me window shopping for a turbo option right now instead of working I think it would take quite some time for that sound to get annoying, and if it did, that's what I have subwoofers for

Yea, almost was my keyword there in my last post

I can see it being very annoying if I had a girlfriend that drove the car. It's that loud and grunty inside the cabin and you hear it over the radio and forget about it if the windows are down. All you hear is turbo spool and psssssssh But I love it!

keep it up w/ engine mods and pretty soon you be buying drag radials for the front

Yea, that'll never happen ... it's only 150-160ish hp from the factory. I'm not tuning it until the warranty expires or until I feel comfertable enough that it can handle the tune. Then maybe I'll see 200 hp... maybe

 

[Capote]

Lol bro was next to a Cruze like yours yesterday and I heard the spool and pssshhh, chuckled a but and I immediately thought of this thread.

 

[Boricua SS]

Isn't it funny coming from them? Lol... a kid from work in his late 90's Taurus was following me on the Rd last night after work, so I moved over into the other lane and let him get to my headlights. I downshifted into 2nd and almost instantly built boost, spooled it up a bit and psssssssh lol... he was like "wth was that sound?!" It was great! Haha..

 

[Capote]

It is man, unexpected and sounds so out of place because I only ever hear Turbo spools around here from Subi's and other rice mobiles

 

[Boricua SS]

I popped my hood and let him hear it up close last night (we worked together again) and he was just amazed at the blow off valve lol. The joys of modding!

 

[Boricua SS]

next round of mods was HID's. I HATE HATE HATE!!! halogen and i waited long enough on the Cruze. I went with my reliable seller "MyDepots" on ebay for some VVME Slim Ballast 35W 6000k HID's. Couldnt be happier with the outcome. I've had VVME on my SS for 6 years now, my brother had them on his TB, Mazda, and Canyon. My father has them on his Colorado. My best friend has them on his Voy. And another local guy has them on his TB. For china made lights, one of the best 50 bucks i ever spent on sets of HID's (with the relay harness) so im happy and will vouge for VVME every time.

Talk about easy access to headlight bulbs! not the case for the GMT's lol

VVME HID's

Mounted the ballasts. Nice places on the Cruze. Driver side was right on the battery tray

And passenger tucked right under the fender next to the shorty ram intake (SRI)

dont have any night shots because the glare was too much for my camera phone lol

 

[Capote]

Dude talk about convenient mounting locations for ballasts! Clean install [emoji41] [emoji106]

 

[Boricua SS]

like i said bro, meticulous with my work and like it to appear as stock as possible

 

[Capote]

like i said bro, meticulous with my work and like it to appear as stock as possible

Certainly does. Since I have no washer tank anymore, I can now properly secure my ballasts on the passenger side although they started to rust in the corners [emoji58]

 

[Boricua SS]

yea not having the OEM tank does free up a lot of room. heres where i mounted mine on the SS

you can see where the factory tank was at at the time. But i just drilled 2 little holes in the header panel to slide the zip ties to, mounted the ballast and zip tied it up, and then the headlight just coveres everything up so you couldnt see a thing.. Been there for 6 years and no problems at all.

 

[Capote]

Was thinking of just doing that as well [emoji106]

What's next for the Cruze man?

 

[Boricua SS]

No idea . I've been busting my ass working 2 jobs so i could build the beaSSt up, but this car is so f'n fun , plus I've modded the beaSSt too and paid off credit cards, so i guess im ok. But like i said earlier, i really want to lower the car. But like my brother said, lowering a DD and dealing with alignment issues, etc... might not be the best idea, especially in a car that's already so low to the ground. But now im dwelling into the market of aftermarket LED tail light housings, etc... i already converted the whole car to LED, but they have some killer light kits out there. maybe doing HID fogs next, but the headlights are plenty bright and i actually like the look fo the blue over stock yellow halogen. kinda makes me want to get 3000k hids to have that super yellow look.. but i don't know anymore. winter is approaching, so i might cool it with modding lol.

 

[Capote]

If you lower it 1in is all you'll need as with most sedans. Naturally you've converted everything to LED of coarse lol. I think you should go with 3K HID fogs man, they always look superb. Mine aren't hooked up yet because I sent wiring harnesses for me and Brandon's to his crib, have been there only once since getting back from Germany and this Friday I am being sent back again for 3 months....
Well this is your DD I doubt you'll put off mods like you do come hibernation time for the beaSSt

 

[Boricua SS]

Yea. They sell an eibach kit already and all it is is springs and it drops the car an inch and gives the Cruze that "stance" look as the tuners call it now and days. I might.... might dable in performance a bit. They sell a nice FMIC (front mount inter cooler) kit for the Cruze and I might just tune it to increase boost a bit and get a better throttle response. Just like on GMT's, the throttle lag is horrible on the Cruze. So who knows what it'll do next.

 

[Capote]

"Do you even stance bro?"[emoji23]
God I hate the lag.....my rig still doesn't gave a tune, I've done quite a bit to it and I can't even enjoy it...
If YOU dabble into performance, you know you couldn't resist dabbling further and further [emoji14]

 

[Boricua SS]

That is also my concern lol.

 

[Darkrider_LS]

The Cruze is def an interesting lil car...i got to test drive one when they first came out at a dealership demo day. Even managed to convince the sales person to let me put it in to semi manual mode.

 

[Boricua SS]

That's what helped me decide to get one. During my multiple motor swaps, my rental was an LT Cruze. Fast fwd a few years down the road, I sat in a 2015 cruze and have more room inside that little car than I do SS. So I was sold at that point. Then it was a matter of me wanting every option chevy had to offer. So RS LTZ it was. Couldn't be happier with my decision. Have yet to see snow with it since it's brand new so we'll see how this winter goes.

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

NOS dude

 

[Capote]

I keep seeing more and more of the same Cruze you have around here lol

 

[Boricua SS]

Lol. I see alot too but not the same trim level as mine. Only the LTZ'S came with the 18" wheels and back up camera. All RS packages have the different front and rear bumpers, rear disc brakes, side skirts, and rear spolier. But only the LTZ has the bigger wheels so I'm unique in my area