update on projects

I'm pretty sure one of the ten commandments is "Thou shalt not drive another man's Racing Puma" - I assume he doesn't work for you any more? :evil:

you are right he no longer works for me...mind you we are so good we can remove and refit a puma engine now in less than two days...we could do it likely a bit quicker if we were in a rush, but there is always something to sort that isnt normal...ie stuck bolts, bad exhaust mountings damaged wiring etc etc...

anyone in the guildford area need work come see us, we know these cars inside out...one of our custoemrs came in the other day and fell in love with our pumas after making it clear non were for sale she went out and bought one for herself...gotta love those cars...

Now I need yet another engine, not going to bother replacing the rings, will be a waste I reckon, but the turbo puma is just too good to leave it dead...may transplant a full front chassis member this time though and am not at all happy with the hispec brakes...they are massive but they wobble on braking...need to spend more time with it before I decide what to do about those...but new engine first...

I could not resist, engine on ebay...

Brand new bottom end assembled for a customer's project but never completed.
This engine has been assembled to the highest levels of care and precision by our expert engine builder here at Performance Engine Components. The engine is fitted with:
* Brand new Steel connecting rods
* Brand new Wossner Forged Pistons
* Brand new big end and main end bearings.
* Re-used crankshaft but balanced to suit the new rods and pistons

its going into track day car 1...and part time road car...it will get around 250 plus bhp...with this bottom end it should handle that easily, may even push for 300 in it, an frp with 300 bhp that has to be a flyer..
Was thinking of doing it with for turbo puma but I think 180-200 in the std puma even if lowered is about enough...Turbo puma is getting its new engine rebuilt next week, and is going to be fitted with hotter cams and a bit of additional tweeking.


got a lot to do...

I saw that engine, if i was stil developing 1.7 engines, id have snapped it up, its the green engine isnt it?? Just the forged rods and pistons would have come to more then that, i was still tempted to get it just for a future project!!

yep thats the one, saw it bought it and now off to see them about what otehr work they had done on the other parts. i have heads and spare frp cams but likely I would like to build it without VCT and high lift cams, plus a nice modern turbo with ball bearings a decompression plate to run at arounf 8 to 1 and something like 1.5 bar of boost...target would be 300 bhp...job done.

I know i was being lazy but we have so much work on at the moment my jobs keep getting put to the back, I have a baja bug awaiting an engine fitting and testing, a lr awaiting elctrics sorting, a Munga jeep with knacklered clutch a buggy awaiting testing, three pumas awaiting rebuild engine swaps and body work and nothing proressing becaseu custoemrs keep wanting their cars fixed. ho hum...i will prevail..and we all know where the priority lies...

It's a bit of a shame to use a decomp plate with the forged pistons, you'd need to check that they don't require the quenching from the head to cool them, because your decomp plate will need to be quite thick to get 8.0:1, i think they were high compression pistons. But it's a he'll of a deal, I can immagine someone lost a bit of money on that.

we are working it out at the moment, with the domed pistons and a simple skim to ensure a good head fit we may not need any decompression plates...my aim is no lower than 8.5 to 1 or maybe 9 to 1, not 8.0 said that in a rush...want to maintain reasonable torque so just considering my options, super and turbo, twin turbo or single small turbo with fast spool up etc etc...will likely initially go with a single turbo for simplicity and then see how she goes...but i am looking for 300 bhp tops, 250 minimum...I think thats enough for the frp...for a road goer anyway...

got to decide on turbos and things once I HAVE VOLUMES CALCULATED...WILL BE FUN...

Sounds good! I think a great turbo choice for around 300bhp or more would be the Garrett GT28R on the 1.7, its dual ball bearing and spools up really quick. It will just about reach 300 on a 2.0 engine, but because the 1.7 has less volume, it wont run out of puff as early, so should see you with 300 right up to redline id have thought. Then theres the turbo that im using, the GT28RS, doesnt spool up as quick as the GT28R, but will carry the boost and power all the way to redline on my 2.0. Might be more lag then you need though, ideally you want the smallest turbo possible that will reach your requirements, there are some GTX turbos out now, they look promising, but quite expensive, but no doubt you will have your eye on a particular turbo anyway. Good thing is, if you get a regular turbo with t25/t28 inlet, and 5 bolt outlet, if you want to go bigger or smaller at a later date, you can just swap them out (as long as you have the clearence). Depends what you want, drag racing, go for bigger displacement, track/circuit racing, go for smaller displacement.

yes I would really like to go twin turbo, or even a supercharger with turbo, I really like the supercharger effect, have it wound up to max pressure from 1500 rpm....then have the turbo going to take over the upper end...however my plan is definitely the GT28...I have been told that they will wind up a 1.4 saxo engine to 300 bhp so with my mild high lift cams fitted, the VCT removed I think I should have an engine that will do what I want of it...just got to decide on other mods like lowering the suspension by 25 mm, wider rear track and do I build a new independant suspension system or buy the s1`600 set up and fitthat...

the ideal is to have a car with just 800kg all up weight including a roll cage, two seats, a radio and the turbo engine...and be road legal...I think 800 is a tall order especially as I want at least a modicum of refinement, i might forgoe it all and be happy with 1000kg and 300 bhp per ton...its enough I think...the engine will cost me a bit more to have the head built and set up then I have to get the manifold built and the piping done, then I have to consider the injectors will they do enough for 300 bhp, I think it might be a tall order, if not do I need to build a new fuel rail etc etc...this time next year I may have it running...

this car is a track and road car, not a drag car...going to build a monster drag car one of these days but that will be with a silly big engine up front...

got spare engine for Turbo puma, just starting rebuild...my puma man will have the engines swapped in a few hours, he is getting good at it now. Still not got a new manifold yet, but am working on it...am going to see if clayton has a spare on available until i get mine sorted... will post a few piccies as soon as I can...

piccies of engine with jury rigged breather catch tank, (old oil bottle and filter, old t shirt wrapped around oil bottle with hole in it...





it worked but the engine is breathing so much it was spewing out oil....got to devise a better solution for this engine next. WIll likely fit a breather tank and filter plus a return tube to the air inlet, depends on how much breathing I get with the new engine..

more pictures, engine out, spare about to go in...








whilst engine is out we are going to fit some heat shielding around the steering column and wrap the exhaust...but as I have siad yet again, when she is running sweet again we will take her to the dyno before making any physical changes...

which are a new manifold and exhaust from the turbo to the cat, new ecu, megasquirt, for modifying things and an intercooler...then back to the dyno and see how she has improved...

engine going in, new heat shield fitted to protect the steering column, ne front sub chassis fitted, new lambda sensor boss fitted and lamda sensor fitted then she is ready to go to the dyno next week for tests...then its fit intercooler, build new manifold, fit megsquirt and start playing with her., may need to send the rotors off to Hi SPec for either skimming or new ones as they wobble a bit but it may be because of the twist in the subchassis, so will test and see.....may look at bigger injectors and a higher pressure fuel pump as we try to reach 200 bhp...battery going in the boot to free up some space in the engine bay and to allow fittment of the intercooler...

Ive got a good base ignition map to get you started on the megasquirt if you need it, its an FRP ignition map retarded to accomodate boost up to 12psi. Might save you some faffing about. I used it on my duratec turbo to get me started, and it ran great.

ooh that would be great. i have a bit of a megsquirt expert coming to fit it to the turbo and at the same time teach us all about it Sean at MS tuning. should give us a good enough head start i am sure. But your set up would be very interesting please

I'll just post up a screen capture of the ignition map, that way anybody who wants it can just manually copy it. Also, you might find the megasquirt MAT correction value too much for your engine, so you tune your car for good AFRs, then get up and drive it the next morning, & it's all thrown out and idles like crap. Even if you set the correction factors to zero, they have another one that is automatic. If you get this problem, let me know and I'll show you how to get around it. No point writing it all out if you don't need it though.

I abserlutely love megasquirt, if it's set up right it has more tuning potential then a lot of more expensive ECU's, and there are tonnes of add-ons, egt sensor, knock sensor, wideband controller, launch control, flat shift, boost control, the list goes on, it's a very versatile piece of kit.

juwst been out in turbo puma, throttle stuck a 6000 rpm scary, engine off and glide to halt...sorted now, will take her for a few runs then she is off to be dyno'd. then its start changing a few things as mentioned...exhaust manifold top priority and maybe the outlet from the turbo itself as it goes more than 90 degrees directly out of the turbo...

also thinking new 58mm throttle body, megasquirt, new intercooler, air con rad removed ready to fit infront of main rad, still have air con pump for now, new intake air lines as they have been reduced in diamter into the turbo and much reduced into the engine....must be able to get an improvement in flow just by changing these to full width pipes...then once I have a good handle on the fuelling will see if I need bigger injectors...

will be fun getting this girl running at her peak and then trrying to match it into one of the other engines. I may also look at new cams, maybe the frp cams i have spare and or a new set of turbo cams...depends on how she runs with the first set of mods...just dont think this car will take more than 200 or or therabouts and be safe...

i cant remember now have you got a decompression plate on this one? how much boost are you running? is the turbo a saab T25? would like to see the dyno results as it seems a similar setup to mine.

Yes thats a saab turbo, you can see from the elbow thats on it. You will gain LOADS of power if you just change that downpipe, its VERy restrictive. You might loose a small amount of low down power, but gain a tonne if you go 2.5"-3" mandrel bent downpipe. I had the exact same downpipe on mine, and after about 3500rpm it was just dead!! As soon as i changed that for a custom made one, it was a completely different animal. I doubt youll gain much with changine the manifold, but every little helps! I think downpipe and intercooler will see you over 200bhp.

hmm that sounds good, the run home mixed, cltuch sliping, the boys forgot to fit the old clutch, std clutch no use...will change that tomorrow, then the air inlet hose blew off, fixed, and now a fuel leak from the petrol tank...bother...driving me to distraction...

yes saab turbo. and yes agree we want to swivel the turbo around a bit and give it a shorter intake from air filter to turbo plus a bit of ram air from the front cut outs in the bonnet, remove the 90 degree elbow..bigger pipes all round, and the intercooler on the front..plus 200 bhp will be cool

the new sub chassis assembly has sorted the handling feel but jury is still out on the brakes, need to have it balanced and tracked before I decide on the brakes...they are big for sure but it wobbles badly on slight brake application, which could be more about tracking than rotors but will see...engine sound sweet and I am getting crackles out the exhaust woo hoo...