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).