Does anyone know of some “economical” HP upgrades for the GM 2.2l ecotec?
My DD is an 05 Sunfire. Just looking to gain some HP but not break the bank doing so.

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86 GT
87 coupe restoration project.

"Economical" and "Horsepower" don't go together, generally speaking...
The affordable things to do, which aren't ecotec specific, I would call "freeing up" of horsepower, rather than gaining. Things like making the exhaust or intake flow better, underdrive pulley, light-weight flywheel and the like. A decent header might make you a few more hp. Otherwise you'd need to go inside the engine for things like port matching or changing cams, and going that way tends to get away from "economical".
Maybe there's a decent tune out there that'll have some positive results? Danged if I know, though.

HP tuners for medium bucks
GMPP supercharger kit for medium-high bucks if you can find one used, otherwise it's not much cheaper than going turbo (should put you around 200 hp IIRC. The GMPP supercharger kit for the 2.4 TwinCam made 190, and the blower is bigger on the ecotec kit, Eaton M62 iirc).

Custom turbo kit (Hahn Racecraft comes highly recommended) for maximum bucks. HP is however high you want to go. Normal kits run ~230 hp, around $2000 ish for stage 1
http://www.turbosystem.com/...r/ecotecplatform.htm

There isn't much power to be unlocked short of either opening up the engine and messing with the heads (plus header/catback and intake) or going forced induction, which the ecotec motors do very well.

If you have the autotragic trans though you're largely out of luck for power adders unless you DIY.

[This message has been edited by squisher86SE (edited 09-06-2012).]

I'm well aware that HP costs $$... just wasn't sure if there was an "affordable" HP upgrade for the 2.2 that I haven't seen.
Its a 5 speed Getrag. I don't buy automatics if I can help it.
I've found cams for $460 on here

My thinking is that increasing the horsepower is less expensive than replacing the car that is paid for. I've just become bored with it.

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86 GT
87 coupe restoration project.

Swap in a supercharged or turbocharged engine.

You can get some mild gains without a huge outlay, but if you're looking for significant gains you're going to spend.

To be honest, do your suspension first.

I didn't do suspension first, but did build a good one eventually.

Koni Sport Kit suspension (springs/struts in 1 box) for a ~1.75" drop and the good Koni Yellow adjustable struts. (~$700-800)
Change out your strut mounts when you do it
Do poly suspension bushings up front when you do it

Then swaybars. I did Addco 25mm front and rear, lots of people do the Eibach ones (22 front 18 rear)
Strut tower braces next.
Adds up to ~$2000 by the time you count all the misc. pieces and it will turn your j-body into a little go-kart

There are other options too, (eibach springs and tokico D-spec or KYB AGX struts), I think there are some adjustable coilover options if you want to spend more (Ground control are a common combo with koni yellows).

Research on j-body.org for other ideas. The first suspension setup I listed is what I did. Zero body roll after your done, full soft on the koni gives you a nice "firm" and controlled streetable ride. Tweak the front/rear stiffness balance on the struts to dial in the desired amount of over/understeer characteristics.

Don't cheap out, you'll hate it

EDIT:
Found a price for the GMPP blower kit. Eeep, but I had the 2.4 Twin Cam one, when installed it looks OEM.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/NAL-17800003/
You can probably get it cheaper, but this is the kit I was talking about. Might even be able t pick up a used one on JBO.

[This message has been edited by squisher86SE (edited 09-07-2012).]

You're not going to get anything impressive with bolt ons and staying NA, just throwing that out there.

Intake
Full Exhaust
Ported or LE5 TB
Tune

I can't even remember if anyone had cams for an NA setup, but the highest hp NA eco I've heard of was just at the 200hp mark- with a lot of cash invested in it. Everything was ported..

Thats maybe +40hp total. Next step is the supercharger swap which will net you around 230hp on a safe tune, anything more and you need to swap out internals.

We could talk till we're all blue in the face, but google for the GM performance ecotec build book or try this link:
http://members.shaw.ca/warp...jbody/buildbook.html

I actually snagged a hard copy of it at the '05 GM small car bash, and I might have a PDF of it around somewhere. It shows you how to build a 2.2 ecotec all the way to 1400 hp (granted, most levels above 600 hp are on nitro).

I think they cleared 400 hp on pump gas, and 600 or so on race fuel (non-nitro).

The stock internals appear to be good for 250/275 hp

like others have said, you'll have to spend buco bucks. i have an hhr with the 2.2 and a 5 speed, and i spent alot of time looking for some performance upgrades that were on the affordable side. only real gains to be had are from boost sorry to say, even with full intake/exhaust/tune you are looking at marginal improvements, those systems already flow decently enough stock. there are a few ecotecs that make better power than others, solstice and sky for example, are at about 175hp if i remember right (2.4 liter though), only about 20-30 more than your every day run of the mill 2.2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_Family_II_engine

Oh well... Guess I'm stuck with the boring ride.
Maybe if I do anything it will be some suspension work. Stiffen it up a bit.

Well, I posted my j-body suspension build earlier.

Let me tell you, a lightweight car with practically 0 body roll and nearly neutral handling (I managed to tune out MOST of the understeer) is an absolute ball to drive. So go nuts

Oh, wait...that's why a lot of us like fieros