Small-ish update

Good evening all.

Again it's been a while since anything has happened to the project, but it's still alive. Main delay was my brother Wayne getting married and as a result him being incredibly busy. Unfortunately I don't know alot about this sort of thing so have had to sit tight and do what I can.

Tonight I finally got round to start stripping the new head I got a few updates back. I don't have a valve spring tool so the valves and springs are still in place but everything else has been removed. The head appears to have been rebuilt recently as there was fresh grease and most bolts were little more than hand tight.

All looks good so far and everything looks in good condition. The head will be gas flowed as soon as possible to help everything breathe. Hopefully I can get hold of the valve spring tool soon to get it completed and another task checked off!

A couple of pictures with the progress made. Fortunately it took about half an hour and was compeltely painless!

Painted Block

Another small update for y'all.

My brother very kindly gave the block a final rinse with a pressure washer and gave it a lick of paint in prep for dummy building.

It shouldn't be too long until it all starts going back together again and testing for compression ratio etc.

I'll let the pic do the rest of the talking. It's defintely a bright colour, but in the (unlikely) event of an oil leak, it will make it easier to trace. I only know the colour as "Brunswick Green".

Shiny, Dark Wheels.

Another small update. This one is for the aesthetics of the car..

My Dad has very kindly asissted me in spraying the wheels I got a few weeks ago. I decided on Matte black but he also sprayed one in Gloss to compare. I defintely preferred Matte and I'm sure you can see why...

It's been a while Pt. 2

Hello again,

No news for a little while but there has been a little progress here and there.

It turns out the new block we picked up was just as bad as the old one. Also we would have needed to fab an oil feed for the turbo, not a massive problem but extra work.

We have decided to rebore the original block and get some new pistons. Well the new pistons have arrived today (Accralite Forged +1.5mm). This should allow us to safely run h igh boost levels if we wish to do so. We still intend on running approx 1bar/14psi.

The Ka is pretty much all stripped out and we installed one seat to test fitting with the Fiesta subframes. We will need to make a small spacer for one of the bolting points but otherwise they fit fine.

I have also since picked up a Sparco 6 point roll cage and Magnex full stainless system. The cage has never been used and is still mostly unpainted.

Also I have just purchased a new OMP WRC wheel and MOMO boss kit along with a fuel swirl pot and some Goodridge brake lines. My shopping list also includes some braided fuel lines and a fuel filter, injectors and pump.

All in all a bit more to go but still alive and progressing :)

I'll leave you with a picture of the lovely pistons...

It's Been A While

As title really, it's all been a bit slow - but a few things to report while I have a few minutes!

I've been acquiring parts here and there so here goes.

Well the crank has been reconditioned at Ivor Searles and is ready to go with new bearings. When the block was taken in to be washed it appears the bores are worn and needed replacing. We decided to get a different block. I have purchased another from eBay which i'll be receiving shortly. the block is from a non-turbo 1600CVH so the bores should be in good condition (due to turbos running a lot of fuel, this washes oil from the bores and can cause excessive wear).

I picked up some Cobra Clubman seats a couple of weeks ago. These have Fiesta Mk5 subframes already fitted - not sure whether these will fit in the Ka or not. They could do with a little TLC, but the main part is they work!

Still in search of some wheels for the Ka. Ideally going for some 6inch wide steel wheels in 14" diameter. Peugeot wheels may be a good option as these are 4x108 so will fit the stud pattern and also have a lower offset (Ka is approx 30-40mm and Pug is 15-25mm) which will bring the track out and make the car more stable at speed.

Well that's mostly it. Some Pictures for your viewing pleasure of the new bits:

Minor Update

Time for another brief update. Well hopefully tomorrow evening the Puma is being picked up buy it's new owner which is good news. In the meantime I picked up a new head for the engine which is shown below. Its been lightly skimmed and pressure tested by the previous owner. Looks very clean and in much better condition for that matter. It needs a new cam which is on the shopping list anyway.

I'll let the pics do the rest of the talking. Hopefully the next update will include the Ka which will be used :)

Valvey Goodness

Another small update here. We took the cylinder head apart last night to see what sort of state it was in. Not good is the verdict. We removed the rockers, lifters, valve springs and finally the valves themselves. The lifters whilst looking fairly new - were very coarse around the bottom edge. The barrels/chambers they sit in were also scored (1 quite badly).

All the valves look fine and the stem seals will be replaced when it comes to piecing it back together. Unfortunately the cam also took a bit of a beating and some of the hardened outer has worn away - this will want replacing too.

We may require a new head (it's looking quite likely) though we will get a second opinion from Dave before we do so.

If we do get a new head then we will get an EFi version as this is the route we want to go down.

Valves all lined up after removal:



All in all it was a little disappointing but certainly not the end of the world!

Small update...

Just a brief update today. Spent an hour at most just making final preparations to the engine before it goes for a clean. This wont happen until either A) I sell the Puma or B) I come into some money. The former is certainly more likely!

Basically a couple of bolts sheared while we were taking apart the drive pulley/timing pully which we heated up for a couple of minutes using a blow torch and then using grips to twist them out. We also took the water pump off and removed the headgasket.

Another task at some point is to take the head apart to examine the cam and likely give that a clean up too. I took a quick picture of the head today in it's current state - nothing terribly exciting but it makes the page look more interesting until the good stuff starts happening!



Basically you're looking at the rockers and valve springs. The cam pulley is toward the right of the picture (as is the water pump to the far right).

So it begins..

Well I decided to start seeing as a little progress has been made.

Basically the idea is to take a Mk1 Ford Ka and turn it into a track toy. This would include stripping most, if not all of the standard interior and fitting it with a roll cage, bucket seats and the appropriate dials. It will remain road legal to get to track days with minimal hassle.

As of Saturday the 27th I have the engine from an Escort RS Turbo complete with T3 turbo and gearbox. The bottom end and turbo have both seen better days but it is far from a wreck. With plenty of help from my brother over at WayneAshfordRacing we began taking the engine apart to find the cause.

Once the pistons were out of their cylinders it became apparent what had went wrong. The main bearings had been mixed up and put at the wrong points along the crank which likely would have caused the crank to not run true. The bearings all had score marks with the ocassional small piece of copper bearing still floating around. The crank also has some light scoring which will be sorted before it all goes back together.

The gauze inside the oil return was also clogged with thick black sludge and pieces of bearing which would have caused poor oil pressure. I have spent today cleaning up the pistons, block and oil return before the block itself is hot washed.

I have no photos as of yet but will provide the ebay image to give a rough idea of what we're working with!

The engine will want to be converted to EFi so we can give it the Omex treatment for much greater flexibility.

That's about all I have to say that's interesting and will remember to take some pictures at my next opportunity!