Another guy with another truck and another story.

[The Underdog]

Well, I'm late to this party, for sure.

I got my first Mighty Max when I was 16. I'm 38 now. It was an 87 cobalt blue metallic, stick shift 2.0 carby. Drove that for a while then gave it back to my dad when I went in the army. Got another one 3 years later. Black 90 stick shift fuel injected. I still have it. Been a long ride. Painted it, supercharged it, crashed it, fixed it, overheated it and lost the head, and now it's sitting. Lots of sentimental value there, but life gets in the way. Other hobbies take over. Now she needs a new head, and one of the bores is so rusty that the piston won't go past a certain point. I have too many projects in my life and I've reached that age where you start to really realize you're getting older fast. I don't know what's in store for my trusted friend of 17 years but it hurts watching it slowly die in my driveway.

Anyone here in the same boat? Words of encouragement? Similar tale of woe?

[noahwins]

supercharged it

Go on...

[pennyman1]

that truck can be repaired - the burning question is - how did you supercharge it, and how about pics? Welcome to the forum. We can help with any of the issues you have with it.

[BradMph]

Some are old here too and you will get past that thinking your getting older stuff as soon as you start to get your truck running again. Wish I was in that supercharger boat though.

I'm with these guys here also on the pictures. We like pictures here very much.

Welcome to the forum also. :)

[The Underdog]

The supercharger story...

Basically it all started when I found a special short nose drive on Ebay for the Eaton M90 that they used those Buick Park Avenue Ultra's and Pontiac Grand Prix's with the supercharged 3800. I don't know who made it or why but it made that supercharger package just small enough to fit in the engine bay. A friend of mine cooked up some (flimsy ass) brackets to hold it above the exhaust manifold and a sheet-metal "doghouse" to catch the air from the outlet. Because of how things are laid out, I had to run the supercharger upside down but luckily it didn't care about that.
I started out with just the supercharger and a rising rate fuel pressure regulator. Made the main pulley out of a first gen truck's stamped steel pulley with a cadillac smog pump 6-rib with the middle cut out of it welded on to the front of that. That setup broke off twice at the crank hub area and I ended up having a machine shop make me a custom aluminum crank pulley, which held up fine. Later on, I went to a smaller pulley on the blower, added a gigantic volvo intercooler that was just as big as the radiator, turbo eclipse injectors, electric fan, bigger mass air meter off a galant vr4 or something and an Apexi Super AFC. Then there was a pacesetter shorty header followed by a home made 2.5" exhaust with dual magnaflow mufflers running one after the other (not a typo, I wanted it quiet, lol), centerforce clutch, GM intake air temp sensor plumbed in after the intercooler to read actual intake temps. The resistance curves were different between the gm sensor and the mitsubishi one but it still improved driveability by putting the overall temp trends in a more accurate ballpark than they were.
It dynoed at 150 to the wheels at one point when it wasn't in its best state of tune. Hell, the state of tune was never any better than "seat of the pants." It probably could have made 100 more hp with proper mixture and ignition control but I wasn't willing to spend the extra money to achieve all that. It was still way faster than the stock truck and the blower, being a positive displacement type and having a sheetmetal doghouse covering the business end of it instead of an engine block, made ridiculous F1 car noises any time you revved it. I started using that instead of the horn, lol.
Then came divorce and unemployment and a string of bad relationships that took up all my time. Plus I had gotten into autocross, for which a car works way better than a truck.
I don't think I'd actually sat and reflected on all of this until just now. And this is just the supercharger part... There was also a 94 bumper conversion, camaro bucket seats, father-reunites-with-estranged-son paint job, subsequent crash followed by junkyard front clip replacement. Man, I'm up at midnight thinking about this and I have to work tomorrow... Hope it turns out to be an easy day.

[noahwins]

What happened to the supercharger gear? Do you have any pics of the setup?

[geezer101]

The Underdog taking up the flag for the underdog... we're hearing ya. Most of us wish we were more resource rich to pursue our interests and yeah, it sucks how life gets in the way while you're doing other things. However, there's a good chance that you'll be able to get the underdog back on the road in time and with a bit of help and advice - that's what the site is all about. Sharing our acts of lunacy :). Got pics? Oh, and welcome aboard!

[The Underdog]

I can't seem to find any of my good pictures. Ones I took after the paint job when it was looking mint but here's some from after the crash and rebuild when I took it to it's one and only autocross. The transmission in my race car (a dodge stratus) had blown itself to pieces and I was waiting on another one.

[The Underdog]

You can kinda make out the supercharger setup. Man look at all that hair I had!

[The Underdog]

I even found some horrible cell phone video of the event... Thanks for the welcome guys. Having someone to talk to about this part of my life might actually push me to do the right thing and resurrect it.

[The Underdog]

Well, so much for trying to insert a video... Here's the youtube link. Sorry about any ads that might pop up. I'm trying to become a millionaire from posting youtube videos.

http://youtu.be/cBXWhoAmZj8


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBXWhoAmZj8&feature=youtu.be

[BradMph]

It's great to get new members with great new stuff and ideas, just an awesome story underdog except for the divorce BS. Got your video lined up for you. If you want to embed, use the little film strip icon in the above menu when creating a post or what not. If your going to restart a build...be sure to start a new thread just for your build so we can check in and watch. :) Your welcome to check out every inch of this place.

Luv the video, tool box in the back and all!

[Merrill]

I'm not gonna lie... that's pretty dope lol.

[noahwins]

That whine. :heartbeating:

[crvtec90]

Dude u need to fix your truck! If life allows anyhow. Its probably a similar story for most owners of these trucks. Member buys truck....truck keeps breaking....member keeps fixing it. U on the other hand have a supercharger which makes for a nice twist to the story.

[LSR Mike]

Hmmm. 2 engines, and 2 rebuilds, some radical parts, break everything between the radiator and rear end... yeah, 'bout right.

http://www.mmeierle.com/DTR3361.jpeg

[BradMph]

I'm pretty sure 90% of us have spent more money then our trucks are worth. Damn trucks get their hooks in ya and won't let go. &^%$#

[thehive]

^^^^^^what he said!! i've spent more money on this thing here and there than i want to admit but it still makes me smile from ear to ear each time i look at it lol

[pennyman1]

I have no idea what you are talking about...

[The Underdog]

Hi guys. Been a while since I was on here last. I've been doing a lot of thinking and a couple of things have happened in my life (Girlfriend started her own business, a couple of people have died, I went to a foreign country, etc. You know, all that life-changing stuff) and I've decided I need to move on. I currently have 4 vehicles. This truck has not been operational in several years. It's been replaced by one that is, I want my driveway space back, I want to quit paying to keep it registered, I want to quit paying insurance on it.

I have a bunch of mixed emotions about this but, at some point, you just have to move on. I don't have the money or time to raise my truck from the ashes like a phoenix so I'm letting go. That much I'm sure about. Maybe it would be different if I was the type to go to shows, meets, and all that but I'm not. I am overwhelmed by how complicated my life has become and it's time to start putting in work to simplify.

Now that I've said that, I'd like some opinions on how you guys think I should go about it. Option 1 is Crazy Ray's. They'll give me $400 if I drag it down there for them. Option 2 is try to sell it as a roller but non-runner on here or ebay or craigslist. Option 3 is part it out on here. I'm leaning toward the part out just because I wouldn't want to give good parts to a junk yard where they might go to waste if nobody knows it's there. What do you guys think? Is there really a market for a part-out or would it be a waste of time?

[noahwins]

Sorry to see you go.

The rule of thumb I've heard is a vehicle is worth about 150% of what you could get for it sold as a used vehicle to a private party (on Craigslist for instance) if you choose to part out and then sell it for scrap. The catch is this can take a loooooong time.

You could cut your losses the most by parting it out, but it will be the slowest option.
You could get robbed by Crazy Ray and only get $400 for a truck that's likely worth significantly more than that, but it would be over and done with tomorrow.
Or you could sell it on Craigslist, which splits the difference between time investment and cash you could get.

It's up to you but a good first step is to see what you have. Post pics. What are the pros and cons of the truck? You might have something someone wants.

EDIT: Holy crap, I forgot you're the guy with the supercharger set up! That sort of changes everything. Please do not go to Crazy Ray's and junk it! You have something pretty special...

[pennyman1]

Put up some current pics of the truck so we can see what you have now so we can give you a honest answer.

[crvtec90]

What is "crazy ray"?

Parting it out can be a real pain in the butt unless U have space to keep stuff until its sold

I feel ya man.....I have too many projects and not enough time either.

[The Underdog]

What is "crazy ray"?

Parting it out can be a real pain in the butt unless U have space to keep stuff until its sold

I feel ya man.....I have too many projects and not enough time either.

Crazy Ray's is a self service salvage yard chain around the Baltimore Maryland area.

So, some pictures and a quick walk around:
First off, we have two good tail lights plus a third in the garage, factory chrome rims with center caps OE style bumper that fits correctly, and class 2 trailer hitch.
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Next we have a power sliding rear window. Works by a cable that goes to a linear actuator under the passenger's seat. Switch on the dash runs it. Never leaked.
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Next we see the interior. No stock floor mats, unfortunately. Seats out of a Camaro. Driver's side is functional 8 way power adjustable but there's no room to go anywhere with it, lol. Put those in when all I had to my name was a hack saw. The brackets are made from home depot hinges and are not that great. But I did put her straight into a guard rail at like 40 mph and they held. so did the seat belts.
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Ok, here we have a few items of note. Fully instrumented dash. This requires plugging an inline OE filter into a connector under the hood so the tach will function. Also requires a different oil pressure sender intended for a gauge rather than a light. Next we have the rare and elusive factory dash clock, which is cool but not as useful as the little storage hole it got rid of. Also there is the late model instrument surround that is closed off on both sides rather than the early model that was open. Sorry it isn't more visible. Next is the trio of Auto Meter gauges. We have a direct reading mechanical fuel pressure gauge, with -4 AN braided line running to a mechanical isolator in the engine bay (this prevents your gauge line from piping gas into the passenger compartment - you fill it with antifreeze instead). We have a standard narrow-band air fuel ratio gauge and, finally, a boost / vacuum gauge that goes from 30" of vacuum (can't remember if it's inches of water or mercury, who cares) to 20 psi of boost. I was in the middle of borrowing the air fuel ratio gauge to hook up in my friend's car for troubleshooting purposes here, so you can't see the Sony Xplod (yeah, I know, it's old crap now) head unit. The four speaker outputs of the head unit are wired to four tweeters in the head liner and the four preamp outs go to the amplifier and run dash, door, and subs. Total of 10 speakers. Sounds pretty good when it's got a battery in it. Lastly we have an old school Apex-I Super AFC. For those who don't know, this thing modifies the signal from the Mass Air Flow sensor based on configurable throttle position and rpm graphs. It's kind of coarse in its adjustment but it worked good enough for me to run this thing at 13 psi for like 7 years before I overheated it and had to park it.
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Here's my 20 year old four-channel amp behind my 20 year old Wal-Mart center console and two 20 year old SAS Bazooka Tubes.
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Here we have good sun visors, 4 tweeters mounted in the head liner, and passenger grab handle. Not visible is the OE coat hanger hook above the back window.
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Next we've got the front end. Like I said before, I crashed this truck into a guard rail head on. The whole front clip is new sheet metal wise up to the firewall. I was very meticulous when doing this and everything fits correctly and is straight as can be. The frame took no damage except for one spot where the bumper bolts on, which I just kinda fixed by banging, cutting, and welding.
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Under the hood is a headless 2.4 block which will need bored, just honing isn't going to do it and oversize pistons will be a must. On the crank, there's a custom machined main pulley with a 6-rib supercharger drive on the front of it. It isn't that great of a piece but by god it did the job for many years after I broke two welded steel pulleys. We also have the second-string Pacesetter header for those of us that came to the game late enough that you couldn't get Doug Thorley's anymore. We also have the electric fan and modified shroud out of a Volvo 240 actuated by the mechanical, that's right, I said MECHANICAL temperature sensor out of a 83 Honda Civic, (mechanical because it heats up and closes a diaphragm switch inside the sensor itself, it's not analog reading) which is screwed into a nut that I soldered, yes soldered, to a piece of pipe which came out of a replacement P-trap kit for a bathroom sink, which then went in line with the lower radiator hose. We also have a relocated radiator to accommodate the Volvo 240 intercooler, which is just as big as the radiator. This puts the radiator closer to the engine by about 2", which requires the use of the electric fan to save space. Also, not visible is the larger Galant / Eclipse style Mass Air Flow sensor.
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Over here, we have a rising rate fuel pressure regulator (the silver thing), boost referenced and adjustable for initial pressure and rate of rise. After thinking about it, I suggest running one of these in series with the stock regulator rather than instead of it as I had done. I think drivability would have been better. Of course, there's the obligatory liquid filled fuel pressure gauge. The blue thing is the fuel pressure gauge isolator. Gas on one side, antifreeze on the other. For safety... The alligator clip is there for grounding out that terminal you have to ground out when you want to adjust the base timing by turning the distributor.
14132

Here's the supercharger. Modified with a custom shorty nose drive of unknown origin. Also has an extra long adjustable stop on the bypass valve so you have the option of running less than 100% boost. Otherwise your choices are 8 psi with the big pulley and 13 with the small one.
14133

Here's the brand new bare cylinder head I bought and started cleaning up the ports on. After testing the valves in it, I determined that the stems were too worn to re-use so it would need all new valves.
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So there you have it. The whole thing would work fine again if I would just clean it up and put it back together but I've got so much else going on.

I started this project in like 99 or 2000 and actually had it finished and functional for a long long time. Back then it was all about seeing if I could do it. Now I know I can do it and a whole lot more and I've got nothing to prove to myself or anyone else. I also really like the girl I'm dating now and enjoy hanging out with her. Back then I didn't get along well with the wife I had so I was always looking for things to do by myself. So yeah, I don't know. Life goes on. I'm almost 40 now, I've got to think about my financial future, getting rid of baggage and all that. To me there's just no end-game to fixing this truck back up. It would need another paint job and yadda yadda yadda. And even after all that, it wouldn't have power steering or seats that would recline, or be very quiet, or even all that fast compared to 4-valve turbo stuff with proper engine management $$$.

Sigh. You are looking at the human and pickup truck equivalent of the zombie apocalypse I guess.

Bottom line is I'm sure someone will buy the supercharger on Ebay because it will fit lots of stuff. I'm pretty sure someone on here would want the factory chrome rims and some of the rare dash parts. The rest of it, I don't know.

What sayeth you, the prophets?

[The Underdog]

I'm pretty sure it's against the rules on most forums to turn this into a for sale thread outside the classifieds, so I guess let's call this a "should I sell it" type thing, then I'll make another one in the classified section if there's any interest.

[noahwins]

You have way, way to many interesting parts to part it out anywhere but here. Do not scrap this or sell it to some kid on Craigslist.

PM'ing you.

[The Underdog]

oops, double post somehow

[tink]

Im at the opposite side of 40 and sayeth "save it" and save yourself!!! Every vehicle is just different flavors of problems, that's a mighty tasty looking set of problems you got there.

Want quieter? add some more insulation, want comfy? wire in power seats. I mean really you got the basics and THEN some super whipped cream and nuts topping already right there!!!


I have no idea what you are talking about...

he had me at power rear window... pffft, so tired of throwing out my shoulder to open that dang window.

[The Underdog]

Im at the opposite side of 40 and sayeth "save it" and save yourself!!! Every vehicle is just different flavors of problems, that's a mighty tasty looking set of problems you got there.

Want quieter? add some more insulation, want comfy? wire in power seats. I mean really you got the basics and THEN some super whipped cream and nuts topping already right there!!!



he had me at power rear window... pffft, so tired of throwing out my shoulder to open that dang window.

I know, man. I know. I've got so much else going on, though. I got into the hobby of autocrossing and decided to get a Mazda RX-8, which is as much of a maintenance nightmare brand new as this truck is at 25 years old. 3 engines in 90,000 miles. I've also got a kitchen remodeling project that's into year two. I've got a motorcycle now. I've got a live-in girlfriend who's 1.5 years into starting her own business. She has a motorcycle too. It's a lot of shit to deal with and I just want out from under some if it.