What did Yamaha do to the engine?

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Thunderpuma

Thunderpuma

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Joined
Mar 18, 2014
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50
After some research I`m still confused about the Yamaha contribution. whole or partial design? fine tuning in its japanese factory?

Every explanation I find is different to each other.

The Top Gear video at youtube also explains a nonsense!
 
Have no source, but reading up on it in the nineties, I recall their input was mainly head and valve-train and the variable valve tech, and had similar input to the US ford V6 SHO.
Also had input into cylinder liners and throttle bodies and fuelling atomisation as I recall.
The bottom end was based around the old cvh engine but beefed up to take the higher rev requirement of vct/16v and the higher rev limits.
Some old cvh heads were successfully mated to the newer blocks, by quite a few rally and banger racers in the nineties, that's how close they were in design.(did seem to end up with oilway problems, as a lot of cvh's did anyway).
Basically it was a cheap but effective way of Ford jumping on the vtec/16v/12v bandwagon without the expense of in-house development.
I remember reading about fords brave new 1.25 prototype in 1994, when I was moving house so bear in mind that's about 20 years ago, and the old grey matter ain't what it used to be :lol: but that's the gist of it as I recall.

Mind, I probs still have the article up in the attic (Autocar I think) and no :pinkeye: I'm not going up there :-D


[edit] Somewhere in the back of my grey matter I remember Yamaha initially (in conjunction with Mazda) had the contract to manufacture the Cylinder heads, whether that happened or not I'm not sure...
 
Thanks!

The Puma's cylinder lines are nikasil, right? It does seem a Yamaha thing, they started to use nikasil in its '96 Thunderace 1000.
Now I'm surprised about how Yamaha developed variable timing and fuel injection while their bikes don't use vtc and they were the last maker to abandon carburettors, until a lot of years later -2002 R1 and it was more like a mix between carburettors and FI. And yet:
http://www.motorcycledaily.com/2002/02/27february02yamahamotogp/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It seems they were researching technology while still keeping "old school" taste. It would have been funny they added their signature 5-valve, thanks they didn't. They added their trademark oil guzzling from what I read though. <_<
 
A copy from http://www.pumapeople.com/wiki/index.php?title=Why_Did_Production_Stop" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

'information kindly provided by Pumapeople member Cat Daddy in March 2006



I am an early retired Ford Engineer, one of the numerous 'fathers' of our cats; having been working in the Cologne PVT (Plant Vehicle Team) as technical Purchase Representative for Scorpio, Puma, and Fiesta / Fusion.

The birth of the Puma (SE146) was caused by a contract with Yamaha for the 1.7l engine, originally planned for another project which was ceased. After that Ford had to decide to either swallow the penalty for a broken contract or to use the engines (80 per day).
Consequently Ford looked for a cheap way to construct a vehicle being compatible to the character of that engine.

After production start in September 1997, Ford (completely surprised) recognised the market demand for that car - thanks a lot to Ford's Marketing Department - but had not enough engines to satisfy the market.
So they decided to make use of the ready-to-build-in 1.4l Fiesta engine (which led to the nasty nickname 'secretary's Ferrari'; the 1.25l was considered as being too weak. The 1.4l engine was replaced by the 1.6l one which was built in parallel to the 1.7l till the official production stop before plant shutdown 2001.
Towards the end of the vehicle's lifetime I received numerous phone calls per day from suppliers complaining about breaking tools asking me for money to repair them - already quite rightly stated as 'soft tools' in this thread.
Main reason for ceasing production was the re-configuration of the Cologne plant to build the new Fiesta / Fusion (not Focus which is built in Saarlouis / Valencia); some units (one of which is mine) were built by hand through to the end of 2001.

Some bullett points:
- production plant: Cologne only
- production start : September 1997
- production stop: July 2001
- total volume: appr. 133,000 units (including ST160 / FRP / Racing Puma)
- my first Puma: 'Spanish Red', registered October 6th 1997 (great fun driving through the city in an unknown car!)
- my current Puma: 'Racing Blue', registered June 6th 2002'

Hope it helps little?
 
Wild E. Coyote said:
A copy from http://www.pumapeople.com/wiki/index.php?title=Why_Did_Production_Stop" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

'information kindly provided by Pumapeople member Cat Daddy in March 2006



I am an early retired Ford Engineer, one of the numerous 'fathers' of our cats; having been working in the Cologne PVT (Plant Vehicle Team) as technical Purchase Representative for Scorpio, Puma, and Fiesta / Fusion.

The birth of the Puma (SE146) was caused by a contract with Yamaha for the 1.7l engine, originally planned for another project which was ceased. After that Ford had to decide to either swallow the penalty for a broken contract or to use the engines (80 per day).
Consequently Ford looked for a cheap way to construct a vehicle being compatible to the character of that engine.

After production start in September 1997, Ford (completely surprised) recognised the market demand for that car - thanks a lot to Ford's Marketing Department - but had not enough engines to satisfy the market.
So they decided to make use of the ready-to-build-in 1.4l Fiesta engine (which led to the nasty nickname 'secretary's Ferrari'; the 1.25l was considered as being too weak. The 1.4l engine was replaced by the 1.6l one which was built in parallel to the 1.7l till the official production stop before plant shutdown 2001.
Towards the end of the vehicle's lifetime I received numerous phone calls per day from suppliers complaining about breaking tools asking me for money to repair them - already quite rightly stated as 'soft tools' in this thread.
Main reason for ceasing production was the re-configuration of the Cologne plant to build the new Fiesta / Fusion (not Focus which is built in Saarlouis / Valencia); some units (one of which is mine) were built by hand through to the end of 2001.

Some bullett points:
- production plant: Cologne only
- production start : September 1997
- production stop: July 2001
- total volume: appr. 133,000 units (including ST160 / FRP / Racing Puma)
- my first Puma: 'Spanish Red', registered October 6th 1997 (great fun driving through the city in an unknown car!)
- my current Puma: 'Racing Blue', registered June 6th 2002'

Hope it helps little?
Click to expand...

It does :) Althought my antivirus doesn't allow me to that forum :pinkeye:

So apparently Yamaha manufactured the 1.7 in Japan and then they sent them to Cologne :shock:
Definitely the aluminum cylinder blocks and nikasil liners had to be made in Japan. Adding valvetrain, VTC and head means I'm going to stick a Yamaha badge to the tailgate :cool: .

Thanks a lot!

Please mix 2000 go to the attic and collect some dust and interesting magazines :D




I
 
Wild E. Coyote said:
...some units (one of which is mine) were built by hand through to the end of 2001.

...

- production stop: July 2001
Click to expand...

Interesting - mine was built right at the end of November 2001 (registered late June 2002). Being a last-ditch parts bin special might explain it's unique character :D
 
Tony Lewin
Automotive News Europe
July 7, 1997 06:01 CET
Japan's Yamaha is building engines for Ford's new European-market Puma sports car.
Yamaha cooperated on the development of the 1.7-liter engine. In addition to applying a specialized NiCaSil bore-plating process to aluminum cylinder blocks, Yamaha will assemble the engines.

Ford and Yamaha have cooperated on engines in the past, most notably on the high-power engine for the US Ford Taurus SHO.

Some parts, such as the forged crankshaft, will be sourced in Japan. Others are shipped from Europe. Rough-machined 1.7-liter cylinder blocks from Ford's Valencia plant in Spain are shipped to Yamaha in Japan for NiCaSil plating.

The bore-plating process allows very close tolerances. The plated cylinders allow the pistons to operate directly in the aluminum block without wear. The 1.4-liter engine uses the same casting. Boring the casting to 1.7 liters left no room for cylinder liners.

The process takes 20-25 minutes per block. Puma chief project engineer Phil McGuire said the bore-plating process takes too long to fit in with mainstream engine plants, where the longest cycle time is six minutes.

Completed engines are shipped from Japan to Ford's Cologne plant where the Puma is assembled.

'This low-volume assembly operation would not be practical within one of Ford's own conventional engine plants,' says the company's Puma press documentation.

Planned volume for the Puma is 20,000 units a year. The car will be launched in the UK in July and by late September in the rest of Europe.

Link: http://europe.autonews.com/article/19970707/ANE/707070802/yamaha-coats-cylinders-for-ford-puma" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
The 1.7 was originally even meant to be used in a Puma RS Turbo too :roll: Apparantely two prototypes were made, one still existing. In the end the decision fell for the Focus ST/RS as they saw more sales potential for this.
 
YOG said:
Link: http://europe.autonews.com/article/19970707/ANE/707070802/yamaha-coats-cylinders-for-ford-puma" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Click to expand...

Thanks!

Sjoerd said:
The 1.7 was originally even meant to be used in a Puma RS Turbo too :roll: Apparantely two prototypes were made, one still existing. In the end the decision fell for the Focus ST/RS as they saw more sales potential for this.
Click to expand...

They should have produced it.

mix2000 said:
Thunderpuma said:
Please mix 2000 go to the attic and collect some dust and interesting magazines :D
Click to expand...
There be dragons :shock:
Click to expand...

Take a sword with you!

46474.jpg
 
Erm well it's a 1.672 or something like that and it's the same as many other car makes the punto which is a 1.242 (1.2) so they just round it up or down to the nearest .50 or so this is just a presumption I have no actual info on this.
 
gingerdave said:
Why did they choose such an odd size capacity,1.7.Is it something to do with mainland Europe taxation classes ie Citroen did similar capacity,???
Click to expand...

I would think it is maximum to be squeezed reliably out of that engine block. 80 mm bore and 83,5 mm stroke….
 
gingerdave said:
Why did they choose such an odd size capacity,1.7.Is it something to do with mainland Europe taxation classes ie Citroen did similar capacity,???
Click to expand...

I do not think that it is the reason, but yes at least in Spain it is in the very limit of the low tax class. The equation gives 16.98 while 17 cars pay double.

My bike is just the opposite, 1002 cm3 for a bike means it pays double than a 999 cm3 one or a Puma :evil:
 
It will be the max bore size they can squeeze out of the block otherwise it would have cast iron liners rather than the Nikasil plating.
Barry
 
Resurrecting an old thread, but does the news article above mean Yamaha had nothing to do with the Puma's cylinder head and VCT system?
 
Does that mean I could drop a V8 yamaha from the Volvo S80/XC90 under the bonnet

now that would sound epic, and be fairy sprintly off the line :p
 
Somewhere deep in my thinking lurks a stripped out Yamaha R1 engined Puma. Now that would be something else!
 
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