[FlashBastd]

Still no more pics, but...

Dropped the car off at the garage this evening, along with the FRP cams, TPMS, spare wheel and FRP tail pipe. On order, or awaiting fitment are a pair of new GSD3's, cambelt, rocker cover gasket, oil filter and 8 litres of Mobil1 0w40.

Jobs to hopefully be undertaken are;

1. fit new tyres to the front wheels, replacing the n/s/f with the extra wheel as the n/s/f has a small scrape
2. fit TPMS sensors to all four wheels
3. renew brake fluid (not 101% happy with brake feel)
4. change oil & filter
5. fit FRP cams, as this will mean removing the cambelt, a new one will be fitted, but we aren't replacing the tensioner, etc. as it is only 18m old. A new rocker cover gasket will be fitted at the same time.
6. cut & weld FRP tailpipe to existing Milltek rear box

1-4 will definatley be done, 5 & 6 will depend on how busy they are with (paying) customer work.

I was also pleased to find that my other seat base now has the Recaro thigh supports welded onto it, so I have brought it home and hope to get it rebuilt over the next week or so.

[Shimmyhill]

Nice list of upgrades there

Can i ask why the 0w40 oil over 5w30 ?

[FlashBastd]

Thanks!

I use Mobil1 0w40 because it is more readily available as a fully synthetic than 5w30, the oil is over specified for the car, and it is the same oil that we use for the Honda.

I also ran my 2.5 Mondeo on it (also a 5w30 car, like the Puma), without any ill effects. I think a few people run their FRP's on the same stuff.

Also it is available from Costco for £19.99+VAT for 4 litres, which makes it quite good value too!

Forgot to say that I will also be collecting new genuine air and pollen filters, which I will fit myself.

Cams I have are standards reprofiled to FRP spec, so there will be some shimming going on tomorrow. On the plus side, this should mean that my valve clearances are spot on!

[FlashBastd]

Not really an update as such, I got all of my wiring stuff out last night as I am changing the phone kit in the Honda to a Parrot Mki9200, and I run a couple of other things from the same circuit, namely the Origin B2 GPS speed camera alert, and soon the TPMS.

Anyhow, while I was at it, I decided to sort out the wiring for the heated seats, and made a start, but soon decided that it was just too long and I didn't have the right connectors to shorten it as I would like;



The blue and black wires at the bottom don't need to go anywhere, they would usually connect the seat to the car, but as I have fitted the switches on the seat, rather than on the dash, I need to shorten these quite a lot.

I also tidied up the wiring for the ParkPilot, on my car it is all going in the one corner, so the wiring was a bit long;



Finally, having disconnected my second lambda some time ago, when changing to the TAPE ECU, I have finally decided to knock together a dummy plug to protect the socket. This is one end of my failed MIL eliminator loom, I just need to alter the length of the wires and cover in heat shrink.



Hopefully a trip to Maplin this evening will deliver the necessary bits and bats to finish these little bits, and a visit to a scrappers tomorrow will hopefully sort me out with some suitable plugs to get the seat heaters and power height adust all sorted.

The seat heater kit runs a relay, with an ignition switched power, permanent power and a relay. I was planning to run the seat heaters from the power seat position on the fuse box. Does anyone happen to know if this is permanent or ignition switched? I was certain that it was ignition switched, but now I am not so sure.

[FlashBastd]

So thanks to Pat T, I now know that the power seat fuse is permanent live, had it been ignition switched I would probably just have binned the relay and taken the power direct from that fuse, as it is, I think I will take the ignition switched power from probably the heated rear window - this is just a signal feed to the relay, and still take the power from the power seat fuse.

Spoke to the garage earlier, I believe the tyres and TPMS are all done, oil is changed, brake fluid changed, cams fitted, but won't be finished until Monday as they weren't able to get a rocker cover gasket.

[FlashBastd]

Trip to the breakers today found me the trim parts that I was after to go with the Recaro's, the wiring that I need to hook up the power height adjust on the drivers seat, a pair of Ghia sunvisors and a replacement drivers side mirror for the Clio that I am smoking while the Puma is at the garage.

Few pics;



Above are the mirrors I just bought, turns out the new one I got is actually a drivers side mirror from a LHD car, but I plan to use the ones below, so both side have a cover over the mirror





I also managed to finish my lambda terminator thing;



Looking forward to gettimg the car back, but I have plenty to occupy me in the meantime, as I haven't done anything about rebuilding the passenger side Recaro yet, so currently the base just looks likes this;



Backrest is built up, but I may need to strip it down a bit to alter the route of the heated seat wiring and ensure that the boltsers are fitted properly.

[FlashBastd]

Saw the car yesterday, FRP cams are in, brake fluid changed, TPMS fitted, new front tyres fitted.

Unfortunately since fitting the FRP spec cams, the damn thing won't start! Probably something silly, but for the time being, I am on tenterhooks waiting to hear what is happening.

[FlashBastd]

Car as it stood last week, garage was closed until today, hoping to get it back on Friday.



Passenger seat is now rebuilt, wiring is sorted on this one, and I think it look quite neat. I still need to sort the wiring on the drivers seat when I get it back

[FlashBastd]

Got it back!

FRP cams are brilliant, the car pulls like a train, 4th is now just a wonderful gear. Had to drive on some brilliant roads today and I so love this car!

Didn't get home until late this evening, having noticed that my high level brake light had stopped working, popped into Halfords, got four Bosch 501's, removed by boot lining to replace the bulbs, broke the shelf string hanger on one side in the process, changed the bulbs and it still didn't work - at this point I started checking the wiring and found that the wire connecting to the bottom of the o/s boot strut had snapped. Replaced that and then took the front seats and sun visors out. Unfortunately I managed to shear one of the seat bolts in the process.

Jobs for tomorrow are firstly to remove the remaining section of bolt, I need to adjust the fitment of the cover on the drivers Recaro and adjust the routing of the wiring for the seat heaters.

Next is to fit some aluminium pedal covers, which I think will look quite good.

Then fit a drivers side mirror light for the drivers side vanity mirror

Fit a rear interior lamp

Fit new Ghia sunvisors

Fit loom for seat heaters

Fit both front Recaro seats

Oh, and it needs a wash, as does the Honda

The car will be going back to the garage at some point to get the early Puma master cylinder & servo fitted. I think we are going to have to change one of the pipes to the ABS pump, but hopefully that will be it.

[happy-kat]

I reccommend from personal experience you do not fit the alloy pedal covers.
They look good.
BUT
They make the space between the pedals tighter.
The feel of the pedals alters, they become 'dead'. No idea why just the feel gets very wooden afterwards.

Hence I took mine off and they sit in a draw in the garage collecting dust.
I can heel and toe fine with out the alloy covers anyway when on track.

That aside, sounds like the engine mods really paid off

Why do you want to fit the early Puma master cyclinder and brake servo? (remember the brake recall so don't get too early a one)

[FlashBastd]

Thanks, really happy with the engine now!

The alloy pedal covers didn't work anyway, they are Mazda 2 items, and I was optimistic that they would be the same fitment, but they aren't. I have always been cytnical about them in the past, but these are OE ones and I was hoping that they would work and look good.

Fitting the bigger brakes with the later servo and MC leads to quite a lot of dead pedal travel. Tony @ PumaSpeed suggested to me some time ago that the earlier setup would solve the problem, and I got the bits but never did anything about it, prefering to change fluid, pads, etc. with limited improvement. One of the guys on zsoc has now tried it, with great results, though he did ditch his ABS at the same time, but I am optimistic that this will improve pedal feel.

Right, today's progress;

1. ordered a replacement hanger stud thing for the rear shelf

2. spent hours, but finally managed to remove the remainder of the broken bolt

3. folded over the carpet flaps for the original seats - they get in the way with the earlier and Recaro seats

4. fitted the new wiring loom for the heated seats and drivers seat power height, though I haven't hooked it up to the fuse box yet

5. fitted the passenger side top hat riser

6. fitted the rear interior lamp, second mirror lamp and the new sunvisors

7. vac'd out the inside

Anyhow some pics;


Clean carpet, no seats, two top hat risers, and the wiring in for the seats, etc.


Rear interior lamp


New sunvisors, Ghia spec, with LHD LH visor




All lit up

Jobs for tomorrow;

1. Finish rebuilding drivers Recaro

2. Fit Recaro's

3. Work out where to fit the TPMS display

And a couple of shots of the rear, without the mudflaps my rear track looks massive! Excuse the quality, it was dark before I got chance.







As an aside, while driving the car very hard yesterday, the brakes worked really well, no concerns over balance, the only time I had any issue was braking very late into corners, where I felt that I wouldn't have had to brake much harder to loose the rear end. I think this was more to do with driving too fast and braking too late than brake balance. Also although this was in the dry, the ABS didn't kick in at all, which was good!

The TPMS display was interesting, when cold the tyres were actually a touch low on pressure, at 27PSI, but I didn't have the time to do anything about it. Before long they were upto 29PSI, so it wasn't really a problem. In hard cross country driving the tyre temps got upto around 38-39C, with the rears a touch cooler, at this temperature the pressures got upto 30PSI. Back on the motorway, cruise set at a gentle 67ish (just over 70 on the speedo) and the temps dropped down to around 30-32C. Quite like the info, just not sure what to do with it!

[warrenpenalver]

the idea is that you know roughly what your normal temps and pressure ranges are so that if for example you get a slow puncture youll notice the pressure drop and temp rise on the motorway and do something before you end up with a blow out. Same idea on track.

[FlashBastd]

Ok, so todays progress;

Both seats are in!



Also wired in the TPMS, need to put some air in the tyres though, they are a touch low now it has cooled down



Changed the heater control panel for an early version





And added an aux power socket to the glove compartment



I think my to do list is getting shorter!

Only disappointment today was that some of the trims for the seat runners, etc. don't seem to fit, but I will probably review things later. Still need to hook up the wiring for the seats, but that should be reasonably straightforward.

All in all a busy weekend for the car;

1. new seats
2. replaced high level brake lamp bulbs
3. repaired wiring to high level brake lamp
4. rebuilt / rewired drivers seat (passenger seat already done)
5. rear interior lamp
6. drivers mirror lamp
7. new sunvisors
8. hard wired TPMS
9. added aux power socket
10. fitted seat loom under carpet, running to fuse box
11. fitted replacement heater control panel

Think that is about it.

Comments welcome, as ever!

[warrenpenalver]

looking good!!!

Does the TPMS have user selectable alarms??? probably best way of using it as well as a simple visual check occasionally during journeys.

[FlashBastd]

Yes, it has max and min pressure, and I think also max temperature. I need to have a play with it, but the priority was getting it all in.

[FlashBastd]

Ok, deep breath, just bought a new FRP LSD. Cue more expense. I am going to buy a spare 1.7 gearbox, rebuild it with the LSD, and fit that with a Fiesta ST clutch.

Very exciting!

[FlashBastd]

Ok, spare gearbox now sourced, I recall from when the clutch was changed around 18m ago that the flywheel was worn, so I suppose it would be sensible to drop a lightened item in at the same time.

As a particuarly irrelevant update, I have also replaced the hanger for the rear shelf, which broke when I was replacing the bulbs in the high level brake light, which didn't need replacing.

Also I have just ordered some Denso iridium ITV16 spark plugs, as Dean the technician suggested that mine were looking a bit grubby.

On a more exciting note, I bloody love the way this engine goes now!

[FlashBastd]

Not much has been happening with the car over the last week, I have a new FRP gearbox which I need to get the LSD fitted to, and I have also just bought a new lower strut brace - mine started knocking after I caught it on a kerb.

I am thinking that I won't bother replacing the clutch and flywheel at the moment, the clutch is only around 17k old, and seems fine.

Massive thumbs up to Scott (Burgerboy) for my FRP engine sticker from Puma-Schmiede, pics don't really do it justice;







Also some plans are afoot for a new steering wheel;









I am also planning on switching out my cat, to see if that solves my clearance problem with a relative's driveway.

[ScubaSteve]

good project, does it ever get driven in anger or tracked to take advantage of all this stuff hehe

This post has been edited by ScubaSteve: 29 April 2010 - 08:45 PM

[FlashBastd]

I am planning on taking it to Cadwell before too long. My dad lives near there, so quite handy, just need to get my old front tyres stuck on a spare pair of wheels.