Moondust Silver Puma 1.7 (AKA: "Ouch, my wallet hurts")

[Mattraisin]

Hi all,

I bought this 2000 Puma, 77k on the clock, MOT, no tax, for £650 yesterday, after selling my Renault Clio 1.4 (2005 mk3) to my fiancée for £1700 (she got the standard thanks for putting up with me £400 discount).

Here it is: photo 3

It has a cracking full service history, with a service just 2,000 miles ago - all ford dealer. Massive number of receipts and MOTs.

Unfortunately my confidence inspired by that history was short lived (no tax meant I hadn't driven the thing), the clutch has gone, just spins if you properly gun it low down, but drivable...anyway first job on the list.

Other problems: the ride just doesn't feel right, very harsh on the bumps. The front is lowered and it has scraped a few speedbumps because of it. So getting to the bottom of my handling problems is the second job. There a few other niggles, rear drivers side wheel arch is doing the Puma thing so I will need to get on top of that (very slight at the moment).

PLANS

I will be using this car for everyday use, getting to work, a few biz miles here and there, but also I have a dream of making it a pretty fun track car as well.

I have been enjoying track days with my dad (Red RX-8 - so much fun) so I am hoping this little cat will be my more economical start to the track day world.

More immediate ideas: FRP remap - many seem to charge through the flipping roof for this so hoping to find someone who might be able to email me a copy.

Replace all the bushes, maybe Powerflex if I can be bothered - I gather just replacing them will make a world of difference on a 14 year old car anyway.

Coilovers (maybe) - AP adjustable probably the way I would go (open to suggestions)

Ram Air induction air filter - hear these are good/look good anyway.

Brakes - I am actually not sure if I have the 260mm brakes but If I don't, swap out and upgrade (I hear the 300mm upgrade can be problematic on standard wheels??)

THE DISTANT FUTURE

Exhaust - Miltek cat back first and then the full 4-2-1 manifold and sports cat.

Cams - FRP

Crash - likely

Suggestions welcome...

 

[Mattraisin]

Forgot to add - I will be looking for a set of the Thunder 15 inch wheels (same look as on Zetec S). As I think they look awesome and want to fit track tires on one set.

 

[BigAl]

All sounds like a good plan mate! :lol: There's quite a few track biased Pumas on here so you'll be able to get plenty of advice & inspiration! Just check out some of the ProjectPuma cars Forums.

 

[Mattraisin]

Did the rocker cover gasket today (thanks to the great how to on here). Someone had obviously been filling it up with oil and not realising it was seeping out at the cam belt end as oil level was fine but a tonne of oil has coated that side of the block, underneath and everywhere really. Not sure how to go about getting this cleaned off so I can see if the new gasket did the trick. There were little bits of what I now know to be gasket sealant in amongst the oil. When I had it off, looked like a new gasket had been done without clearing the sealant from around the cam end properly - causing the leak I would imagine. So fingers crossed that was my only leak.

Tomorrow I am off to my dad's (he has amassed all the tools) to do the clutch and slave. Last clutch I helped on was a Ford Focus 1.6 and it was f :!: :?: :!: ing fiddle. Lets hope this little ford is a bit easier.

Thought I will add, did the gasket without using sealant and it was a bit of a magic trick getting it to stay in place while I put it back, passers by must have thought I was a bit loopy when I jumped up from the engine bay and cheered like my beloved Ipswich had scored.

 

[quest63]

:thumbs:

 

[Skippy]

Looking good! If my experience with an X reg silver Puma is anything to go by:

Yes, do the bushes. If you've got the service and MOT history, they may have been done, but do em anyway. Think twice about poly bushes everywhere.

Yours looks in good nick. Attack the rust first. It's there, I'm sure, and prevention is better than cure. Bilt Hamber products very good as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, good luck! Yours looks like a good un.

 

[Mattraisin]

Took the Puma to my dad's today for its clutch change. Saw on here people reckoning they took three or four hours to do it, I reckon their clocks run slow.

Ten hours, yes TEN hours later, the clutch was on and working like a dream. Here she is up in the air:

Untitled

The blue jack is supporting the gearbox.

So many little things went wrong, getting the box back on was not too bad, it looked like it was never going to go and then a quick jack and a wiggle and bang it was on the locating dowels and begging to be bolted on.

Here is one of the major hold ups:

Untitled

Yep, that is one CV joint unloading its grease after falling apart on us. It won't rust around there for a while, that's for sure.

Here it is in two pieces:

Untitled

But eventually it all went back together and now my clutch is sorted.

First time I had the car up on stands and I noticed that it has been treated underneath with waxoyl on the sills and along the underneath. Maybe some work has been done, but this was not in the service history.

Tips if you are doing the clutch: loosen the top bolt on your struts, take out the passenger side driveshaft, don't leave it in for it to get pulled apart by the box on its way back in. Undo both engine mounts when getting the box back on.

As for my old clutch, looked like it had been cooked, quite worn but not down all the way. It must have been spun up something awful.

So that is two jobs done on the car and I only got it on Wednesday, onwards and upwards.

Next should be bushes.

 

[Wild E. Coyote]

It must have been some VIP clutch change with carpets under the car :wink:
No wonder it took you 10 hours; I wouldn't mind taking a nap on them either :grin:

Well done, how is the gearchange feeling now? Better or just about the same?

 

[Mattraisin]

Biting point much lower. Far better gear change and more confidence to gun it.

The carpets always come out when we work on cars at my dads, that red rug you can see, it actually used to be in our old house. And I am pretty sure that carpet came out of the spare room at some point.

Rules for a good garage...KEEP EVERYTHING.

 

[Mattraisin]

Hi all,

Haven't posted in a while, a lot of backwards progress has happened.

My lovely Puma is now haemorrhaging cash for fun.

Latest headache: Breakdown at side of road. AA took two hours and a half to reach me, won't be renewing.

Engine just cut out coming off a roundabout. I was driving softly, the fiancée was onboard. Just wouldn't start - turning over fine though.

Dead cat:



AA code reader threw up crank sensor fault. Pop down euro car parts the next day, bolt down the new one and....nothing.

Cat on a jack:



So, next day my dad comes down with his reader to play a game of "start you b@!?@rd". No faults throwing up at all. Cannot hear any compression either when trying to start.

So, whip off the plugs to find there is a lot of fuel in there, so that is it then. Damn thing is flooded. Fuel pump fuse out, deflood engine and.......nothing! We checked we had spark, but the thing would not start.

So, we move on to more serious faults. Time to check the timing, we had peeled back the cam cover already and the belt looked all right, we thought.

A few turns of the crankshaft pulley and we knew, the timing was out. BUGGER.

Unfortunately I just don't have the tools, and it is Sunday today, so no access to the parts to change the belt, re-time the belt etc.

So currently my dead puma is sat, with bits of the engine in a Tesco For Life carrier bag in the boot, waiting to be towed to my Dad's for next weekend.

The belt seems okay all the way round, but for some reason it has skipped and suddenly lost timing. I am hoping against anything that the valves are fine, but we won't know until we get it back together next weekend. Not so much of a bargain now. Have a hunch that the tensioner has gone or something.

Does anyone know what might have caused this problem? I had a rattle on the car for a few days previous at around 1800RPM but put it down to exhaust heat shield.

Any thoughts on if my valves will be okay?

Clearly a full ford main dealer service history means nothing.

Thanks.

 

[evilrob]

I had a rattle on the car for a few days previous at around 1800RPM but put it down to exhaust heat shield.

That's the classic symptom of a failed cambelt tensioner - seems to rattle around 2k when it's on its way out.

 

[Mattraisin]

Hello again,

Have not posted on here for a while due to a mass of problems both car and non car related.

My bargain buy has turned into a bit of a money pit by now, but hopefully I am on the way to getting it all sorted.

Things that went wrong:

First up, as I mentioned above, the timing went. This was caused by an incorrectly installed tensioner, allowing the belt to skip! New cambelt, tensioner, water pump (while I'm there) and aux belt done, all back together again and nothing.

Our workstation:



Yep my valves had been damaged

So, we salvaged some valves from a cheap cylinder head on fleabay and set about the huge job. Take everything off again. Air intake off, drill out exhaust manifold to cat bolts (they all snapped) and finally get the cylinder head off.

Air intake off:



This is where I have to hand it to my dad, I left the car at his while I went to Aberdeen (Brewdog AGM) and he decided he would have a go at finishing it.

BEER!



So, after replacing all the slightly bent valves, and refitting everything, guess what...IT STARTED! :grin:

A few pics:





Bent valve:



So that was that then...nope.

The damn thing had now developed a pretty serious oil leak, like properly haemorrhaging oil out of the cam belt side of the block.

By now we were getting pretty damn good at cam belt changes. Cam belt off, look for leak, can't find source. Put UV dye in the oil, put cam back on without cover, run engine look for leak...still can't pinpoint it.

We are pretty sure that it is coming from behind the VCT cam pulley, eventually we find it underneath the top shell housing on that cam. What had happened was silicon sealant had clogged the oil return channels, which under load (VCT in use) would force oil out of the seal.

The headache continues:

That was not the last of it. My car has handling problems, I had recently done the rear subframe bushes which sorted a lot these out (they were shot).

The new bushes:


After a trip to Knebworth House (Sonisphere Festival), the car's handling problems under load (beer, tents, people) were shown up, and I believe made worse. It does have what I think are cut down (Essex) springs, which I am replacing soon, but while under the car sorting out the leak, my dad noticed the other side had a leak as well.

Turned out not to be oil, very thin liquid coating the suspension damper and spring, the damn thing had blown a seal under load, completely shot, no damping at all.

So, when my Eibach Pro lowering spring set arrives, I will be replacing all the corners, plus changing the front two dampers, hopefully this weekend.

The future problems:

Setting aside any more unforeseen issues, other jobs that need doing are the exhaust back box which is rattling inside and some major rust chasing and proofing. I am also looking to sort out my melty steering wheel, refurbish and paint my brakes (front and back) and put a set of matching tyres on, (getting rid of the brand new winter tyres on the rear that the previous owner thought was a good idea).

Sorry for the length, had a lot go wrong.

 

[TGPlayer1]

You are an unlucky man. But props for sticking with it and putting in some hard graft, that's what it's all about. And the relief when it's all done and working will be major.

 

[Mattraisin]

It wouldn't have been worth it if my dad had not brought me up fixing cars. The cost of all that work at a garage would have been upwards of £1,000 I am sure. More people should work on their cars, saves £££.

I can't wait to drive it again. Spent more time underneath it than in it!

 

[Mattraisin]

P

 

[Glenn_]

What a nightmare you have had with the car.Atleast its all getting sorted now.

 

[Mattraisin]

What a nightmare you have had with the car.Atleast its all getting sorted now.

It was cheap...