Retired old Gearhead

Thank you for the feedback. Like I said, I'm learning as I go. I got this car cheap and I'm passionate about ethanol. I'm hoping the high octane may allow for compression that would not be possible otherwise. Here is an interesting article on E85 and effective compression ratios if you are curious why I think I can get away with this 
http://www.onallcylinders.com/2015/11/20/ask-away-with-jeff-smith-what-is-safe-effective-compression-ratio-for-e85/

Anything is possible for the right price. In the case of a turbo, might be cheaper and simpler to just do a trade-in for a faster car. Compression at 10.5 for the Spark means the valves are already very close to the piston at TDC..a costly head shave and a change to VVT and sensors, reprogram the ECM would maybe give you an xtra 0.5 compression..still too high for all but a very low end turbo and a huge cost thus offsetting any fuel savings...but like I said in a previous post...anything is possible for a price. Just not practical and I would not like to drive with such a small valve clearance...specially at higher RPM's...

Do not worry about fine metal particles in the oil. Any particle which would cause harm to the engine will be filtered out by the oil filter. Today's manufacturing tolerances are much improved over those in the 1950's & 1960's. That is when this myth about changing first oil at 1000 miles began. I purchased a new Chevy Nova 1971. I did not change first oil until  3000 miles. The car ran fine for 150,000 miles. It was still running great but body was showing some rust and my pockets were burning with too much cash, so I traded it in for a 1977 Chevy Malibu, a truly great car. Today GM installs semi-synthetic oil in new cars. Why throw it away too soon? 
 
Of course if your driving is under the "severe" category, such as stop and go in hot weather, or steep hills, or towing heavy loads frequently, I would change the oil at 50% life remaining based on the computer reading. With normal driving conditions, I would change first oil at 25% oil life remaining.

It was abnormally difficult to find a battery for my 2013 Spark, so I checked out this forum and it looked like my only options were to get one from the dealership, Autozone, or the Everstart Maxx T5 from Walmart.  $120-$150 seems quite high for such a small battery.   I picked up a Valuepower 26R battery from Walmart for $50 and it dropped right in.  It is just millimeters wider than the original, but the bracket still works.  It has 540 cold cranking amps and a 1 year warranty.  I don't expect it to last as long as the Maxx T5, but hope to get a few years out of it.    I just wanted to let folks know that there is a cheaper option out there.

Mr. tozzi...You are absolutely correct!

Touche for your simple solution! The driver's door still opens with remote command from My Chevrolet App, without the sound of a relay operation!!

RoG...why i didn't think of that? Just used My Chevrolet App on my phone to unlock the car. I will walk down to the parking lot in 1/2 hour (I live on 3rd floor!!) and check it out. Thanks for the tip. 

Hey ChevyBeat, great diagram! My car is still on bumper to bumper warranty so if there is a problem, I will just drop off the car off at the dealer and walk across the street for lunch buffet at the Indian Restaurant 
and...yes the key still opens the driver's side door!

Bobby, as RoG mentioned if its just sound, it can be ignored as far as it functions properly.
 
If you are not able to unlock door by key, I can say that the liknage between lock and latch is disengaged. I have faced same in my car. I was getting a tinkering sound from door, when going through bump due to free linkage.
If that's the case, door panel need to be removed and the linkage must be set at it place. It have a plastic lock sort of thing to keep it in place.
 
Check the below pic for plastic lock (blue arrow). Its not of spark but look like same.
Linkage need to push in center hole and then plastic lock need to be rotated for making lock. (Green arrow for process).

Nice to see someone who is not afraid to apply themselves & takes pride in doing a fairly tricky job! The white primer coat and the lack of clear coat over the final color as is found on most cars is not very good as the final color does not adhere well to the glossy white primer.

@Bobby, I am just a kid for you. I am 34 only.
 
Running the headlights for DRL is certainly funny. I have seen many bike headlights on in full sunny day, after Indian govt made DRL compulsory.
 
For me, DRL (LED type less watts) is for just showoff thing to make my vehicle little different from stock.
There were only couple of of cases when some biker came on wrong direction on highway (small patch, under construction for years, so just gravel road with lots of dust) and from distance that was not clear if they are going or coming towards me.
 

Excellent analogy Bobby...I covered this exact stress factor due to bumping/vibration in a previous post. This would not be an issue if the tank and material were designed with that in mind. Having a metal tube insert in the coolant return area causes more expansion differential than a tank with common material. It is my understanding that the new tank design now available for the Spark, Sonic and Cruze do NOT have the metal insert in the coolant return location..common material but not sure if the plastic is a different grade to withstand the hot/cold cycle that will deteriorate the flex of the plastic material...Still, it has obviously been noted and perhaps corrected by supplier to the tanks to GM. I still believe that although no recall is needed, failure should be covered under some kind of notice to dealers.

Nice looking car. Judging by the tires..looks like about 30-40Kmi on it? Also looks like time for a tire rotation. I have close to 150Kmi on my 2013 4Sp-Auto tranny...I drive it hard and no issues at all. I use synthetic oil and sometimes go 1.5 yrs between changes..I only change the oil when the oil life % reading is at 10%. Burns no noticeable oil between changes. Still get the same gas mileage when it was new...So..you will probably enjoy this car for some years to come.

It is not gonna fix itself. So you need to take to a good mechanic to find the problem.
 

When you make a sharp turn the gas moves to one side of the tank and the fuel pump is in the center of the tank, so it could be sucking air on the turns with less than 1/4 tank of gas. Try keeping the fuel at 1/2 or higher and see if that solves the problem. This normally does not happen, but a weak or partially blocked fuel pump or fuel line filter may contribute to this issue. I have had this happen on a previous car with a big V8 that had a high fuel demand and it would shudder or stall on sharp or long turns when the fuel was under 1/8 or less remaining in the tank...so try a full tank and see how low on fuel you can go before it shows up again. If it happens with a full tank, the it is most likely a fuel pump issue or a slight blockage in the fuel delivery system between the tank and injectors. That's my best guess.

Wise choice with the manual tranny Fraser! You avoided all the CVT issues..I test drove both the 2017 CVT and manual..Night and day. Also very surprized how quiet it is. Stiffer body and tons of features. I'm keeping the 2013 4sp. auto tranny now that I have well over 150Kmi on it with no issues. Recently I bought my brother a 2017 manual and he loves it..had to do it because he was looking at a used all wheel drive car..overpriced and all wheel drive is costly to have fixed if the all wheel drive goes bad. He's very stubborn, but after I took him for a drive to the dealer he loved all the features but didn't have the cash and since I don't like financing of any kind my wife nudged me into a cash purchase. He works in the Marina I sometimes use and works on boat repairs..so I guess he owes me some fixing..Ha..

Wise choice with the manual tranny Fraser! You avoided all the CVT issues..I test drove both the 2017 CVT and manual..Night and day. Also very surprized how quiet it is. Stiffer body and tons of features. I'm keeping the 2013 4sp. auto tranny now that I have well over 150Kmi on it with no issues. Recently I bought my brother a 2017 manual and he loves it..had to do it because he was looking at a used all wheel drive car..overpriced and all wheel drive is costly to have fixed if the all wheel drive goes bad. He's very stubborn, but after I took him for a drive to the dealer he loved all the features but didn't have the cash and since I don't like financing of any kind my wife nudged me into a cash purchase. He works in the Marina I sometimes use and works on boat repairs..so I guess he owes me some fixing..Ha..

I'm really happy with the Manual transmission. I drove the automatic lt as well but it felt very sluggish to me and kind of boring.  The Manual really allows you to work every ounce of power out of this little engine when you need to no questions asked .

So , I finally decided to trade in the 2013 spark 1lt auto with 110,000 mi  for a New 2017 1lt manual .  Its really an amazing car the spark has really made a lot of improvements and this one really feels like a high quality ride , Its so quiet inside , the ride is smooth too. I will be tinting the windows soon . I will always have a special place in my heart for the 2013 spark . But this 2017 is slowly growing on me .

Wanted to report back that the cause of front end noise in my Spark has been found!  Thanks to my local dealer, they found the drivers side ball joint bolt/nut was slightly loose (most likely came from the factory this way, as my Spark only has a few hundred miles on it).
I hope this helps the other posts that were also hearing this same noise!  It definitely fixed the issue.

As I thought and suggested in my previous post..no clutch contact. Surprised it was so difficult to replace with an engine pull required. ....Nice work PickyBiker!!

If you speed up to 120 mph, the red/blue lights and the siren sound will begin to fade in distance...
just joking, please do not exceed the speed limits! 

lol I wanted something on top of the hood so I can see where the end of hood is.
When parking, I have a hard time guessing where the front of car is. I can not see the front end of hood because it slopes down so much. So my purpose was purely functional. And no racing stripes or fancy hub caps for my Spark...I want the car to look inconspicuous  Anyways that hood ornament does not look bad and it was cheap on eBay.

Let us hope the new design is a genuine improvement.
I never had to design any plastic components during my 23 years working for an outfit which designed and manufactured machines subjected the most brutal loads in machinery world. So I know nothing about designing parts made from plastic. But physics is physics no matter what material is used. Our machine structure was put together by welding together mild steel plates upto 12" thick. One category of machines we designed and built were cold extrusion presses. You start with a cold rolled steel bar and whack it between 2 dies made of tool steel with such force that the cold metal becomes plastic and flows to take shape of the dies. The impact forces generated on the welded steel structure of the press are unbelievable. 
 
Now that you understand where I am coming from, one thing I always avoided was to avoid any critical welded joint to bending stress. Bending stress during each cycle cause alternating tensile and compression stresses and that is a short cut to fatigue failure. I always strived to design any welded joint with shear stresses
(instead of tensile stress). Looking at the coolant overflow tank the return hose is attached to the horizontal nipple of the plastic tank. Which means every bump the car hits will cause bending stress on the plastic nipple extension from tank. The designer had 2 options..either beef up the plastic enough to lower bending stress below fatigue stress level..or design the return hose coming in from the top which will minimize bending stresses in the plastic.
 
Just my 2 cents worth. Incidentally our largest customer for our machines was General Motors, who used them in mass production of metal components for the their automobiles.