POS Mighty Max

I'm balls deep in this project now, might as well start a thread on it. Basically, I have the RWD as a "race" car, the EVO is getting sold as soon as I can find the heart to do it, and I'm getting rid of the old diesel for a newer tow vehicle and an enclosed trailer. To provide a fun street car that won't attract attention from the cops/Nazis and the local thieves, the MM is getting upgraded.

Clean truck with ~45k original miles. Just pulled the g54b and 5 speed trans to make room for my Edgar built 6 bolt, 1g head, BC 280s/springs, EVO8 turbo, 2g DSMlink, etc. Trans will be a GM 4 speed Auto with a lockup TC eventually, but in the mean time the spare Glide (2 speed) from the RWD is gonna have to do.

Most of the old crap removal is done. Need to gut the wiring harness so it only includes lights and crap like that, the engine harness will be a gutted 2g harness. Trans adapter plate, flex plate, and torque converter will be in on Thursday, so I expect to have the motor and trans hangin by a couple mounts next week. Then I can see what I need to do for a trans crossmember, cooling system, etc.

Pics here. (http://www.posracing.net/POSMightymax.html)

I hate the color, lol. Sounds like a very involved project. Good luck.

I love the color and it's staying. That 70s tan is awesome. Not to mention how much it adds to the sleeper effect. :D

Nice project man. Was the old engine a 1.8? That almost looks like a 4g37 valve cover. Any reason for not sticking with a manual tranny? Either way, thats a crazy ass sleeper, I'm sure a few ricers will learn that the hard way.

Motor was a 2.6 liter carbuerated G54B. I would have ran the 5 speed for a shor ttime, but the g54b is a "wideblock" motor, won't bolt up to a 4g63. It wouldn't have lasted long with the extra power. The only 5 speed I would consider is a T56 out of a camaro or something, but they're ~1500 used, and I'd still have to deal with clutch issues. I want to get away from clutches. :) The 4 speed auto will take the power all day long, no clutch to replace every year, good ETs, etc. After getting some firsthand experience with a GM auto in a DSM with the RWD, I fell in love with the idea.

The glide in the meantime will be a pain in the ass. If I stick with the stock 3.55s first gear will go to about 100 mph, LMAO. Pretty tall. But highway RPM will be doable. If I swap to a montero 4.64 gearset, first gear makes much more sense, but highway cruising in second will put me over 4k rpm. The glide and the future TH200r4 are/will be manual valve bodied, so they still have to be shifted manually. Like a clutchless manual in a way. I ran a TH700r4 setup like this in my old 5.7 liter swapped S10 and a TH350 in my Monte SS (they was an auto/manual hybrid, could od it either way) and I liked the way it worked. In this case I need the manual control to keep it from shifting at a much lower RPM than would be appropriate with a reving 4 cylinder.

But now I'm rambling again.

Why not go with a wideblock 4g63 or 4g64 and a Starion tranny? I know the motor is a direct swap and I would imagine the tranny would be relatively easy. Just the same, I really think the auto is the way to go.

My buddy's RX7 is getting a 350 or a 383 and we're teetering between a T-56 and some auto. I think the auto is going to win though, I dont think Mike really wants to shell out $1500 and waste the time looking for and traveling to get a T-56. With all the red neck dirt track racers around getting an auto wont be hard at all. He's got an 85 GSL SE that we were going to put it into, but he decided to put it into his 83 instead.... its getting stripped, gutted, and motor is coming out tomorrow :).

I'm also a huge fan of GM auto trannys. Especially the turbo 350...you can build it to hold as much power as you'll ever need.....well I know one guy who can...:).

So aahhhh....how exactly do you plan to get all that power to the ground with those 2" wide tires while still keeping it a sleeper? Just a thought...:dunno:

Put some big-and-littles on it...be pimpin

I would smash a starion tranny before I even got out of the driveway. :) We all know how well I get along with manual trannies, and the starions are still weak, only a little better than the original mightymax tranny. I'd also rather go with a regular 4g63 since I have so many at my disposal locally.

It will eventually get some better rear tires, but still on plain steel wheels. People that know what they are looking for will be able to spot them from behind still, but the cops and other general assholes won't know the difference. I'm not looking for a sleeper in the hardkore street racer sense, just something that the cops and thieves won't recognize (the EVO is a nightmare in this regard).

Alright motor and powerglide are installed. Or at least sitting in the engine bay. Pics at the bottom of this page. (http://www.posracing.net/POSMightymax.html) I'll have to modify those motor mounts to make them work, so I might as well push then engine forward a little too to provide more room for that (relatively) huge tranny.

Looks great Kevin, cant wait to see it once the truck is done.

Made a little progress last week. Radiator and FMIC are installed (upside down EVO8 ic). Cooling system is coming together, half a day's work left on that. Then there's wiring, exhaust, and driveshaft. That's about the bulk of it. Tons of little stuff of course... Couple more months hopefully.

Pics posted, same link as first post.

firsthand experience with a GM auto in a DSM with the RWD, I fell in love with the idea.
.

:wink: , same but mine is v8 :grinyes: . very nice project.

Making incremental progress on this in between working on and running the RWD. This week the cooling system will be all finished out. Next week on the mock up turbo the upper and lower IC pipes will all be done, probably the custom O2 housing/exhaust as well, at least as far as the downpipe.

Can't wait until this thing is done. My friend Chad is going to drive it out to Ohio and run it in the Q16 class along side the RWD for me. If I break or get eliminated early, I have a backup. :)

Edit> The EVO8 turbo looks AWESOME in the engine bay, but I'm just not happy with the fitment and all of the hoops I have to jump through to make it work. The car is getting a mitsu based turbo flipped on a 2g mani. If I go used it will be a EVO3, if I go new it will be the new FP 18gsl2 for testing (more likely, still have to talk to Robert). The larger hotside goes well with a high reving 2 speed auto car, especially since I ordered the JMF RWD intake manifold with nitrous bungs. :D

Kevin Your f'ing insane! lol but a fing genius at the same time no way i could do all the engineering/fabricating to get all that shit to work

LMAO, thanks. :) In all honesty, it's not too bad. I'm trying to use as much bolt on stuff as possible. Lot's of changes since this was last updated, shit. I decided that I HATE the look of a flipped DSM turbo, so I decided that I would go top mount, but it looks like an EVO topmount still won't clear the DSM block and no one I trust to build me a custom one can get it done before 2010 (shearer, etc). :D So it's back to a flipped DSM turbo. But I may try to make it look decent by going with a FP race manifold and a good sized turbo.

I may spring early for the three speed tranny so I can get this glide re-certed and in the RWD.

2g wiring harness is going to work the balls. I've got the plan layed out, just need to gut the harness and get rid of all of the unnecessary wires and emissions wiring. Should be done by thursday night. I hooked up the battery and verified that everything in the chassis harness is now working properly.

JM Fab flipped manifold is here and looks awesome.

Turns out the motor was way too high to fit these big ass GM trannies, the stock 5 speed sits much lower compared to crank centerline. Tossed the mounts and welded up some new ones. Now that fitment has been verified (with a whole quarter inch to spare in every direction, WTF!), I can gusset them up and paint them. It's on solid mounts now (trans is still prothane), but since this isn't unibody like a DSM, but rather a seperate cab mounted to the frame on rubber mounts, I'm not expecting vibration to be too bad. :)

Pics are still here with updates, http://www.posracing.net/POSMightymax.html

I think its safe to say this will be the world's fastest mighty max. I Hope you don't intend on going any faster than 115 cause thats when the Speedo gets maxed :)

Someone else just finished up a sweet mightymax too, but it's still on a 5 speed. I'm pretty sure I'll have the only one with the GM auto tranny swap at least, even if it's slow. :D

Got a FP 3582HTA turbo mocked up on a flipped t3 manifold, pics at the bottom of the link posted above. Still need to find someone to build the mani.

what cost more the turbo or the mighty max?
If you are ever parting that out I think I would be interested ;)

I've got about 8 grand in parts on a 600 dollar truck. Gotta love it. :D

sounds like a fun build

Long time no update. Not much going on, once the RWD started showing promis for 8s I stopped working on it. Now that the off season is here, once all my parts are sold the Max becomes priority. I'm ready to beat on this thing already, wtf...

hey kevin,remember eric had that swapped mighty max 4wd back in the day!

Yup, that truck is still local to me, and for sale again, lol.

Incremental update, exhaust manifold has been built to spec by Brent at JMFab. Came out sweet.

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o23/kjewer1/MightyMax/JMFTopmount001.jpg

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o23/kjewer1/MightyMax/JMFTopmount004.jpg

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o23/kjewer1/MightyMax/JMFTopmount003.jpg

wow, that things a work of art. Equal runners?

Not sure, I didn't specifically ask for it.

Looks beautiful

Long time no update. The truck has been "done" for some time, but still needs a few little things. I've had it on the road and driving, it's a good bit of fun even at only 16 psi on a T3 50 trim. I still need to do rubber mounts (the solid ones are brutal on the highway, otherwise fine though. Dammit) and install the trans cooler, then have the LSD swapped in and get tires/wheels. It's running on DSMlink V3 speed density now instead of the AEM as well. At some point it needs to get a new dash insert with aftermarket gauges.

Pics are still here (http://s116.photobucket.com/albums/o23/kjewer1/MightyMax/) and here, (http://www.posracing.net/POSMightymax.html) though they desperately needs more updates.

Is this thing going to see the track this coming season? Any ideas on time/hp?

Going through the pics now and this thing is looking very nice.

Wow long time no see Kevin. Truck is looking good, im with Dave on this one. What do you think its going to run

Thanks guys. It will hit the track in April. I'll run it when I don't feel like dragging the RWD up there, and when I'm running the RWD the GF will drive the Max in the street classes. Hard to say what it will run, but it's light, so if it hooks up it'll go. I'll swap to slicks or drag radials at the track. I'm expecting 11.5s on pump one way or another.

I drop in every few weeks and cruise through the sections, but I don't post as much as I used to in the good old days. So many forums, so little time. :)

Sweet deal man. That'll suprise some people. I was reading on Tuners that your running a compound setup on your RWD?

I am. I'm feeding a T3 50 trim with a Borg Warner 75mm S400 t6 turbo. The big turbo runs at ~15 psi and the 50 trim doubles it to 45 psi. Neither turbo is working very hard at all, both at 2:1 pressure ratios. It seems to work very well, so I'll be developing it further this season.

Well, the truck is getting there. It's been to the track twice and the dyno once, gradually turning up the boost but I still haven't messed with the tune much.

First night out it went over 100 mph on the first pass. Still in second gear. :D Only 17 psi too. The rear brakes won't hold the power back though so I can't leave under boost. The lag puts the ET in the 14s. I did get one decent burnout at least. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UIev3-5m3U

Second night out I shifted at 7500 rpm, same 17 psi went 106 mph. Second pass at 21 psi went 112 mph. It loves the boost. Nice smooth run, I love automatics. I still can't launch under boost, so ET was 13.6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6XmXkvKRrE

After that it went out for some dyno day action. At the same boost it ran the 112 mpg at it made ~280 whp. At 24 psi it made 305 whp/270 tq, so it should go a bit faster. This is still "untuned." The numbers may seem low, since they power is being put through a pretty loose torque converter and a three speed auto, and this is on a Mustang dyno. Not much to see, but here's a video of the last run. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSaZ9wdjYXo

Getting there. Now, I just need to get more power to the rear brakes so I can launch it... :)

After the race car blowed up, I put this thing back together to run in the mean time. Here's the latest runs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx0L0cggcdQ&list=FLuejooUbFaepaHo1SsvnDSw&index=1&feature=plpp_video

Going to try a 2 stage boost setup this week. WG pressure when the brake pedal is pressed so the brakes can hold the car back, then to the set MBC pressure when the brake is released to get it up to full boost. That should clear up that bad stumble off the line that the 2 step caused and get me a few tenths. :)

BTW this is the quickest and fastest Mitsu Mightymax as far as I know, previous fastest was 11.8 at 121.

Seriously. It's an old single stage paint and it comes off when I wash the damn thing. I've been thinking about getting it clear coated to lock in the awesomeness...