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Best mods for a stock SSEI Bonnie.

S

spenc938

New member
I have a friend with a bone stock 1997 Bonneville SSEI and he wants to put a little bit of money into it. He knows nothing about cars, thus the reason that I am making the topic. Plus, I already have an account.

After talking things over with him, he's got around 500 dollars to spend. The first things I feel he should do are the intake gaskets, supercharger gasket, throttle body gasket, 180 degree thermostat, spark plugs, supercharger oil, stuff like that. With the money left over from all that stuff, plus the coolant and oil he'll need to do all that, he wants some basic mods. He'll only have about 275 dollars left, and I was thinking he could do the 1.9 rockers from ZZP, but I wasn't sure if they would be worth the money on an otherwise stock car. Any tips...? Also, what would be the best spark plugs?

One last thing, I've done all this on my car (L36), and I'm pretty sure that this is pretty similar, aside from the blower instead of the N/A... Is this correct?
 


Hi, resident Bonneville Owner here.

with the 97's i would recommend what you have told him, except the TB gasket, you can pull the charger off with the TB attached, they rarely go bad.

i would get a PCM, or a local that can Tune the car, and the rockers. You wont gain anything out of the rockers with out the raised shifts. Remember you will need to get springs with the rockers.

also some free mods you can do is smooth out the outlet of the charger, and the Lower Intake when its off the car
 
Can't do a PCM or springs with the rockers. He doesn't have the money. And are springs really necessary if you aren't raising shift points?

Edit: And I was going to pull the TB off so that we could clean all the built up crap out of it.
 
ya you could clean it, but its just gonna get gunked up again, thanks to the EGR.

The Airflow that the car is seeing, will be off, because of the rockers. Personally i dont think the car will run to its full potential with it being untuned with the rockers.

I would try to find someone local to tune it, and then do rockers at the stock shift points
 
As I said... Rockers put him at the very limit of his budget. If he needs a tune, then he would have to do something cheaper instead of rockers.
 
rockers arent really going to be all that beneficial on stock manifolds. id look into some form of exhaust work first, whether it be a downpipe and a plog or a set of headers.
 


How about...

Power Log $119.99

ZZP downpipe for Bonneville
Size: 2.5" full length weld in
Model:Aluminized
Option 1:Magnaflow cat
Option 2:Add o2 bung in offroad pipe $184.99

Valve cover gaskets $27.99

RTV Ultra Copper $5.99

Intake gasket $54.99

Supercharger gaskets $8.99

Throttle body heat shield $29.99

NGK Spark Plugs
Model:TR55 $14.00

ZZP supercharger oil $10.00

Total $456.93 + 27.74SH = $484.67

Plus about 65 bucks for coolant, oil, thermostat from auto zone.

Grand total: About $550

A couple of questions about this... Is the TB shield worth it? Also, the down pipe page says it is a weld or clamp style. Is it ok to clamp these? If it has to be welded we'll need to cut money somewhere. One last thing, what exhaust bolts, gaskets, etc are needed?
 
Last edited:
i would go with autolite sparkplugs. 605's. also no need in getting the back manifold ported, its not going to help much. your going in the right direction with a powerlog and downpipe. your also going in the right direction by taking care of the gaskets and trying to get some maintence out of the way.

its a good start. your going to need some exhaust mods to drop pullies later on. if he does not have an intake yet, make yalls own. theres write ups on how to do that around here.
 
That doesn't include the ported rear. That's just what it comes up as in ZZP's shopping cart.

And the damn auto zone website won't show you products unless they fit your car, and apparently Autolite 605s aren't supposed to go with bonnevilles. So, can anyone tell me approximately what they cost?
 
blowfishRus6 said:
i think it was 10 bucks for 6 the other day when i got some.
Click to expand...

Sweet, thanks. That'll knock a couple bucks off.

spenc938 said:
How about...

Power Log $119.99

ZZP downpipe for Bonneville
Size: 2.5" full length weld in
Model:Aluminized
Option 1:Magnaflow cat
Option 2:Add o2 bung in offroad pipe $184.99

Valve cover gaskets $27.99

RTV Ultra Copper $5.99

Intake gasket $54.99

Supercharger gaskets $8.99

Throttle body heat shield $29.99

NGK Spark Plugs
Model:TR55 $14.00

ZZP supercharger oil $10.00

Total $456.93 + 27.74SH = $484.67

Plus about 65 bucks for coolant, oil, thermostat from auto zone.

Grand total: About $550

A couple of questions about this... Is the TB shield worth it? Also, the down pipe page says it is a weld or clamp style. Is it ok to clamp these? If it has to be welded we'll need to cut money somewhere. One last thing, what exhaust bolts, gaskets, etc are needed?
Click to expand...

I'm quoting myself because I need these questions answered and most people probably won't see that other post.
 


i dont think a tb shield is really worth it. i dont know how much it is but im sure you could make something for way cheaper. you could also wrap the crossover and that would cut down on a lot of heat.

as long as you get some good clamps and coat it with rtv there is nothing wrong with clamping it. and i used the stock bolts and gaskets that were on the car for the exhaust. there metal so there resuable. if you break a bolt, which might happen because that is notarious for the crossover, then just pick one up at the local hardware store that will work or find one thats laying around the garage or something.
 
I've heard of crossover wrapping before but never really looked into it. Who sells the wrapping?

And where can I get exhaust clamps?
 
any exhaust wrap will work. you can pick it up at autozone or some where like that. as for the clamp, just a good band clamp with some width to it, like 2 in. wide so you can get a good clamp on it. band clamps have bolts on both sides that you can tighten down. with a wide one you make sure its not to short and you can get a good clamp on it. check out your local parts store for one. usally a couple of bucks.
 
Sweet, thanks for your help.

I know it won't be a seat of the pants difference, but I've never driven a car with a DP and a PLOG, but how much difference could he be expecting?
 
nothing crazy, a little more umph. but its a start in the direction of droping pullies later. atleast you will have the exhaust taken care of.
 


That's pretty much what I've been trying to tell him. But some people, especially car newbies, expect huge differences.
 
If he wants huge differences buy a Honda and turbo it :p

I'd say plugs/t-stat/CAI of some sort...make your own ;)

Then a DP with a U-Bend delete with it...should be around 275 bucks...
 
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