2013 RS added to arsenal

[Ian_12]

Picked up a 2013 RS a few months ago. My fiancée needed something reliable while I was in California. I found the car and set up the deal over the phone, and she picked it up. It has been a good addition to the lot. It's the little brother to my Cobalt SS turbo.

I am trying to figure out the history of it. I know its been modified, if lightly at that. The bpv solenoid has been bypassed and the car accelerates abruptly in 4th, 5th, and 6th gear. Owning a Cruze before, I know that this isn't how the car should run. Throttle is very touchy in those gears too. Initial start up, engine misses quite a bit then becomes smooth. Compression check shows 235, 225, 220, 220 so within 7% across the board.

But does anyone know what compression should be? Browsing back through cruzetalk, I found talk of 175-203psi but I haven't been able to find a definitive answer to compression. To me, I think our Sonic might be modified internally. If no response to my welcome thread, might have to make a dedicated thread.

 

[cuartz7o]

Do you have an ultra Gauge? If the coolant temp is ~200*f then you're prob tuned, stock is 220*f w/out a tune. Beyond that check the spark plug gap, if too out of sync the car can drive a bit rough/unpredictable. Also check for the pcv Orange nipple at the top of the intake manifold.

How many miles on it? Any pending codes (using ultra gauge or other scan tool)?


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[Ian_12]

At the moment, I don't have any gauge to check coolant. I will be installing some soon. I want actual standalone gauges for coolant, boost, and oil pressure. Wideband eventually too.

Pcv is intact, and I will be bypassing in near future. The car has 50k miles on it and the coolant looks brand new, the pistons have no carbon on them at all. The spark plugs have edge wear since they obviously like to fire on one side and gap was under .024". Since I started the craze in the Cruze world for regapping, I gapped these to .035". Throttle response was greatly improved and the abrupt acceleration is reduced in higher gears.

I still wonder if the car is tuned and modded. The bpv solenoid is bypassed, if the Sonic has the same clutch slave then the CDV has been removed, and the clutch is slightly stiffer then my Cobalt SS. Complete shock to me feeling that clutch, which is a welcome surprise, but definitely no way can that be stock.

 

[cuartz7o]

At the moment, I don't have any gauge to check coolant. I will be installing some soon. I want actual standalone gauges for coolant, boost, and oil pressure. Wideband eventually too.

Pcv is intact, and I will be bypassing in near future. The car has 50k miles on it and the coolant looks brand new, the pistons have no carbon on them at all. The spark plugs have edge wear since they obviously like to fire on one side and gap was under .024". Since I started the craze in the Cruze world for regapping, I gapped these to .035". Throttle response was greatly improved and the abrupt acceleration is reduced in higher gears.

I still wonder if the car is tuned and modded. The bpv solenoid is bypassed, if the Sonic has the same clutch slave then the CDV has been removed, and the clutch is slightly stiffer then my Cobalt SS. Complete shock to me feeling that clutch, which is a welcome surprise, but definitely no way can that be stock.

Not familiar with the clutch CDV mod. Did you have a cruze before? It also uses the m32 right?

I saw on the cruze forum people gapped as far as .032 but not .035. Does it make a nice difference?

Once you can check the coolant temp that's I think the easiest way to see if tuned. You could also send your Vin to Trifecta, BadNewsRacing, Vtuners, or diablo (?) to see if your car is in their system. I think zzp has a tune as well?

I don't know if the autozone obd2 scanner can read engine data or only pull codes but you could ask to use it to check the Copland temp while running if it can ready engine data.

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[carsNskis]

Yes 175-200ish should be your cylinder pressure, depending on the condition of the rings. I would say no more than 10psi variance between cylinders.

Maybe an obd reader + torque app would help (cheaply) with data until you're ready to install those gauges

[emoji593][emoji809][emoji472]

 

[Ian_12]

Yeah, I had a brand new 2012 Cruze LT with RS. One of only two, both of which were in Ohio, that had RS package at that time due to parts shortage. Everyone was either buying the kit or ordering them special. Got one that sneaked through.

The CDV is the clutch delay valve. It prevents quick engagement of the clutch. The Cruze had it so I figured the Sonic would be no exception. But as I looked at the slave, the hose was directly connected to the slave rather than into the CDV and then CDV into the slave. As of the spark plugs, I thought I put mine to .035 on the Cruze, so I did same for Sonic. I notice quite a difference in response of the engine. Same went for many people on cruzetalk.

I have been thinking of getting a bluetooth obd reader for a while. I just never got around to trying one.