Puma 1.7 Rebuild Mk II

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Brief review of what the Puma is like after the engine rebuild along with sports cams and inlet manifold along with other assorted nonsense and the usual hyperactive, stupid voices I do in my own company or around friends.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so1MQ_tOSEg[/youtube]

Ed
 
MOT sorted. Also found someone who'll fit all the parts. Highly recommended mechanic who works for an extremely fair price.

I'm getting him to fit whatever parts arrive tomorrow and the rest next week. That means J only has to fit the door cards and struts.

Ed
 
Now that the MOT is over and done with and eBay says most of the parts to fix the judder will arrive tomorrow. I'm hoping Saturday is the next big step in having a smooth operator of a car.

The old mechanic I used to use when I lived at my parents is back to work on Monday. I think I'll ask him to do the clutch slave cylinder one morning before work and hopefully that'll fix the last of the gearbox issues.

Smokey said 3-4 weeks potentially until he's ready for a new car to work on. Currently working on a ricer MX-5 which the owner had in hot pink with glitter in the paint. Vile looking thing in our opinion, which the owner considered to be a show car. It had a garish body kit, wide track, colossal alloys, stickers everywhere, 1 frayed bucket seat, a questionable steering wheel design,weird leopard print, blue and pink coloured tape that was stuck on a front strut brace and half of a door card, along with a gear knob that looked like a plastic handle from a screw driver except it had no colour, but was the size of a half pint glass. Utterly bizarre tastes - but at the end of the day, a car enthusiast. So you know what? Fair play to her. Smokey - having worked on a Porsche motorsport team (saw some awesome old photos of his), said he wasn't a fan of the car in no uncertain terms.

Speaking of odd colour choices - i'll admit the colour on my LMS inlet manifold wasn't what I was expecting, and yet it might work in the engine bay. Reminiscent of the green the puma came in which is probably what model it came from:

download.jpg

I think the Puma looks sleak in silver and once the arches have new metal in them and are waxoyled I think the car will look very tidy. I toyed with the idea of getting exterior modifications done, but I don't want to draw unnecessary attention to the car. The looks are striking enough.

I was thinking of getting new anti roll bars and wishbones when I eventually get the poly bushings. I'm tempted by coil overs if I could get them properly set up along with the wheels aligned and possibly wheel spacers. Nothing drastic, but if I can get the handling sharpened and setup properly for a fast road driving style I think it'd heighten the experience. That's not to say the Puma doesn't add a lot of confidence to corners in it's standard form - because it really excels in that department.

J said he'd do the engine cover in black. I think the struts are red, so I might ask to have those recoloured. I'm sort of tempted to try a similar colour as the inlet manifold to see if I can make the 2 colours work a little better if there engine feels more dichromatic.

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Ed
 
Everyone loves some induction noise right? :grin:

Cone filters are a long debated subject as is whether to keep it in half of the original air box or not?..does it actually let warmer air in to the engine? I think it's just personal preference at the end of the day.
 
Can the original box stay in place with the K&N pipe and filter installed?

Bought a new coolant header tank as well as J said one of the fittings had snapped. He said he'd just cable tie it, but I want as many new bits on the car as possible.

Ed
 
raggamuffin said:
.......... The old mechanic I used to use when I lived at my parents is back to work on Monday. I think I'll ask him to do the clutch slave cylinder one morning before work and hopefully that'll fix the last of the gearbox issues.........
Ed
You do realise that the gearbox needs to be taken off to fit the CVC? If the clutch has done 10,000+ miles, I would look to at least replace the clutch plate whilst it's off.
 
I think i'll wait to fit the CVC until next pay cheque. That way I can buy a stage 1 clutch off eBay and get them both fitted.

There's only a couple of drips now when the car has been parked overnight. I'm guessing this overfill of gearbox oil was indeed the cause.

All the bits to fix the judder have arrived, to be fitted tomorrow afternoon. Spoke to the guy and he said fitting all these plus the lambda shouldn't take too long. I got the oil filter and new 5l of oil, so I might get that done too, as by the time I've driven to his workshop on the weekend the car will be around 450 miles since the rebuild.

I can't believe it's not Christmas

Puma01.jpg

Puma02.jpg

Puma03.jpg

Puma04.jpg

Everything shiny shiny.

Ed
 
Ed,

Replacing IAV - 5 min
Replacing VSS - 15 min (the battery and it's carrier have to go out)
Replacing MAF - 5 min
CV boot - that is a pig of a job as it is messy big time....

But the first 3 you can do on your own without problems...
 
Car's been parked up all day and I just checked - NO OIL LEAK.

It was a simple overfill. That's made me more relieved than it passing the MOT yesterday tbh.

Next stop - fix that judder tomorrow.

Ed
 
Judder isn't as bad but still not 100%. RPM dipping and trying to stall hasn't been solved either. He said the engine sounds like the cams are the issue. He recommended a remap and maybe see if the cam timing needs changing.

I think taking it to Lightning Motorsport might be the best solution for both.

Also gained an intermittent and high pitched whistling noise at low speed and idle. He thinks it could be the idle air valve leaking. He made a papergasket. The previous one had old silicone blocking up the valve.

He's asking if the idle control valve has a specific gasket as it didn't come with one?

Ed
 
He made a cut out from some brown paper assuming it'd work but it didn't. What else could the gasket be made from? He reckons that it must be this where the whistling noise is coming from. Idling when parked or driving at low speed and low rpm there's a constant high pitched whistle that becomes inaudible at higher speeds.

J will be fitting the door cards and struts on Wednesday. I'll ask him to try and sort out the whistle too.

Failing all that I'll have a word with Chris @ LMS and find out when he'd be free to look at the car. I'd probably have to take a days holiday to get the car sorted. Hopefully once and for all.

Ed
 
When it came to installing the lambda he asked which one it was. I said I'd bought a generic 4 wire lambda as per J's recommendation. He said he never had much luck with generic sensors and recommended getting an OEM equivalent.

Are these the 2 types I'd need to buy?

cat2.PNG

If this doesn't work then I assume it must be a timing issue then?

Ed
 

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