Bought this little fx a couple years ago for 500 bucks and immediately fell in love with the little guy. Ive driven the piss out of it for 2 years now and its time for a little upgrade.
So far ive got motor set in basicaly where i want it....Ecotecs are freaking huge btw but ive got 7 inches of ground clearance at lowest point of oilpan at ride height. Motor mounts should be done this weekend and im using jeep leafspring bushings. Will be making a lower crossmember out of 1x1 or 1.25x1.25 square tubing.
Wiring.....Im leaving the fx harness inplace to run the body and gonna use the donor cars engine and dash harness for motor and cluster. If i start feeling froggy i may trim it or i may not idk yet.....Ecm is already vats deleted but its stock tune so ill have to have it tuned.
Cooling.....This is by far my biggest setback atm.....The ecotec is so bulky that the intake manifold is taking up the place for the rad/fans so atm the plan is to notch the lower core support and run either an ebay 2row rabbit rad or 2row sentra rad.....The rabbit rad i think will fit without notching but its just gonna be easier to notch the core support and be done with it.....I also have to fit ac condenser and two heat exchangers for the charger.
Ac.....Im keeping ac but im clueless on how im gonna go about the lines yet.
Axles....Im using the cobalt axles with saturn hubs and hyundai wheel bearings with the fx knuckles. I have to get the hub od turned down for the yota brake rotors to fit over them.
Brakes....Im using 85 mr2 drilled/slotted rotors and calipers/brackets.
Fuel....Have several different ideas but most likley gonna order a TANKS fuel pump hanger the cobalt return style filter and 6-AN line fittings.....Wont have a baffle unless i can figure out how to get on in the tank.
Sending unit....Ill either use the yota one and get a adpter to convert from yota to gm signal or i may see about scabbing the cobalt sender to the yota sender.
Gauges.....Id like to keep my fx16 cluster ( Thx again trucke ) but i cant due to the mech speedo :( so for temp im just gonna use the cobalt cluster and then switch over to a 10 inch tablet inplace of the cluster and use an app called real dash.
Exhaust....Ive got a manzo 4-2 header and will be running dual 2.5 exhaust dumping infront of each rear tire. Probally gonna use flowmaster fx round body mufflers and custom made tips. Depending on how it sounds ill either keep it or experiment with different layouts till i get something ilike. Im not concerned with performance gains or losses due to exhaust setup as donor car was mildly built and making close to 300whp and not like im gonna notice any losses or gains.
Im keeping cruise control functionality from the cobalt. I also wanna swap to a manual steering rack as my only option is a cam driven ps pump or something like a volvo electric power steering pump.
This is only the second non toyota swap on the fx that i know of and both are happening in florida lol...... Im in north florida and theres a k20 swap in progress by a shop called aapg in south florida. Theres also a k20 swap completed in south africa i believe but its not the same fx as ours...Think it was a 4 door fx.
