Who's MadMike? MadMike evolved due to mycar(s). In 1985 I'd drive over to my friends house, he had a 2 year old named Daniel. The poor kid would run around the house screaming "MADMIKE'S HERE!!!! MADMIKE'S HERE!!!!" as I rumbled up to the house. It stuck. Then a friend of mine at work (an artist) drew a "rat fink" style picture of me in my Z. Finally, back then (some still say today) it also sorta fit my personality. Wound up tighter than a swiss watch.... (too much coffee) =8^O
Personal bio: I’m 32, married to Laura (Morin) on 8/5/89, moved to Dawson county from Norcross Georgia in 1993. Born in Springfield Massachusettes, lived in Enfield Connecticut until 1991. Interests include racing, computers and firearms.
About my family: My wife and I have 3 boys; Kyle (9/92), Daniel (3/95) and Trey (4/97). They’re all gearheads ("Racecar vroom vroom"). We have a BIG doggie (Magnum), and my wife has 2 kitty-cats.
Me and a bunch of folks from work are trying to buy one of these things.
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We call this thing "Senior" because it's the "big wagon". I got a "small wagon", "Junior", which is a 1989 Cavalier, V6. Right now it's sitting out back cause it needs a fuel pump. And SERIOUS bodywork. The interior is nice though, but the car was from New Hampshire and the salt did very bad things to it. I like to use Sr. to haul cars. I figured Jr. would be usefull in hauling big junk around the countryside without getting 17 MPG like Sr. Right now, Jr. is getting about 0 MPG.
Hey, on January 4, 1999, we bought a 1987 S10 Blazer 4x4 for Laura. Now she can drive around in this, we can park senior long enough to give it a break, and use it for towing/travelling. I got the cavy for daily use (and hopefully the 73 Z28 will join in the daily duties). When I get around to fixing Jr. I can toss that into fleet use.
One of my "projects" that I'd like to do to Sr. is to put a 1 ton rear axle in the back (dually). This will give me a LOT more stability so I can tow a 28 foot tag-along trailer. Of course, the other part of this project would be to supercharge the 350 so it'll have the grunt required to yank the big box. This'll eliminate my shopping around for a cube van. Also, I won't be stuck with a full time 454 under the hood for when I'm not towing. And who the hell wants to have to run around town in a Cube Van when everything else is temporarily busted? I figure Sr. in Dually mode still gives me the 8 or 9 people seating (with the A/C on, listening to a CD, some inside luggage (coolers, toys, TV/VCR, phone), and the ability to tow a long rig. A cube van would allow for 3 people up front, and everyone else in the box freezing their ass off sitting on roll away tool boxes, floor jacks and fuel jugs, while the open trailer (ornclosed tag) is behind that.
1990 Chevy Cavalier - "Cavy"
My car, the economical parts chaser.
Bought new in 1989, I put 150,000 miles on it and blew a head gasket. (For any Ford Lurkers in here.... I was driving home from work, and I was in the middle of nowhere, and unbeknownst to me, a heater hose failed, and dumped the water out, and I watched the engine heat up. I could smell anti-freeze. The smart man woulda shut the thing off and pulled over. But I hate walking. So I pushed it, almost to the redline and clicked it. I coasted about..... 100 yards (so it seemed) before I had to start the thing up and give it another boost... still hot.... I did this 2 more times.... once too many times cause on the 3rd time, pop (steam and smoke blowing out the back, major rattling....). The aluminum headed 2.2L is very unforgiving about over heating aparently. Man, I got my 454 up to 300 degrees, boiled the water out of it.... FWIW: In case you're not
laughing yet.... I wound up walking anyway, so I shoulda shut it off IMMEDIATELY.
The Cavalier story goes like this:
I had the 1980 Z28 since 1985, I had been into Camaros for a LONG time. My 1970 RS Camaro had gotten smashed, courtesy of a diqhead, and with the CASH settlement and then sale of the car, I bought a Chevy Citation for cheap which lasted 1 year, then got a 1984 Cavalier, 4 door, 4 speed. Again, for cheap. This cavalier lasted a long time (considering).
Before me & laura got married, she needed a car. We went to look at a (used) Cavalier, whoops.... on a ferd dealerships lot. For some reason, she got an 85 ferd escort. DAMN!. Now we got a 85 escort and an 84 cavalier. One day, the escort caught on fire and burnt up WHILE SHE WAS IN THE CAR (apparently, this is a common problem for Fords -
seriously). Total it - Thank you, and we went and ordered the NEW 1990 Cavalier.....
Oh ya, I remember, I went into stupid mode and bought a 1974 Chevelle after the Escort deal, and laura drove the new cavalier (she wouldn't be caught dead in the chevelle). See, my theory was I'd use the Chevelle to tow my Z to the dragstrip. The theory didn't work as planned - which is another story.
See, young guys, this was the 1st sign of "marital stress". My wife sees a car as a "tool". Transportation. But I got a Bow-Tie tattooed on my ass. If it ain't a chevy (or GM at least), it's shit. After 10 years of marrige we got this deal all straightened out now.... which is why we ALSO have a Chevy Blazer, and not a Jeep Cherikawhatchamacallit....
Back to the Cavy
Me and a couple pals rebuilt the 2.2L engine, I had the trans overhauled. I basically rebuilt
the whole drivetrain, except the drive axles. I ran out of cash and threw the old ones back in.
On December 1, 1998 - I FiNaLlY turned the key and drove somewhere in the car. I was so excited
that me and Kyle drove to Vicksburg Mississippi to deliver an engine and trans to a fellow.
1000 miles, and it ran like a top. I'm amazed I tell you. Look at some of the pictures of how
the cavy looked and you'll know why. I'm used to fooling with BIG V8's, rear wheel drive, but
an engine is an engine.
"The Cavy is almost like brand new honey. Almost like a new car...." The heater core went out. $22 bux and about 15 hours under the dash. Should take a couple days to fix (seriously). :^)
(ed note: Me & nick did this in about 1 hour in between commercials on the tube).
Cavy Photos
["The Ford View" |
What a mess eh? This is why I'm still shocked the car works |
The culprit, look whats in the background. :^) |
Fancy stuff, of course I punched it out]
Cavy Mods
Ya, I can't leave anything alone. I'm a joker and modded the cavy. My goal was to get a little bit more pep and look like the NASCAR Dash series cars, while maintaining the current 27 MPG engine rating. You gotta remember I can get a 700 Horsepower hard-on in the other stuff I have... so, I wasn't looking for anything spectacular to begin with. Spectacular for me would be to have the thing functional and not break down, leak oil all over the place or not start. I saw this deal sorta as a tech challenge, learning experience, and economical way of rescuing the car. In no way did or do I wantto be associated
"with the rice".
During my process of rebuilding this, I learned a bunch about modifying fuel injection systems. The car has throttle body injection. So, I couldn't go really wild at the time with mods. Since this was 1996 and it's a 4 cylinder cavalier, there's really no market or parts for this type car/engine.There still isn't.
Click here to check out MY STERIO!!!!!!
Seriously, this photo shows the only thing that I like to listen to when out cruising.
Here's what I did or will do:
Engine
The engine is a 2.2 liter engine. I bored it out .075mm (big deal).
I had the head shaved (basically to ensure it was flat, if it had warped).
I removed the A/C system, not driving the compressor belt picked me up some power.
Click here to view the installed engine
Drivetrain
When we ordered/bought the car, my wife wanted an automatic. She could never figure out how to drive my stick cars. Anyway, this thing has a TH-125 transmission in it. It's sloppy. (I'm used to having my head ripped off when my transmissions shift). I had Dwayne Hood rebuild the thing for me so it's fresh. I asked him about putting a shift kit in it and he said "adjust the TV cable and leave the thing alone". so I did.
Drive axles: I can't break stock ones, so that's what I'm running. The old stock ones.
Exhaust: I MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE removed the cat, and put a hooker muffler on the car. This was the BIGGEST improvement I did. I did this before the car blew up. Unfortunantly, the car has a nasty raspy tone at the moment, but the car really picked up some zip.
In order to make my exhaust a little more acceptable, I'll have a header bent up for the thing and redo the exhaust. Right now, I ditched the Hooker comp muffler and put the stock Z24 (dual outlet - wow...) muffler on. It's still raspy loud but not as obnoxious as the comp muffler.
I also feel like a dick stepping on the gas, cause to me, it feels like a tart. It is slightly peepy, but I get a lot of
rice-boys looking at me funny. Hey guys - leave me the hell alone will ya? I ain't trying to race your pile.
Cam: I couldn't get a cam for several reasons.... #1: the cost of having one specially made for me, and if I did.... the modifications to the injection system. I went with a Melling, OEM replacement. It's functional.
Suspension: Put a Z24 suspension on it. KYB Gas shocks, huge ass swaybars, front & rear.
Body: I put the Z24 ground effects on the car, except for the hood. I like this look.
Ha. I bought this stuff off a Z24 that got pulled out of the Chatahoochee river. The back window had this HUGE big blue bow-tie and a huge "No Fear" sticker on it.
Induction: Nothing special. I could have ported & polished the head and intake. I didn't waste my time. I rebuilt the throttle body. I didn't do anything special to it either. yet.
Ignition: 8MM moroso wires. I'm looking into the MSD DIS type ignition.
Wheels & Tires: planned - American Racing stock car type wheels, if i can find the correct offset and bolt pattern. BFG Comp T/A's, 205 60 x 14 rubber. All in all, I like this car. I bought it new, it runs decent. It's comfy for trips and gets good gas milage. I'll keep it.
Future mods?: Look into the port injected 2.2L. Or, possibly toss "juniors" V6 drive train under the hood when my workmanship falls apart. Check out Mantapart - they have a 4 banger header. I may get that. I need to figure if I want to invest in the 4 banger, or go with the 6. I could be a dick and put a bottle in the trunk. Naw... Actually, I should leave the GD thing alone and play with my toys.
Some cool Cavalier links:
We wanted to replace the blazer with something more practical for traveling with 5 people. The 4 seat blazer just wasn't doing it. We already have a suburban, so.... GAK - we need a "mini-van".
Both me and Laura saw 1st hand lauras cousin blowing the transmission in her 94 Chrysler Town & Country every month, so the mopar WAS OUT. I wanted an Astro van. My inlaws have a 1995 Windstar. They liked it so much, my Sister-in-law bought a 1997 Windstar. Laura wanted a Windstar too, but I "wasn't sure". I poked around and didn't like what I saw. I caught hell for "dising" the windstar. #1 safety rating. "I'm a big bastard, closed minded chevy man.".
Well, Laura drove the Astro and liked it. We now own a 1999 Chevy Astro. Things are cool.
Ford problems
Sue should have seen this before she bought her T&C:
Chrysler Minivans suck too
Oh yes, apparently, autotrader has rave reviews on the #1 safety rating of the Windstar. Apparently, they haven't blown one up yet and gotten screwed with the bill. Maybe it's so safe cause it can't get wrecked when it's sitting out back at the shop waiting to be fixed.
Hey, I don't hate ford. I just won't get screwed owning one. I'll let you make up your own mind.
I AM AN AMERICAN! Republican/Democrat - Liberal/conservative - Leftwing/Rightwing My office/shop/garage Miscellaneous Camaros Here I am, sitting in the #94 Winston Cup Stock Car owned by a neighbor. Last updated: 4/13/1999 © 1997, 1998, 1999 Maciolek Engineering
A message forum |
J-body webring
Hey, this is a new section I'm adding, mainly for my inlaws
Here's the deal. I've had nothing but sucess with Chevrolets. The blazer, suburban, both over 200K without a sweat. The cavy, didn't cock up on me until I intentionally pushed it and blew the head gasket (at 150K). My old 84 Cavalier got to 130K before I tossed it....
3 weeks after we bought the Astro (10/19/99) - get a phone call.... inlaws 1995 Windstar blew engine at 87,000. Whoops. I saw evidence of this being a common problem while shopping for our replacement car. I can't afford to piss away $15-20K for a POS lemon. Fool me once, shame on me.... remember Laura's 85 Ford Escort catching on fire? It wasn't a fluke. Apparently there's about 26 Million fords with "ignition switch problems". Well, now there's 25,999,999 of them.
You wanna know why the Ford Explorer is called the "Exploder"?
Transmissions falling out of Taurus's, windstars.... cars blowing engines, or having the engines fall out on the ground..... I personally couldn't believe ford would foist shit on the public, then not stand behind it. You got a new Ford SVT Cobra? You waiting for the "fix" to make the thing run correctly? I realize a car is a piece of machinery, and machinery can screw up. But the crap ford makes is inexcusable. (IMO of course). The below links will quickly show this isn't a small, vocal couple people bitching about a ford falling apart. Oh yes, my sons scout leader - just bought a 1995 Windstar - got an excellent deal on it. He told me "the transmission started acting funny" last week. (second sign of impending transmission failure. The 1st sign of impending failure is the blue oval on the grill).
More ford problems
More problems
These people apparently got paid off
Recall and TSB info.
More TSB's summarized from NHTSA.
More problems....
You're not alone
More people holding their ass
Taurus incident
People trying to like Ford products - but....
}Ford should be paying for engine/head gasket replacement according to a service bulletin issued in June of 1998. They are also reimbursing people that have paid this out of their pocket.
Don't know the status of the class action lawsuit. The above link (Mbradley)
is the one trying to do that.
Taurus problems?
Lemonaide has info on secret/hidden warranties, which the 95 windstar had (but you
missed the date cut-off Dec/98). Specifically for blowing the 3.8 liter engine
head gasket.
}Several design flaws have caused most 1995 and some 1996 Windstars to have catasrophic transmission failures.
}There is an attorney (JSMDLAWYER@aol.com)
who I believe is attempting to build a class-action suit against Ford over the faulty 3.8L engine. I tried to get further information, but never received a response. Try it and let me know if you hear anything....
Dead Fords
I am an Eagle Scout. Today in Amerika being a Patriot is against the law.
Same $#!+, different wrapper. A TURD by any other name is still a TURD.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Check these out
Livin in the USSA
The Spirit of 1776
Ken L. Holder's Web Page
The Winds
Church of the Living Word
keepin tabs on the crooks (consitutionalgoldmine)
Crossed Sabers - Luke Hamburgers site.
Check out my office. I telecommute usually, so my office is located right next to my shop and my garage which contains my 2 Z/28's. My shop is isolated from my garage so spotlessly clean operations are performed in here. My garage is pretty complete. I can do anything in there except I don't have a floor lift. I can only raise a car about 2.5 feet in the air using the traditional jack stands method. I also have to farm out engine machining tasks. Our Black lab likes to sleep under my 80 Z/28. She's pretty protective.
MadMike Camaro Update (non-Z/28)
Some might say, MadMike - Yer CrAzY! How do you do all this stuff? Well... you got a 1996 Z28? I don't. I don't have any car payments either.I drive a semi-functional Buick Regal or the cavalier (when it gets working).I do all this stuff myself, or with a couple guys on my crew.I don't (can't) write any huge checks to car restoration/custom shops so I can getfeatured in any magazines.... MadMike's on a budget. I pedal car parts to try and subsidize my grandious plans....
Well, scratch the Baldwin deal. I got too much going on, yup, even for me... it's a lot. Forgetthe baldwin motion car... but I'm still looking for a MODIFIED Stock Car (talk about OUTTA THEFRYIN PAN AND INTO THE FIRE!!!!), so for now
Everything else will show up in either the Hot News page, or it'll go into my Parts Zone page. Any photos of interest will go into the Photo Gallery.
Above left: Me & some hardware, circa 1988 (notice I still have hair). Sucess, where preparation and luck meet. 
Author: MadMike Maciolek
Email: iracez28@stc.net
Email: m_maciolek@vmsnet.enet.dec.com
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