DaMaJiN Track Puma

We've (me and my friend) finally done it, after 10 years of talking about getting one a friend kindly dontated his Puma to us for use as a track car. For the moment we are keeping it on the road/MOT. Here it is, yes it looks like every other Silver Puma at the moment.



So far we have done:
Replaced front bushes for Polybushes
Stripped interior
St/Steel Brake Lies
Wheel Bearings & little things like that
FRP Airbox Mod
Racing Battery & Relocated

I think that is all we did before taking it to our local track Castle Combe. Quick little video below of the interesting bits, including a wheel coming off the car infront!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_Use1-qgIw&list=UUWmRWrg3S1Ayl-C6VJSUtCQ[/youtube]
Can't get embedded Youtube videos to work? Here's the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_Use1-qgIw&list=UUWmRWrg3S1Ayl-C6VJSUtCQ
Had problems in the wet, car would stutter at anything above 4,200rpm so kept revs below that. Dried out in the afternoon and we replaced the suspect coil pack.

We came away absolutely buzzing! We did realise we need better brakes, we have a set of ST150 brakes which should be ready to put on in a couple of weeks. Been helping build a sand/soda blasting cabinet so should be able to get going on the brakes next weekend, then paint, then fit!

TODO List:
Fit Pipercross manifold/exhaust/sports cat
Fit FRP Cams/FRP map/Timing Belt/etc
Fit ST150 Brakes
Sort Cold Air Feed

No doubt there will be updates within the next few weeks. Also helping friends with their cars, RS2000 mk2 and my friend who has the share in the Puma is currently trying to take out/put back in his V8 in his Capri... It's all go at the moment so don't know how quickly things will get done!

best thing is you had fun and thats what tracking is all about. No doubting you will have an awesome track when your finished

UPDATE

It's been 2 years and not a lot has changed. I don't think a lot has changed, but this is the year things will be happening with the Puma. I have some more time on my hands and finally bought some tools!

Fit Pipercross manifold/exhaust/sports cat - Being Done Tomorrow
Fit FRP Cams/FRP map/Timing Belt/etc - Still not done - May need someone in Bristol to do this??
Fit ST150 Brakes - Fitted
Sort Cold Air Feed - Still not done
Oil Pressure Gauge - Fitted

ST150 brakes are epic! They did not over heat and felt pretty epic. We had a horrid vibration from them when stamping/braking from +100mph so we've put new discs and a set of Mintex 1144's on, hopefully they will good.
Picture below of the ST150 brakes fitted & the standard Puma brakes


Before & After


Exhaust & Manifold & Sports Cat
Got this from old FleaBay.

I've wrapped the manifold in ThermoTec Copper Exhaust Wrap and sprayed it with the Hi Heat Spray protection. I will say I never want to wrap another manifold in my life! I extended the Lambda Sensor wires, fingers crossed it all works. It's getting fitted tomorrow along with the Sports Cat... Hopefully!

Coilovers/ARBS
Fitted AP Coilovers about a year ago, they are wound as low as they can go! It now has no suspension, feels like a go-kart. The draw backs are it is now extremely tail happy. You do not really need lift-off-oversteer, give the steering wheel a tug and the back will break free.. I'm not sure if it is the height/lowness that is exaggerating this or something else. I have some cheap FleaBay adjustable drop links to go on to take the tension of the ARB. Someone said they weren't very good and in the end got the standard ones cut n welded to size. I'll probably do the same, once I know what size I need, that's what I'll use the adjustable ones for.

We still have a lot of small jobs to do, but I think there is always something to be done.
ToDo
Foamlux Door Cards - Does anyone have a template?
GoPro Mount for 3 axis Gimbal
Remove ABS & Fit Brake Bias Valve
Remove AirCon - Maybe to do this when fitting Cams & Timing Belt - My mechanic wasn't too happy about doing all this.
Fit Bucket Seat - Bought, but need some bars welding in to fit runners

Castle Combe
Had a few track days at Castle Combe now as it's our local track (15 minutes away). The problem with Castle Combe is it is a power track and that is the one thing the Puma is lacking, we can make up a lot under braking and cornering but all is lost on the straights. We've been using Harry's Lap Timer with Bluetooth GPS - XGPS160 - 10hz all on the iPhone. I've been managing 1.27(fastest I've done and only once) and consistent 1.28-1.29's, but no idea if this is slow or fast for a Puma at Castle Combe, this is with 2 people with a combined weight of 200kg.

Anyway here's a photo of me shitting my pants as I'm sideways through Camp Corner at about 80mph. I survived!

Tried Forscan today and it threw up a few errors, car feels fine though.?

If I get some time I will try replacing the Lambda Sensor to see if that cures P1131 / HO2S11, but I am purely guessing here!




Anyone have any ideas/fixes/solutions on these errors?

TRACK DAY - Castle Combe

21st March Castle Combe Track Day.
Weather was great, noise test was surprising at 96dB from the 86dB we had with the previous exhaust system. Car was running great, stopped for lunch, then we went back out again... Then something happened.

Coming over Avon Rise at over 100mph into quarry, going down from 5th to 4th gear, it would not go in gear... Still braking, still trying to get it into gear, then tried 3rd gear, then decided to cruise to the chicane and pull over out of sight of the other cars.

The good thing is I got to go in the Recovery truck for the first time! Back in the pits there was a lot of head scratching going on, luckily there was some guys who worked on Pumas and suggested we bleed the clutch, thanks Disco Stu for lending us some spanners! Bled clutch, ruled out master cylinder & servo, definately clutch or gearbox issue. That was the end of our day, we toe'd the Puma home, luckily only 15 minutes away.

I did manage to record my Friend (the other owner) driving the car along with the ECU & GPS data. You'll notice there is a problem with reading the ECU data, it is very slow at reading, despite the latency being very low.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6rmV95Y6Qc[/youtube]

The following weekend I (& my mechanic) took out the gearbox and found this:


That would be the problem then and the reason why it wouldn't go into gear, and when it did go into gear it would drive, without the clutch being up.

Also noticed the diff/driveshaft oil seals were dirty, so bought a new Puma LUK clutch kit and seals. There was also a little bit of play in the diff, but the gearbox should be fine.


Flywheel needed surface grinding, I got this done at work as we have a machine for doing flywheels.
Before:

After:


While the suspension was pretty much dismantled I installed new ARB bushes, there was a lot of play in these, so much I could move the ARB with my finger in the old bushes. Purple new, black old.


Got everything back together on Saturday. Started it up to find a horrible noise..
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7A_uGrG9So[/youtube]
The bearings have gone, there has always been a noise that I thought as the Clutch release bearing, which we replaced when we did the clutch. The noise is 10 times worse, dissappears when you put your foot on the clutch. Driving along you can just hear the bearing noise. So a replacement gearbox is needed!

Guess what I'm doing this weekend! :roll:

I feel for you mate, good write up though! My last outing ended with taking a seat in a warm recovery truck, difference was my journey took almost 4 hours with two different companies!

Nice write-up. A new gearbox shouldn't be too hard to find! You can also consider a LSD upgrade from a RST for more 'traction'

If his car is already tail happy, that is not something I would suggest...... :grin: WIth LSD the car turns in like there is no tomorrow :wink:

To stop the box going again, you should be replacing the gearbox oil every track day you do. If the box doesn't have a drain, you'll need to drill and tap one in. The early IB5 ones had a drain plug. Unfortunately I don't have a pic, but if someone posts one up of the underneath of it looking at the centre join towards the bell-housing I can poin put out where it's meant to go.

No gearbox is sealed for life!! It frustrates me that Ford used to say that.

Thanks guys! I should be updating this thread quite a bit. This weekend I'll be fitting gearbox, changing Lambda, checking/changing rear shoes (they feel like they have worn to metal). Hopefully it'll be ready for Combe on April 29th.

Replace gearbox oil every track day!?? You have got to be joking, that would be £45 in gearbox oil alone, every month! What oil do you use? The current box has a drain plug, I'm hoping the box I have turning up tomorrow will have a drain plug, total cost was £95 inc p&p for a box with no noises or grinding and 42k on it, which I didn't think was too bad.

I have been keeping my eye out for an LSD in an IB5 box and they are all quite pricey. Now we have a spare box that needs new bearings, we are going to keep an eye out for an LSD and Focus 1.6 final drive (same as FRP). It might get stripped down next year.... Probably not. :lol:

I would money on the fact the bearings have gone through degraded oil.

Up to you, but I would change every track day. Especially if you're hammering it for most of the day.

If you're only doing 10mins mac each stint on an open pit lane day ou might get away with every couple of days.

Gearbox oil gets extremely hot round track, temps around 120-130 are common. If you are regularly in and above that zone you'll need to change the oil as it'll break down quickly.

Always use fully synthetic 75w-90. Halfords stuff will be fine, Castrol or Ford stuff but that's expensive.

Another weekend, Another Gearbox installed

Here is the gearbox coming out just before it started to rain with hail!

No more photo's as we were dodging the rain by stopping for coffee breaks!

All went together a lot easier than the last time. I was able to source some gearbox bolts which came in handy as mine were pretty bad. We got it together and the rain stopped! No more horrid noises coming from the gearbox now! Took it for a little test drive and it certainly feels better than the previous gearbox!

I filled it which QX Fully Synthetic 75w-90, cheap stuff. We'll do a track day, drain what we can, as there is no drain plug, then think about filling it with a performance oil that works better at higher temps.

Sunday morning the sky was blue and the sun was shining. It was a perfect day for going to Queens Square Car Club meet and going mountain biking! A friend arrived at 8am to pick me and my bike up, he did not welcome me with good news, "Did you know your Puma has a flat tyre?"



No I didn't know, Dammit!

I've decided on Uniroyal Rainsport 3's, going to get two tyres and put them on the front, then put the Yoko eco tyres from the front on to the rears. We have some 16" wheels to go on at some point, we'll probably keep those as semi-slicks for dry track use and the RS3's as cold, damp, wet tyres. Wednesday I'm getting two RS3's put on for £48 each/fitted.

Along with the gearbox bolts I was able to get 2x Corbeau seat subframes, starter motor and an alternator for a very cheap price. The seat subframes look nice and low, just have to work out how to fit them to the seat runners we have.



Saturday we are replacing the rear subframe bushes for Powerflex ones, changing the lambda. We are also going to redo the front braided hoses, as hopefully Ford will have got the right part in for the inner wing brake clips between brake pipe and hose. Twice they have got the wrong part and then tried to tell me its part of the inner wing! I showed him a photo and he has ordered a lockring. I should be picking this up at lunch today.

moondustka said:

[post]349491[/post] Unfortunately I don't have a pic, but if someone posts one up of the underneath of it looking at the centre join towards the bell-housing I can point put out where it's meant to go.

Click to expand...

This was the best pic around that I could find - http://www.projectpuma.com/viewtopic.php?p=222768#p222768

In theory, the old oil could be syphoned out from the filler, but 70-90 is pretty thick so pumped out under power would be more effective. Even then, wouldn't be as effective as a drain plug!

I used the bolt/hole circled in red to drain it. I filled it through the gearbox breather hole. Seemed to work!

If I can find a box I will get a pic up. The bolt circles in red won't drain all the oil. It will do some, though, and better than nothing.

The drain is further down and in the centre of the box, round where the casing splits. As I said in other threads not all boxes had the drain plug.

No I had to do mine thru the one highlited, tipped the back of the car up in the air to help

Milkie said:

[post]349867[/post]

I used the bolt/hole circled in red to drain it. I filled it through the gearbox breather hole. Seemed to work!

Click to expand...

You have converted your gearbox system to cable shifting?

No it's just a random photo of an IB5. It's not a Puma, well, my engine bay doesn't look anything like that. :wink:

Managed to get about 2.5L out of that hole, which I'm pretty happy with. k:

2.5l is pretty good going from that plug!

Another Month Another Track Day Another Update

We did a trackday sometime in May and the takeaway notes were:

Raise suspension as the inner arch is rubbing/cutting the front tyres
Why is the gearbox leaking oil.. It would help if you put the breather back in the correct way!
The RainSport 3 tyres were actually pretty good, but overheated quickly and will not last too long. The photo below shows the tyres after half a day at Castle Combe.



Fast Forward to last week and I realised I had better start the Puma and drive it to work as we have a trackday at the end of the week and it's been sat doing nothing.

Bought some Foamlux and created 2 doorcards. The main reason for this was when we were sat as a passenger our knees rested on a bolt on the door and we both came away with bruises after every trackday.

It's not the best fit, I used 3mm and 2mm would've been easier, as you can see there is a bulge I couldn't avoid.

3D printed a mount/stabiliser for the GoPro and it is a lot more stable.


Raised the front coilovers by 15mm and levelled the rears so they sit 10mm below the fronts.

I noticed a knocking coming from the front left suspension. I realised it was also doing this at the previous trackday, but had got a lot worse.. Strut top mount nut was loose! I went to tighten it and found this...

The other side is an allen bolt, this one has been well and truly foobared! I managed to use a hammer and a T30 12 pt and hit it on and torqued it up to the correct value... Not sure what we are going to do when we need to remove n refit!

Trackday!!!
Arrived early, it started cloudy but by the time the track opened it was nice n sunny with blue skies. We knew the weather was going to turn at lunch, so we made the most of the morning. There were two us driving and we did 15/20 minutes out then 10/15 minutes in the pits, swap and back out. Just before lunch the weather hit..

There were rivers in the paddock. After lunch we went back out with the first brave/stupid drivers, it was very wet, cars sliding off and a lot of spray. There were many moments where all you could see was spray, but knew there was a car in front. Within 30 minutes there were dry lines starting to form and we were able to push a little more.

3pm and the rain hit again, we called it a day. We had a good day, despite there being some idiots who would not let us pass.. It is the same everytime we go to Castle Combe, if it is a Mini Cooper S or an Elise they will not let us pass. This happens nearly every track day, but they usually get the message when you fill their mirrors with your car and then flash them in the braking zone. I think they think they are not holding us back and are doing well 'a real good battle', when in truth I'm cruising behind, hardly braking and having a natter with my passenger. In the briefing they do bang on about letting cars pass "If you can see them in your mirrors, they are quicker than you, let them pass". It gets very frustrating when you are behind a car for 6 laps and they will not let you pass, but it wasn't too bad as the only car he seemed to let pass was a Porsche turbo. At one point there was an 8 car train behind them.

I nearly ran out of talent at quarry. I decided I would try the big balls move... 110mph over Avon Rise then started braking, out of the windscreen we could see the barrier on the left, lifted off the brakes and swung her right.. Queue a 4 wheel slide around quarry, planting the throttle, hoping it pulls out of the slide and we stay on the track.. I got a couple of thumbs up from the 2 Caterhams following me into Quarry, I decided to back off a little bit and managed my 2nd fastest time every. The lap before my 'moment' was my fastest every at 1:28.

Takeaways from the Trackday
We need more power, need to the FRP cams and ECU we have in the garage.
The suspension height change didn't seem to affect the handling of the car too much. I noticed it slid sideways on all four corners rather than the back trying to come round the front, which meant we could push a little more without having to worry about spinning.

Problem
The dash resets all the time when on the track. It just randomly stops working, then the needles go to their max then back to working normaly. We think it has something to do with our Alternator being a bit dodgy, we did notice it was overcharging at 16v at one point.

We are not sure when we will be able to do another track day at Combe. I've nearly ran out of holiday for the year and so has the other driver... But if any of you are going to CC for a trackday, drop us a message, we may be able to pop along! :wink: