Mr Fox's Puma

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Fair while since an update, long time without a drivable puma and May was an expensive month!

As mentioned exhaust blew again at Rockingham and suffered a bad petrol leak which meant had no choice but to be recovered all the way to Southend!

From where it was leaking I was sure it the Filler Pipe which I replaced and drove it to the nearest exhaust garage for replacing (which I guessed) would be the flex perished.. nope gigantic hole in the mani and 2/3 pipes completely cracked not to mention it looked like a dug up dinosaur bone!

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Ordered an FRP special (advertised for puma) which was completely the wrong shape/angle! (received full refund from the seller) but my track day at Snetterton was approaching and I was stuck for getting a working exhaust system.

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Making matters slightly worse was as the font was lifted to fit the mani petrol again started pouring out around the filler pipe exit! No doubt it was actually the tank this time, luckily I hadn't sold my full refurbished and rustproofed tank!!

Spot the tiny hole(s) causing all that bother!
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Old vs New!
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Finally sourced a proper FRP Piper mainifold (it's a beast!) but unlike the sportex which fitted the length of the standard centre section it was 2” too long (this wasn't really an issue as I wanted a flex welded in anyway so needed taking back the exhaust place)

Id also got hold of a Hoffman race tube but decided to stick with my powerflow centre instead
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Poly Exhaust mounts from Pumabuild
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Floating car! notice the bag of compost (only thing I had to soak up the petrol!)
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Can tell the Piper has increased torque and likely a bit of bhp.

Stripped back some of the exterior decals and re-did the orange plasticdip bits, looking lots better.

Was finally ready for Snetteron with 2 days to spare and the car performed brilliantly, although on road tyres, predicted rain for most of the day and at 5am where was huge puddles everywhere so decided to not even bother taking the 888's sticking with rainsports, once I the first session it had all dried up and no rain for the whole day, I even got mildly sunburnt! It handled a lot better than I remember it did, I think the areo improvements in the rear bumper genuinely makes I difference turning at speed and the battery relocation balanced thing out more.

Went to my first Essex Ford Facebook group meet yesterday in Ingatestone Chelmsford. Great turn out and there's another next month.

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moondustka said:
[post]352523[/post] Looking good :cool:

Thanks man, nice meeting you at FF, your puma as a whole is beautiful!

PumaThunder said:
[post]353551[/post] This is looking so good!

TY

PumaJay said:
[post]353687[/post] Cars look good dude! We all need to get on track again soon and have a play!

Seasons not over for you yet then, when you next planning an outing?


So haven't updated this for a good couple of months, not a whole lot has changed apart from some cosmetic tweaks as I wanted something new for FF on Sunday so fitted some canards I had for a while and drilled the front bumper nothing else has changed apart from giving the engine bay a good clean.

Next things are fitting Vibratechnics Engine and torque mounts I've recently got my hands on to go along with the gearbox one already installed and getting some brake pipes made up so the mk3 mondeo servo and master cylinder can go on.

After that a rear brake conversion and poly windows and fibreglass panels.

Given reasonable time/funds after that I'd like to install a rear cage, lsd and lighted flywheel and the project would be finished in my eyes (not going to be chasing any more power as I set out for 150bhp/ton and got there)

I did take some phone pics at FF but they came out either dark or blurry (lot to do with being under the trees I think) but here's a couple with the bonnet up before heading off in the morning

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Once again a good while with no changes (nearly 3 months) but got some bits done today.

10mm axle spacer swapped over for 30mm billet ones, sits beautiful at the rear and hopefully provides more stability with the extra 40mm of track.

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after (rears and fronts in line)
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Re-greased offside drum bearing as was looking dry, also replaced oem exhaust mounts for orange poly ones which you can see in the photo.
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Had a goosey at the front pads and unfortunately due to the high ferrous content of the DS2500's they had again fairly badly crumbled round the sides and had to choice but replace them with oem pagids, with the super blue fluid and braided lines be interesting to see how they fair on track, plus with winter setting in it would be a lot safer running them as I have to admit the ferodo's were really quite wooden in the cold on the road!

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Also gave her an oil change with Formula F and cleaned and re-oiled my old piper panel filter (looking tired now and needs replacing) and fitted a 300mm rear mirror for better track visibility and can concentrate more on what in front of me than what's behind

At Snetterton this Tuesday so will get some action pics up that evening.
 
Didn't have any track shots but here's a selfie on the day..

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So Last trackday of the year at Rockingham this Saturday and thought I'd tweak the car slightly

When Scott was selling his trackday car I brought his fibreglass bonnet off him (this was the first mould from the member once known as kizza) my plan was to wrap it but it needed quite a bit of filling and sanding first, its mostly a single skin but has the double skin hinge fitment with two support bars running through it, II will break this all off at some point and fit using 4 pins but for today I just wanted to get it on.

the 3d vinyl wrap I got for 99p (sold as used via ebay by some guy that had loads left over) the reflective L-plate was £8 and the orange graphic was £6

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sanded down the edges flat so the vinyl would stick once folded over
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Other jobs I did was covered the drivers well with griptape so no more squeaking and slipping feet.
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Saw a couple of car fluid funnel things for 50p and pictured brake ducting in my mind so cut them up and attached too two 53mm silicone tubes
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You may notice on the wing mirrors from the photos in last post some small black fins to 'help' aero.
 
Oh and I have a 1.7 turbo engine in the shed! (which I'll likely just be pinching the ported&polished head off)

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stuvy said:
[post]358802[/post] What's your 1.7 turbo built up from?

1.7 sigma, 65K, Ported and polished head, Top end rebuild, De comp plate 8.5 to 1 compression, Modine oil cooler, Fresh cam belt and tensioner, Modified sump with 8 connector (for turbo oil return) and T piece (high pressure oil feed)
 
Sorry to pester but what turbo and pistons/crank are you running? Lastly did you do the work yourself?
 
stuvy said:
[post]358807[/post] Sorry to pester but what turbo and pistons/crank are you running? Lastly did you do the work yourself?

I brought the engine as you see it in the photo recently (i.e without turbo) no forged internals but ran 180bhp.

I'm not a mechanic/engineer so wouldn't attempt any work on it. I brought it purely for the head and will be selling the rest on (likely replacing the head) If you're interested (or fancy twisting my arm with the head) pm me :)
 
AeroCatches Fitted

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Had lots of wrap left over so did the bumper 'lip' too, getting used to this wrapping malarkey.

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Looking nice, especally the bonnet.

One question though: are you allowed to have those flaps when driving on public roads (danger to passengers and pets etc...)?
 
Wild E. Coyote said:
Looking nice, especally the bonnet.

One question though: are you allowed to have those flaps when driving on public roads (danger to passengers and pets etc...)?

Reasonable question, probably not but I'm not sure on them being 'illegal' they don't extend passed the front arches but can easily remove them so probably will do from now on just in case.

PumaJay said:
Looking good.

Made a very good job of the bonnet and catches!

Well you say that but where the catches have been screwed down flat onto the curved surface this has pushed the front of the bonnet outwards so I have a pretty nasty overlap unfortunately :( but thanks.

Brian' said:
Bonnet is looking really nice Neil! Good job on the wrapping. Keep up the good work :eek:k:

That bumper infill was 20 times harder than the bonnet I tell you.
 

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