raggamuffin
New member
Hi all,
Let's get this project restarted and avoid what occurred previously. Plus rewriting this allows me to summarise where the project is up to without the need to scroll through 4 pages worth of thread. Efficient eh? Maybe I was German in another life. :-D
So as many of you know I took ownership of my third ford Puma. This is my second one in silver. 105k on the clock for £550. Very good service and maintenance history with many of the more costly replacements already covered. Such as clutch within the past 10k miles.
A work colleague's husband is a mechanic and is doing a full engine rebuild for me. As expected with projects the time and costs wound up differing, but at the end of the day he wants me to wind up with the best possible engine and I'm thankful for that as well as the small fortune he's saving me compared to going to a garage.
The car was picked up the end of May. When he got the engine apart he said it was in average condition. He had said a rebuild might be overkill, however I want this project to be a long term one and whilst a full engine rebuild at 105,000 miles might be a bit frivolous, I want this car to have a solid foundation - so a full engine rebuild it is. :grin:
Once a parts list was made up I got most of the engine rebuild components from eBay. I bought the cam kit and water pump direct from a Ford dealership in my home town of March. Yes it cost x3 more than the eBay equivalent (that I'd struggled to find and obviously found after buying the OEM items) - but there's nothing quite like having a few boxes of genuine Ford parts to go in a project as opposed to 3rd party copies.
Speaking of 3rd party parts I've probably invested more money than the rebuild parts and labour costs combined on aftermarket performance parts. Some I bought from Lightning Motorsport - including a custom made, high flow oil pump, LM2 cams (fast road cams machined by Newmans) and a fitting kit for their own custom made inlet manifold that I won off eBay as well as winning x3 OMP struts and saving £100 off the RRP.
Last night I also picked up a Mondeo Silvertop throttle body that I will eventually get sent off to LMS for machining before installing it on the Puma at a later date.
The cams are due in at LMS mid next week so they should hopefully arrive before next weekend. I've been advised once all the bits are in the rebuild should take 1-1.5 days work to finish as he'd rather focus on it when everything is there and ready as opposed to doing the rebuild sporadically whilst waiting for parts to arrive etc.
I'll be honest I don't know how far I'll be taking the project. My last Puma had a full set of Powerflex bushings along with a Piper manifold, sports cat and full exhaust system fitted by OC motorsport. I know I'd like to get another exhaust system again although I'm tempted to go with the FRP one from Pumaspeed as I found the 4" slash cut Piper system to be a little too brash.
Once the rebuild is done the next bit on the agenda will be to address the rear arches. Although first I need to get out of my overdraft which will probably take until January. But it'll all be worth it in the end.
Whilst waiting on the Puma I also won some eBay front and rear door cards from the Puma Millenium Edition. Hopefully I'll eventually get my hands on a set of decently priced Millenium edition seats as well. J will let me know how the rear arches look when he fits the rear door cards. At present there are a couple of patches of bubbling - he said it's certainly not the worst he's had to repair over the years.
Still got a big old shopping list to get through as the project continues. Whether I wind up with an impractical daily driver come track toy, a decked out show car with the Pumaspeed FRP body kit, resprayed in white with uprated head unit and speakers or a sleeper car which draws no attention to itself from the outside, but under the bonnet it's a cat with a rocket up it's posterior. I'm personally leaning more towards the 3rd option.
But who knows at this point, it could go 1 of 3 ways or wind up a mixture of them all.
I'll keep you posted as ever when I get more updates my way.
Ed
Let's get this project restarted and avoid what occurred previously. Plus rewriting this allows me to summarise where the project is up to without the need to scroll through 4 pages worth of thread. Efficient eh? Maybe I was German in another life. :-D
So as many of you know I took ownership of my third ford Puma. This is my second one in silver. 105k on the clock for £550. Very good service and maintenance history with many of the more costly replacements already covered. Such as clutch within the past 10k miles.
A work colleague's husband is a mechanic and is doing a full engine rebuild for me. As expected with projects the time and costs wound up differing, but at the end of the day he wants me to wind up with the best possible engine and I'm thankful for that as well as the small fortune he's saving me compared to going to a garage.
The car was picked up the end of May. When he got the engine apart he said it was in average condition. He had said a rebuild might be overkill, however I want this project to be a long term one and whilst a full engine rebuild at 105,000 miles might be a bit frivolous, I want this car to have a solid foundation - so a full engine rebuild it is. :grin:
Once a parts list was made up I got most of the engine rebuild components from eBay. I bought the cam kit and water pump direct from a Ford dealership in my home town of March. Yes it cost x3 more than the eBay equivalent (that I'd struggled to find and obviously found after buying the OEM items) - but there's nothing quite like having a few boxes of genuine Ford parts to go in a project as opposed to 3rd party copies.
Speaking of 3rd party parts I've probably invested more money than the rebuild parts and labour costs combined on aftermarket performance parts. Some I bought from Lightning Motorsport - including a custom made, high flow oil pump, LM2 cams (fast road cams machined by Newmans) and a fitting kit for their own custom made inlet manifold that I won off eBay as well as winning x3 OMP struts and saving £100 off the RRP.
Last night I also picked up a Mondeo Silvertop throttle body that I will eventually get sent off to LMS for machining before installing it on the Puma at a later date.
The cams are due in at LMS mid next week so they should hopefully arrive before next weekend. I've been advised once all the bits are in the rebuild should take 1-1.5 days work to finish as he'd rather focus on it when everything is there and ready as opposed to doing the rebuild sporadically whilst waiting for parts to arrive etc.
I'll be honest I don't know how far I'll be taking the project. My last Puma had a full set of Powerflex bushings along with a Piper manifold, sports cat and full exhaust system fitted by OC motorsport. I know I'd like to get another exhaust system again although I'm tempted to go with the FRP one from Pumaspeed as I found the 4" slash cut Piper system to be a little too brash.
Once the rebuild is done the next bit on the agenda will be to address the rear arches. Although first I need to get out of my overdraft which will probably take until January. But it'll all be worth it in the end.
Whilst waiting on the Puma I also won some eBay front and rear door cards from the Puma Millenium Edition. Hopefully I'll eventually get my hands on a set of decently priced Millenium edition seats as well. J will let me know how the rear arches look when he fits the rear door cards. At present there are a couple of patches of bubbling - he said it's certainly not the worst he's had to repair over the years.
Still got a big old shopping list to get through as the project continues. Whether I wind up with an impractical daily driver come track toy, a decked out show car with the Pumaspeed FRP body kit, resprayed in white with uprated head unit and speakers or a sleeper car which draws no attention to itself from the outside, but under the bonnet it's a cat with a rocket up it's posterior. I'm personally leaning more towards the 3rd option.
But who knows at this point, it could go 1 of 3 ways or wind up a mixture of them all.
I'll keep you posted as ever when I get more updates my way.
Ed