Puma 4x4 Cosworth

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McCloud 85

Member
Joined
May 13, 2015
Messages
160
As promised I thought I would make a thread about my progress with my latest project. Some of you will probably already know the car well and hopefully I won't disappoint too much with my efforts.

For those that don't know it too well, it is a puma with the S1600 kit and converted to run the 4x4 Escort Cosworth engine and running gear. The shell I am lead to believe was converted by a company called DJM and the rest of it was built by Pumaspeed, which the latter unfortunately wasn't the best for it.

Still it had covered nearly 20,000 miles by the time I bought it so some aspects weren't all that bad.

So on to the photos, to date I have over 300 photos of work I have done to the car and aspects of it that I'm trying to photo so I have something to go back over. I will share all the interesting ones as some are quite repetitive!

So this is how the car arrived at home, it was dry when it turned up and then quickly rained an hour or so later which showed the cars first gremlins..




I noticed after it had rained for an hour or so that there was a rather large oil slick appearing running down the driveway.. I knew the car was a bit oily but wasn't quite expecting this amount! In total by the time the rain had stopped the patch was half the size of the car out to one side so I knew then I needed to do something about it.

I took it for my first drive a few days later and over a couple of days covered around 20-30 miles in it. Bit clunky and very noisy but as I was expecting to be honest.. I was told about the release bearing whining but after my first few journeys it was something I knew I had to get fixed.. The clutch pedal was awful and even for a cable clutch it was bad so had a look into this..

Found these!



These were wedged in between the rubber stop and plastic housing case on the bulkhead around the cable.. The idea being I guess to take up some slack on the cable but in doing so made it stiff and feel horrible.. With them removed and the self adjust quadrant on the clutch pedal allowed to adjust the cable feels better, although the pedal still flaps a bit before it starts operating the cable. Eventually I will move it onto a hydraulic clutch and put the standard puma pedal box back in.

At this point with one little task investigated I had an opportunity to take some better pics of the car










Lastly a photo with brother Ben's Puma in the background



Left the car for a few days and noticed that it was full of condensation.. It had been raining so I knew I had a leak somewhere which turned out to be a pretty bad one..



Someone had butchered the bulkhead grommet that allows the ECU wiring to run into the engine bay, so badly that my footwell was full of water.. I knew this was going to need to be replaced but the only way to do it using the standard grommet was to get another from the scrap yard and feed a new loom through it.. At this stage this was put on hold and the release bearing was the next aspect to tackle..

Will get the next update posted shortly.

Thanks for looking

Dan
 
This looks very interesting. A project fraught with issues undoubtedly, but with the potential to be something very special indeed.

When did you buy it and, (if you don't mind me asking), how much did you pay for it?
 
JSP said:
This looks very interesting. A project fraught with issues undoubtedly, but with the potential to be something very special indeed.

When did you buy it and, (if you don't mind me asking), how much did you pay for it?

Definitely fraught with issues, but I'm slowly getting though them. I've had the car since last October so a little while now, I think I paid a fair price for it considering the parts fitted.

red said:
Cracking car and project. Bet it will be thoroughly enjoyed!

I do hope so, i've only recently covered 80 odd miles in it in one stint successfully!
 
I'm going to follow this with interest. Great first post. I like many pictures and lots of detail :D

Edit: Its rather sad, but I'm quite excited this is on the forum (again?). I feel like I'm finally getting to (almost) meet that really interesting friend/relative I've always wanted to get to know :/
 
If it only had 20,000 miles on the clock in Oct. it must be the lowest mileage Puma on here, or have I misunderstood that bit?
 
Richard Mansfield has the lowest known mileage with circa 14k. It is damn near immaculate. Look for his project thread.
 
JSP said:
If it only had 20,000 miles on the clock in Oct. it must be the lowest mileage Puma on here, or have I misunderstood that bit?

Yeah that's right. I believe the clocks were at 0 when the car was first built and therefore show an accurate reading of mileage. Unfortunately though it really doesn't look like it's only covered 20k and when I got it more like 120k!!

Lots more work still to do!
 
What a monster!

Any details of how the shell was built? Is it a Puma body on an Escort floor?
 
peppyuk said:
What a monster!

Any details of how the shell was built? Is it a Puma body on an Escort floor?

As far as I know the shell was bought new from Ford and sent to DJM for fabrication. They custom made the front sub frame mounts, tunnel and rear beam mounts into the shell. It is therefore a complete puma shell with only these areas adapted to take the different running gear. The fabrication itself has been done very well and it means that all the original seat mount locations have all been retained.

I do have with the history of the car some original photos of when the shell was first built, at some point I'll try and get those put up. The problem with the car has been how it was built up from a shell and adapted since.
 
Time for an update on some of the progress to date.

As I started working on this car it was quite a steep learning curve for me, for the past 12 years or so all I had messed about with was front wheel drive cars and so my knowledge was limited when it came to rear wheel drive and 4x4. I knew all the basics in terms of how they worked and what everything did, but the mechanical detail I was lacking and so perhaps missed some bits earlier on that I really should have picked up on!

Needless to say it was all experiences that has given me a much better understanding of how this particular car has been built and what will improve it.

On to the photos.. So first up was to get the gearbox out to replace the release bearing which was making an awful noise! Gearbox out



And the noisy bearing - knackered!



Though on getting the box off I came across a host of other problems, first up I noticed that the rubber doughnut used as a coupling between the gearbox output shaft and prop shaft was knackered





So I knew this would need to be replaced.. Easy enough or so I thought. This is the older hexagonal type, the type fitted to the early Sapphire 4x4s.. So what it was doing on this car I don't know. It turns out that the propshaft was also the early Sapphire 4x4 item. The problem being you can not get this part for love nor money. They are simply not available anymore. Ford changed it for a different design in the later sapphires and for the escort cosworth. So I had to order the later one.. Problem solved.. For now.

I also noticed this but thought nothing of it at the time being told that it shouldn't cause an issue



This is the output shaft of the gearbox cut off to allow the early doughnut to fit, later this was going to cause me no end of issues!

Whilst the box was out and the starter had been removed I also noticed the breather drain pipe to the sump simply was not connected and therefore draining oil all over the side of the engine.. Another aspect to address.



The front UJ on the front propshaft was also knackered and had loads of play in it.. I've heard that this can fail whilst driving and take the diff, sump and a mass of other bits out so lucky I caught it whilst still attached

Old one out



New one ready to go in



Fitted



The gear lever frame also had some strange modifications.. I know what the aim was but to me this is not the way to stiffen the mounts onto the gearbox.. Welded washers over the original ford mounts..




So a set of poly bushes later (wanted some vibrations taken out as you can get solid aluminium mounts) and a quick test fit on to the gearbox



Whilst the box was out I decided to check the clutch, and I was dubious as to whether the rear crank seal was leaking so now was the time to change.. Good job I did. Had a snapped clutch bolt left in the flywheel so the clutch was only on with 5 bolts.. Great!



Someone knew this has happened when the clutch was fitted so why it was left is anyone's guess. So drilled it out.. Taped a new thread and fitted a helicoil. Nice new thread for the 6th bolt.




This was the suspect rear crank seal so out it came ready for a new one to be fitted



So new parts ordered.. By this stage I had noticed a leak in the gear selector shaft on the gearbox so got a new seal for that.. I had also realised that the sump was leaking.. So as I had the box out I thought now would be the time to replace.. Easy said than done!!!



Will update the next stage soon, thanks for looking guys.
 
I think what needs to be remembered here with this car before Pumaspeeds name gets dragged through the mud.... And the same when Warren had one is that these cars were built to be the first Cossie powered Puma's. They're not designed to be around for 15/20 years and still be mint. In fact they were never mint.
They were thrown together in an attempt to be the first.

A very good friend of mine worked at PumaSpeed and built these cars. He knows them inside out and is always will to offer any advice or help you might need with it!

That said... EPIC car and I look forward to seeing the build progress.
 
This is a fascinating look into the world of custom built cars! It looks like you'll be the one to truly sort it and realise its potential.

Great thread!
 
:cool: excellent work so far! I'm sure this comment will repeat throughout your thread as you update it.
 
PumaJay said:
I think what needs to be remembered here with this car before Pumaspeeds name gets dragged through the mud.... And the same when Warren had one is that these cars were built to be the first Cossie powered Puma's. They're not designed to be around for 15/20 years and still be mint. In fact they were never mint.
They were thrown together in an attempt to be the first.

A very good friend of mine worked at PumaSpeed and built these cars. He knows them inside out and is always will to offer any advice or help you might need with it!

That said... EPIC car and I look forward to seeing the build progress.

My aim is not to drag anyone one or any company through the dirt here, my aim is to show my journey and experiences with the car as I try to build it into something that I can enjoy for as long as I own the car.

I know this car was built as a 'demo car' to show what could be done/advertise. I don't know the circumstances around the build in relation to timescales and budgets and therefore can't really make too many comments on it. I can't be certain either how much has been changed and by who over the years. That said it has lasted 12/13 years now I think if not more so what has been done can't of been that bad.

This is Warrens old car so as far as I know this was the only one built, if you do know someone who worked on the initial build it would be great to chat to them as it would be a great help going forward.

Hopefully my future updates won't offend!!

Thanks for all the comments guys, will try and get another update put together soon.

Dan
 
Its one of my best friends that actually built it with Tony at Pumaspeed many years ago, he also developed the 300mm front brake kit that is now one of the first mods most people will plan for there car.

I remember his reaction and first words when he saw Warren driving it a few years back.... it was "Bloody hell, didnt expect that thing to still be around"

Really hope you can do the car justice and restore it to is former glory, its an animal!
 
Update time..

So whilst I had a lot of the transmission out I decided to give it a good clean as over the years it had become quite 'sludged' up

Gearbox cleaned




Whilst the gear-lever cradle was off I noticed that a modification has been made to the gear level itself.. This basically makes it a shorter throw between gears, don't know by how much as I didn't have a standard item to compare to but for now left on as I quite liked the feel it did give.



I was suspicious that the sump was leaking so with the transmission already removed I figured now was the time to do it, it also meant that everything could get a good clean.

Sub frame and sump out..




As you can see they were quite dirty so set about getting it all clean..





Quick shot of the underside of the business end of the engine



With that all cleaned I set about getting the sump back on.. Sealer applied



After many hours managed to get the engine all bolted back in properly, a bit cleaner underneath!



I noticed whilst the front shafts were out that the inner cvs were knackered.. At this point I needed to get the car moving again... So put them back together as they were holding ok knowing that these would need addressing quite quickly



With the underside finished for now, I turned my attentions to the leaking cam cover. New cam shaft seals on the front and the cam cover sealed down with an instant gasket ( which I later regretted!)






With the car back down I removed the front splitter.. At some point this will be remade and fitted back again but the current one was badly damaged and needed to be taken off before it fell off! I had to remove the front bumper to remove the splitter support in the middle.. This was not easy, the bolts holding the wings to the bumper were rusted and would not budge easily!





With that done I fitted the bumper back, except this time didn't fit back the bolts in the front of the wings. I knew I needed to take this bumper off again a number of times and where the bolts are located are difficult to get to and not very well installed. So dare I say it for now they have cable ties through the holes to hold the join tight. It works surprisingly well and better than the bolts as the old ones weren't really doing much. When I concentrate on the shell at a later date then this area will be improved and stainless steel bolts installed, maybe even studs into the fibreglass so it's only a nut on one side.

That's all for now, I'll get some more photos up soon.

Thanks for looking

Dan
 
Those wing bolts are a pain in the proverbial.
They are about an inch longer than they need to be and the thread can get really weathered. (as yours have)
I`m sizing up some Dzus fasteners to take the hassle out of whipping the bumper off.

It`s nice to work on a clean motor isn`t it..
 

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