Puma 1.7 VCT from Portugal

ProjectPuma

Help Support ProjectPuma:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Wild E. Coyote said:
Passing finger at top and feeling something is normal. That is the TDC area where piston stops and starts going down again. That will be the burned oil. Clean it with something soft (a rag!). Clean the bores but don't scratch them. Just use compressed air and some degreaser and then try again. From experience, nikasil bores are very hard and you should see the honing marks on them.
To be able to do that, you should dismantle the bottom end. Regarding the parts needed for the overhaul there are options, but not from Ford.
I would just warn you about the set of piston rings on ebay advertised as for puma. They are not for puma, but for honda accord A18 engine. The first compression ring on that set is Chromed and I had my doubts about it so I sent email to Mahle since they invented nikasil and here is their response C/P:

'Hello Mr. Tkalcevic,

thank you for your email and your interest for our MAHLE products.

In this case you could take any piston ring, but no ring with the coating: Chrom !
That mean - Nikasil is a very hard coating, so you could'nt use also any "hard - strong ring coating" !

Nevertheless for your Puma engine we have no information about piston -, liner - and ring material - coating.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Kind regards

Peter Gann
MAHLE Aftermarket GmbH
Product Management Engine Systems and Components (MDE)'

There is work around that setback explained on other threads on this forum.

Thank you for your reply.

I already saw that thread about the rings. I wrote down the references from the NPR Europe ones for my reference. Very helpful info. Thanks a lot.

Will check better the wear of the liners asap. But as i don't know the mileage of the car (it has at least 165 000 kms, but may be 265 000) i am affraid that the wear may be a little bit more than just burned oil.

I am still looking for a replacement engine to put in the car while this one is refurbished.
 
FastLee said:
[post]367349[/post]

I already saw that thread about the rings. I wrote down the references from the NPR Europe ones for my reference. Very helpful info. Thanks a lot.

Will check better the wear of the liners asap. But as i don't know the mileage of the car (it has at least 165 000 kms, but may be 265 000) i am affraid that the wear may be a little bit more than just burned oil.

Nikasil is extremly hard material and is applied in very thin layer so there is most probably no wear there. If you see the honing marks, bores are OK.

I would go for the first compression ring from Nissan set, the second one from rover set and just reuse the oil scrapper after good clean.

The big end shells are not available from Ford (never were) but there is a get around by using suzuki ones. Check my thread, all the info is there.
 
Frank said:
[post]367348[/post]
Wild E. Coyote said:
[post]367346[/post] That will be the burned oil. Clean it with something soft (a rag!).
Not an angle grinder then?

I am affraid that might be a slight overkill! But than again, there is that famous Murphy's law: 'don't force it, use a bigger hammer...!'
 
Well. Just looked to the engine block, some of the crossed marks can still be seen on the cylinders. but from one side there is a wear mark near the top. It's a slight mark, but can be felt passing the finger nail.

Will put this engine standing by as i am on the move to get a running engine from UK.

Then, with the car running, i will overhaul this engine top to bottom.
 
If it looks like this https://www.google.hr/search?q=honing+marks&client=safari&rls=en&dcr=0&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjlwfSuiv7YAhXJXiwKHRa6AXYQ_AUICigB&biw=1280&bih=649 it is normal. Cylinder walls are NOT absolutely smooth to a mirror image
 
The marks are slightly faded, and in one of the sides of the cylinder top end, i feel a little edge when passing the fingernail right at the top of the area where the piston ring reaches.

New piston rings could solve the issue for some time but i am now waiting for another engine to put the car running

Then i will refurbish this one top to bottom probably with some machining and fitting new liners.
 
I have been thinking about this.

For a future refurbishment of my engine block.

Machining for 1,5 or 2 mm and new liners may be the option.
Cast iron liners?

How thick is the nikasil coating on the original block?
Can't it be done with a 0,5 machining and 0,5 oversize piston rings?
Or is the block too soft for that?

Just questions ;)
 
Nikasil is way to thin for that. The only viable option is to resleeve the engine with cast iron liners. Once that is done, and they are machned to the spec and honed, you can use that Honda NPR set without any problems. But whoever will be doing it must be very good at it; or you will warp the block and then it is goodbye.
The oversize story won't work as you can't get any, let alone oversized pistons
 
Wild E. Coyote said:
[post]367391[/post] Nikasil is way to thin for that. The only viable option is to resleeve the engine with cast iron liners. Once that is done, and they are machned to the spec and honed, you can use that Honda NPR set without any problems. But whoever will be doing it must be very good at it; or you will warp the block and then it is goodbye.
The oversize story won't work as you can't get any, let alone oversized pistons

That's what i suspected.
At the price that 1.7 Engines are beeing sold @ UK i will probably get one or two more.

This remembers me the issue i had in the past with the 1.3 TU2J2 engine from the 106 Rallye.
The liners are crazy espensive and very rare to find. So the option was to go for a 1.6 Block.

Once again, thank you for your help.
 
While the engine is on its way i am having a few people over here recomending the swap for a 2.0 Zetec from a Mondeo

I think it's the Silver Top.

Over here, swaps are a bit of a problem because os police operations and MOT's

But what could be the changes necessary to fit this engine?

Does the Puma gearbox fit?

Engine mounts wil need some fabrication i presume?

Just for curiosity

Thanks
 
So ... directly from UK to Portugal...

Another engine ... and just in case.. a gearbox

20180209_155003.jpg


Now it's just a matter of time :grin:
 
So .. My Puma had some progress made today.
Radiator fitted, a few other bits and bolts. It ran quite good until it reached the termperature to start the cooling fan. Everything looked fine. Heater inside blows hot air. So the Heater control valve should be ok.

This 40 quid engine has already some mileage, but for what i need for now it's okay

I have a bug that i think that i figured it out already. I got no temperature info in the instrument panel.
The engine that i have running now is a MHB. The car had a MHA
After checking the online parts calaogue it seems thar in the water assembly under the coilpack there are two senders for the MHA and just one for the MHB. I think this is the problem. Changing this will not be hard. What is a little more complicated is to pass the cables in some tiny spaces under the inlet manifold. Let's see if tomorrow i am in the mood for this.

Then, what's missing is to put oil in the gearbox and bleed the clutch. As i will need to replace the brake discs i probably will look for a big brake conversion from a 2001/2002 Puma

For now it's still in my initial budget for a fun car and with some cash for brake and fluids servicing. Then it just needs MOT and insurance, that over here can be as cheap as 200 euro per year or even less...

20180224_191245.jpg
 
I don't understand why you need to route the cable? It should already be there? You just swap the coilpack carrier (the coolant exit from the head assy) with the one you had on your old engine and you are good to go.
 
Wild E. Coyote said:
I don't understand why you need to route the cable? It should already be there? You just swap the coilpack carrier (the coolant exit from the head assy) with the one you had on your old engine and you are good to go.

Thanks for your reply.

As far as i have seen, the cable that came with my MHB engine does not have the conector to the temp sender but just the gray plastic plug to the temp sensor.

Today i bleed the clutch and pressure washed the engine bay. Maybe tomorrow i will solve the temp gauge issue.
 
No, you misunderstood. You already have the necessary loom in the car. Swap it completely to the MHB engine. Also, like I said, swap the small housing that acts as a coilpack carrier and you are OK to go
 
Agreeing with the above, you should have the necessary cablework already. I just put in my MHA engine three weeks ago, had the same problem (in my case a faulty sender, so quickly solved). We're talking about the upper part of the engine loom, which connects to your lower loom at the fender. It goes to the top of your engine, where at the side it connects to temp sensor (grey plug) and sender (black rubbery kind of connection, at loss for words here because I'm Dutch, sorry).
 
Hi. Thanks for the replys.

Yes. I just need to change that part of the loom in the engine and change the coilpack housing from the MHA. Probably tomorrow...

Yesterday i bleed the clutch and as it was sunny outside took it out from the garage to wash the engine bay.

20180225_160632.jpg


20180225_160606.jpg


Later, turning the lights on, i started hearing a buzzer noise from the left headlight. Took it out and the leveling motor is jammed and the plastic gears are shredded. But worse than that, the wiring inside the headlight had the plastic insulator falling apart in pieces.

So today, i filled the gearbox with 75w90 oil and took more than two hours just to put new insulating material on the headlamp wiring.

20180226_173648.jpg


I just need to adress the temp gauge, probably tomorrow. and then it's MOT time :grin:
 
So .. Today was a big day.

As i suspected.. changing the engine loom would be a $&%&$% ... The loom is stuck behind the starter motor. Went to plan B .. added an extra wire connecting to the loom that goes into the car and connected to the sensor.. success..

It was almost done.. had the car running idle to check the temp gauge and it shut off... no starter signal.. no fuel pump. Looked around for the fuel cutoff switch but did not find it. Checked the fuses at the engine bay and one was blown ... Checked one by one the connectors i was fiddling before and after a few trials noticed that the speed sensor had water inside the connector. Cleaned it and good as new.

Fabricated a piece to hold the battery in place as the car just brought the battery box with the battery "floating around"

Repaired one of the front grill holders.

And here we go to MOT in the local centre that is known for beeing quite demanding. I had not much faith but got a surprise.

I was very pleased to get the green paper just with one annotation... the exhaust pipe is old and rotting. MOT until January 2019

20180227_180328aa.jpg


20180227_182513aa.jpg


So i am now at around GBP 900 for everything.. Car, Registration, One Year Tax, Insurance for 6 Months, MOT, Engine from UK and a few more bits ...

Just need now to change oil and filters but...

IT RUNS!!!! :grin: :grin: :grin:
 

Latest posts

Back
Top