Hey guys, first time post'er here. Long time reader. lol. Picked up an 01 SSEi with 18K a month ago and love it. Silver on gray, loaded. Missing the 96 Aurora'* 4.0L V8 w/ bolt-ons some, but I'm a Pontiac man now, with an aftermarket world thousands of times bigger than Northstar bolt-on options.

Anyways, I'm a stereo guy first, performance is a close second, so after 2 weeks of ownership I dropped the car off at Tweeter where my favorite installer, Tiger, got to play with my new ride. I've been reading that some +00 owners have been told they can't pull the stock Bose unit, their installers aren't good. After 6 long days without my ssei and stuck in a PT cruiser rental, my new stereo creation was done. Won't talk about it now until I get my pictures scanned in and new cardomain page made. Very cool install, you guys will like it. Setup for Sound quality, not a max db thumper.

Performance plans, Can't leave it stock, that'* no fun. I want to void that warranty right away! Already talked to my new Pontiac service dept. and there cool about mods. Been reading that thrasher CAI will fit with some cutting so that'* on the list. Along with 3.4 pulley, 180 drilled, and 1step colder plugs and Taylor 8-mm wires. Never having changed a pulley before, is it pretty easy or should I take it somewhere? Is there a certain pulley manufacture that is better than somebody else'*? Same with spark plugs, Autolite or NGK? Thinking about ordering a tranny cooler and shift kit also but don't know what brands to buy? Where can I find a cooler? and Intense or TEP shift kit?

That should be a good start, then thinking next spring get some TOG headers and hi-ratio rockers and pushrods, but might do cam and more down the line though, discussion for a step two mods for me at a later date.

Getting the windows tinted this Friday, 8% back, 50% front. Also ordered some custom lloyd floor mats with SUPERCHARGED logo in red. Can't wait for the mail to come these days!

Here'* my Aurora site http://www.cardomain.com/id/800wattaurora

Looking forward to being a PROUD member of the Bonneville club and learing a lot form everyone. Btw, my name is Taylor and I'm 22. Live in Chicagoland burbs and I'm a printer. See ya around guys.

So, help me spend my money!

Oh ya like my signature says, this was REALLY a little old lady'* car. She was 72 and has boughten her last 5 cars at this pontiac/gmc dealer in Oak lawn, IL. She traded it in for a new GMC Yukon Denali, her last 4 were all bonnevilles. They did all the service and oil changes too, only thing fixed was fog lamp bulb.

Back to helping me spend my money, Is AutoTap the best way to check on KR? Hopefully someone can guide me as what to look for, O2' readings right? Then adjust with one of thos mini AFC controllers, right? Where can a get an autotap and does anyone know where I can find a Chiltins Manual for my 01 ssei? Can't seem to find one.

Thanks in advance everyone.

I like to make good references when I cannot recommend myself and your car will be in the hands of an actual engineer with a head on his shoulders if you go to www.3800performance.com . Thrasher product will make your car an animal. I offer alot of his same product like TOG but I am sure he will make you a good deal if you tell him Ty from Domestic Performance sent you and drop most of your mod monies in his direction. There are other options that he has at his fingertips like a transaxle that will match the more publicized units and the best-limited slip available for the 4t65-e. Send a e-mail and request a phone call and I am sure you will be impressed with the professional attitude.

When it comes to drop springs you will have to talk to me. LOL

Ty

Thats one of the things that pisses me off.. why do little old ladys with tons of money buy a big suv (im not even ranting about the 70grand they spend on it) but when you can even look over the steering wheel theres somthing wrong.. I dont trust little old ladys with 345h/4500lb vehicles

I knew a person who had panic attacks who drove a huge ford SUV. lol now that is fun to watch.

Ty

The Thrasher air intake is a good idea. The 3.4 pulley will give you awesome gains and any brand is fine different brands just look different but they all do the same thing so it doesn't matter, the 180 t-stat will help fight your KR along with the colder plugs. The wires are good because you are probably going to wreck your stock ones trying to get them out, so everything you plan is a good idea. The pulley is easy to change, but you MUST rent (or buy) the correct pulley puller from the place you order your pulley from. If you try to rent one from autozone or something like that you will ruin the stock pulley, and probably make it very difficult to come off. The spark plugs I personally would recommend are AC-Delco 41-932 plugs, they are the stock plugs but 1 range cooler, if you want to change plugs alot you can go with the copper Autolite 104'*, or whatever the NGK'* are, but the AC-Delco'* are platinum, and its not like they don't perform as well as the others, because they are just spark plugs. If I had to recommend a shift kit it would be the Intense just because it has more settings, personally we have the TEP on the GTP, but it was the only one available at the time. The Intense looks better to me, and I haven't heard anything bad about it. If you are going to do a cam swap down the road, don't install rockers. They are a waste of money if you are going to just put in a cam anyways. Save up about $1500 for a cam, and put one in, you will just be wasting the couple hundred you spend on the rockers. (After all necessary valvetrain components and installation it will run you ~$1500, don't let the $300 cam price fool you) But, if you aren't planning on ever doing a cam rockers are great. TOG headers are definately good, and I would definately recommend them, and if you have a cam they are a must.

The autotap is not the only way to check KR, but it is a very good way, and you can record it for later viewing to make sure you didn't miss anything, and you can scan multiple things at a time. The major things you need to scan are KR, O2'*, Injector Pulse Width, Ignition Timing Advance, Speed, RPM'*, Barometric Pressure, Manifold Absolute Pressure, Engine Coolant Temperature, and Throttle Position Angle. Scanning these parameters while recording for later viewing makes it really easy for you to know what you have to do for tuning. The Mini-AFC is definately a good mod, because it lets you adjust your 02'* so you aren't running too rich, or too lean.

If you would like me to help you with anything just send me a PM, or reply to this message.

Also, if you don't want to have to figure out how to swap pullies, if you drive to Holt, MI (right outside of Lansing), I will gladly do a pulley swap for you for free, it will just be a little of a drive. I can also help you with any other mods you may want help with. If you want to do this just let me know. I am available anytime. I can also run an autotap log on your car for you if you want so you don't have to dump a bunch of cash into that right now.

Taylor:

Congratulations on your purchase!

My name is Scott Cook, and I am one of the guys behind many of the late model Series II engine and transaxle components in existence today. Even now, I own the only SSEi to have ever run elevens (or even twelves).

I invite you check out our website at www.INTENSE-Racing.com, and click on 'Performance Recipes' at the top of the page. I think you can learn a lot from all the time and money we've spent on research and development over the last several years.

Feel free to email me personally for any assistance you may need at ScottC@INTENSE-Racing.com.




Ty:

Not even close! Here are some of the details on what sets INTENSE transaxles apart from the others:

http://www.intense-racing.com/Mercha...ategory_Code=T

Way off base again. The facts are that six of the seven fastest 3800-powered FWD 60 foot times in North America were done with INTENSE LSDs: #1 (Uzoma Iwuagwu - 1.677), #2 (Ed Morad - 1.696), #4 (John Tsimaras - 1.719), #5 (Scott Murray - 1.726), #6 (Scott Cook - 1.727), and #7 (Jeff McClurg - 1.74.

Feel free to email with any specific questions you may have.

Scott

Just get the tranny cooler first...all the fun stuff is great, but protect your investment first.

I don't want to get into a whole tranny cooler debate here but I am just going to let you know a few things that I have personally witnessed.

If you look at my signature, you will see a SSEi and a GTP. You will notice if you look at the mods for both, neither have any sort of tranny cooler. At the track, even with burnouts and brake torqueing and all that good stuff, the highest tranny temperature I have ever seen from the GTP is 171 degrees.(which just happens to be LOWER than the minimum temperature it is rated for) No tranny cooler, 400+hp, 171 degrees farenheit. The Odometer is showing 19XXX and counting. Now for the SSEi. We have never run the SSEi at the track, so I don't know about tranny temps, but it has 78XXX miles on it, and has had the 3.4 Pulley & K&N Filter since under 10,000 miles, and we did the other mods gradually. We dropped the pan and changed the fluid at ~70,000 miles and it was clear as can be with no metal or anything and just a little bit of clutch wear which you have to expect with 70,000 miles wear. So, without a tranny cooler both of those trannies are holding up fine even with plenty of mods, so I don't see it being necessary right away to get a tranny cooler. I understand some people want the extra "insurance," but it isn't like you have to rush out and buy it before you mods or your tranny will explode.

That is my opinion on the topic, and I hope you understand what I am trying to say.

I understand...I'm just a "better safe than sorry" type, and I've heard a lot of people recommend a cooler and done a bit of research that backs it up (I've never heard anything bad about having one but I've heard plenty of good). To each his/her own.