xr-stu

bought the car in may last year, it stayed standard until january with just a service being done on it. it was fairly clean, 2 lady owners, full service history and a fresh mot. i paid over the odds from a local dealer but purely just so i could chop in the corsa i was driving at the time as i couldnt be arsed selling it privately. i serviced it the day i got it and ended up snapping off one of the lugs on the inlet holding the engine cover on, trying to remove a cross threaded and rounded bolt! ended up with a fuck off great big hole in the inlet :x great start!



in january after a few weeks of the road, i got back in the car and the brakes were shocking, long story short it had pagid discs, ebc pads and some race fluid, and while the calipers were off i stripped, cleaned and regreased them. shortly after i fitted some apex lowering springs and a set of T1Rs. i intended on leaving it like that but the modifying bug was definitely back and now its all snowballing out of control

few weeks ago i picked up a set of knackered H&R coilovers. they were alot worse than advertised and ended up needing a complete refurb. most of the seat platforms were oxidised and seized on, and the two rear top cups were crumbling to bits. bizarrely the fronts were fine though

removing the collars left me with loooaads of shit stuck in the threads, plus loads of road grim and rust built up in any exposed threads. a few hours with a fine centre punch and some swearing and the threads were cleaned up, a minute or two on the bench grinders wire wheel and they were good as new and clean ready for paint and rebuilding. combination of wire wheel, nitromors and elbow grease saw the somewhat grotty springs clean and also ready for a new coat of paint.














got a mate of mine to knock up a set of new collars, gave the struts and springs a coat of zinc primer and plasticote paint and they were good as new.











only issue i now had was they were fork fitment and the car was running the later rear beam with the eye fitment, so a new beam was liberated from a scrap mk4 fiesta, bushes removed, rust and shit removed, hammerited and polybushes fitted. had lots of fun removing the old bushes








along with the new rear beam i fitted 20mm axle spacers from a streetka, new top mounts alround and new front lower arms. the difference was awesome! the rear bushes were mega shagged and i think changing them alone wouldve made a difference, but the whole package together has transformed the car.




before:


after:






im now looking at modifying the rear beam after seeing how much flex there is in it, and possibly adjusting the geometry at the front by opening up the wishbone mounting holes and fitting eccentric spacers to push the lower arms out by a few mm to give slightly wider track and a touch more camber.

aswell as that theres some engine mods in the pipeline

this arrived at my mates this morning



its off a 2009 mercedes e200/c180 will be next weekend before i can even get my hands on it and really start faffing about with it but the plan thus far is to remove the aircon, fit a rad from something like a civic/crx as theyre much smaller, along with a kenlowe fan. fueling wise im going to go for either an auxillary FPR or a home made 5th injector setup to begin with. want to try and do it on the standard management initially mainly just because i fancy the challenge. potentially i might look at something like a dreamscience remap on the standard ecu or aftermarket management sometime in the future. for now it will be mickeymouse and cheap and cheerful ive started acruing parts for the conversion already, got a recirculating dumpvalve on the way, a couple of T pieces, boost hoses from a mates old mx5 turbo, a couple of intercoolers. im hoping to have most of the bits ready for a long weekend ive got off work at the end of the month and aim to have it all mocked up and have the supercharger ready to be sent away for some welding. ive also bought a new gearbox as mines definitely on its last legs, some 90 spec escort rst recaros and a few other minor bits, and im sorely tempted to strip it out and go as light as possible.

couple of random pics from rockingham trackday at the end of last month, this was pre suspension work but still performed really well and didnt skip a beat all day!











i know there will be alot of negaticity about the fueling side of things but i just dont fancy doing the predictable megasquirt or omex route and fancy the challenge. any input would be appreciated though!

PaulinhoT

That's a cracking car

Well done on the jobs done.

Lee Grout

Nice project. What power you hoping for?

st220kyle

Cool, im really interested in projects like this, it'll be good to see what it goes like as you progress.

xr-stu

cheers gents. im not going for silly power, 180bhp would be the target to begin with i guess, but thats just a figure plucked from thin air that i think would be nice power level for the car. nothing to serious but should go well at that power. im going to do some research into the pulley sizes and try and get it making around 6/7psi at 6000rpm. it should be safe at that with standard compression and ignition timing, assuming i can get the fueling side of things set up ok.

me and 3 mates got the keys to our new garage last night



needs a bit of minor work here and there and a good clean but its got a huge pit, woping great big steel work bench and vice build in at the back, hot and cold running water, an oil burning heater thrown in. can fit 6 cars at a squeeze or 4 with loads of space to work on them and weve got 5 car spaces outside. its on our doorstep and works out to roughly Ł100 each a month with bills etc, so proper work can begin soon!

Chip

iTrader: (3)

I think you are pissing in the wind not just going aftermarket, I cant see why you would not want proper access to tune it.

Cool project though

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Ps

Where abouts in which country are you living these days as your profile still says weston.

xr-stu

Chip I know what you mean and youre right but I really do just fancy the challenge of working out a way to get it fuelling right by playing with what's there, that's it. No doubt as soon as I've blown it up ill buy mega squirt

I'm based in Belfast until middle of next yer, then if I havnt signed off and gone back to civi street were all moving to Chester, which would be handy as the lock up is in stoke on Trent, where I spend any weekends or whatever time I get off.

Chip

iTrader: (3)

I'm meant to be moving to Newark on Trent soon mate. That's the reason I ask. So stoke would mean we are close enough for beers and pizza again somewhere in the middle ground from time to time as only about 80 miles apart

xr-stu

Sounds good! Always welcome down the lockup if you fancy it mate. Whatever happene to the likes of the compressor and that fuck off great big jack? If you've still got it an want rid before you move then let me know.

xr-stu

well finally managed to get some time under the bonnet this weekend and get the first look and a proper idea of how this things gonna go down.



first thing i did was strip the supercharger down and take off all the mercedes related tat. heres what it looks like bare. shouldve put something next to it for scale but its smaller than i was expecting. anyway, car wise i took the aircon rad and pipe work out, and the radiator fan (ill be fitting a slimline one, probably on the front for clearance). i then took the aircon compressor off and oil filter (ill be fitting a stubby little oil filter in future as the std one is in the way), and offered up the supercharger in the space. i couldnt get any pictures because i didnt have enough hands but it was pretty snug. to give me a bit more room ive tucked the bottom of the rad in closer to the front crossmember by trimming the forward edges of the mount and bolting it on using the rear holes on the bracket with the front holes on the chassis leg, which gives me about another 2inches. as you can see in this picture this stretches the rad hose a little, which is in the way anyway, so ill make up a new rad hose up in due course. crap pics sorry!





this gives me enough room to comfortably mount the blower with the oulets facing downwards, to make plumbing easier. ill be using the outlet with the bolt on flange, and chopping off the other inlet and that corner of the inlet tract, along with the rear mount.


ive sussed out how the mount is gonna look, the pipework and intercooler. just need to get the relevant steel and start making mock ups, then get the supercharger chopped up and welded. as for the fueling i think i might end up going for a 5th injector and piggy back ecu. mainly because management that is capable of keeping the vct isnt cheap, and i want to keep this a cheap car!

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Cool project this.Keep up the good work.

xr-stu

Well this weekend I had a lot to do in of lockup and hasn't planned on doing much on the puma. Was down there til about 1am on Friday night and pretty much finished everything I ha todo so yesterday attention was turned to the puma. Didn't have any of te steel to start working on a bracket for the blower so just got that water hose sorted and gaffes about with the suspension ( a but on the coilovers ha come loose slightly so the op cup wasn't located 100% right, still not convinced its sorted). About 3pm we ended up starting stripping it out, an well, it's stripped now lol! No dash, no heater, door cards, tar pads removed, the works lol! Knocked up a little strut brace/harness bar and got my old 6 point sabelt harnesses in there. Few other bits and pieces.

Also picked up a 2.0 mondeo I'm planning on breakin today, so week after next when I'm off work my attention will be split between stripping this and getting the blower fitted to the puma. Hopefully a decent update then!

Psycho Warren

iTrader: (5)

Shall have to pop down and pay you a visit next time youre in stoke one weekend.

PumaJay

that picture is awesome!

Mk4 Rick

That's a nice clean example of a Puma Stu.I like where you are going with the charger idea.I will be watching with great interest

The Underdog

very interesting, look forward to the results

xr-stu

Warren ill be back on Friday for a week and will be spending most of my time down at the lockup so yeah feel free.

Cheers for the comments, I know it's not a 700bhp cossie or crazy turbo'd 4wd converted something or other track car but should be fun when it's done.

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Ive still got that compressor and jack mate, jack is a bit battered but the compressor is still like new as I boxed it away in a seperate shed and piped it through to the garage.

Dont want rid of either, both too useful!

Ive moved to the new place now although still working in london so only around weekends like I was before with somerset when you were down this way.

I think a pizza or a steak needs to be on the cards.


On a side note, and getting back on topic slightly, I did a basemap on this last night:





Wasnt mega quick, but really nice delivery on the charger, worked well despite the high comp!

Mk4 Rick

Bloody hell whats the spec on that?

xr-stu

I assumed you would have them still, and need them! Worth asking though. Whenever you're gonna be around let me know, I'll pm you my number. How was that to map? Presumably easier than a turbo'd engine? Any sort of specs on the blower and the engine?

xr-stu

Well not done huge amounts the past week or two. Been busy doing tons of other stuff but I've managed to sort the water hose, got a stubby oil filter and relocated the power steering cooler. Chopped up the supercharger ready for welding but discovered the Teflon coating on the screws has been damaged so I'm not sure if its gonna need recoating, If that's possible or what. Well see. Got all the steel for the mounts but haven't made a start on them yet, want to wait until the blower has been done so I know exactly what clearance I have. I've Also picked up a 5th injector setup off eBay. It's a micro dynamics PIC5 which is a basic unit but should be able to get it running well enough on that with some tweaking and faffing about with switches and fuel pressures etc. there's an intercooler on its way and I'm getting an ap 4 paddle ready for as an when I swap the box. I think I have pretty much everything parts wise now. Just need the supercharger welding, and then a few days free to attack it and get it fitted n plumbed in.

Jamie@FastFord

This sounds like a very interesting project - good to see people trying different stuff

Keep us updated - looks like this is going to be a cracking little car when it's done

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Actually very little spec to it, just a standard engine with a decent inlet and a charger added.

Only done a basemap for him at the moment, but it goes ok so far, still not as fast as if he just fitted a z20let engine for half the price though!

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Not really greatly different to map TBH, only done a basemap so far though.
Its done speed vs density like a turbo, rather than throttle angle based like an N/A normally is.

Im around weekend after next if thats any good, 15th/16th.

xr-stu

I doubt ill have it all installed by then, I've got some of this coming weekend but will probably be stuck in Belfast that weekend. My mums bringin over a wideband for me so just gonna get stuck in with that and see how I get on when the time comes. Got some er defenders I'm gonna pikey some set cans out of then just have a play about with it. The injector controller is activated by a boost or throttle position input then then runs off of a coil signal. It's manually adjusted but ill have. Seperate fuel pressure reg for the 5th injector so I'm hoping i should have a little bit more scope for tweaking. I was thinking wiring it up to throttle position rather than boost then just obviously starting rich and taking it from there. What afr do you recon I should aim for?

Chip

iTrader: (3)

11:1 I would aim for initially if possible on boost.

Ive got det cans and wideband you can borrow.

xr-stu

Cool well if I haven't for mine sorted when its ready to be setup I might see if I can borrow them then!

xr-stu

Well progress has been slow recently, been tied up with work a lot an not done much. This weekend I got the blower back from the welders. Not ideal perhaps but the whole setup is not ideal if we're gonna be honest lol!







Should do the trick.

Also finished off the outlet flange for the blower. Quite happy to admit the welding isn't the best. Having a hard time with it lately, guessing the maybe a problem with it but muddled through.











Also just a pic of the screws and the damage I mentioned before. Found a place not far away that can recoat it for Ł25 so gonna finish the mockup off then get it stripped down and sent there. Ill probably get the flanges and brackets all powder coated at the same time.



Hoping to get the inlet flange knocked up this week which should be pretty straight forward, then ill start on the main mount. The flat edge on the flange pictured will be incorporated into it but ill save a long winded description and just post pics wen it's done.

Also got the battery moved into te car, on the exhaust tunnel I front of the gearstick, the dash chopped down to just the top section to house the clocks and hide the wiring as was getting some brutal glare when the sun came out.

And fitted and wired in the 5th injector kit, all works (although needs an new injector) but obviously not plumbed in yet.

Should be more updates later in the week as working from home this week.

xr-stu

Well got the mount knocked up this weekend, it's quite agricultural and not pretty but I was working with what I had and had to make do. It'll do the job anyway.







Clearance is tight and it a slag to get on but was to be expected. It fits anyway. Paid for an intercooler a couple of weeks ago from a member on here and it hasnt turned up yet and have had no reply from several pms so not sure what todo but can't really do much now until it shows up or I buy another. Not ideal. Got a load of silicone hoses, Just need to measure up for a belt which ill do next weekend and get hold of a 50-70mm reducer and have the boss for the 5th injector welded in, along with the inlet flange welded up and I'm ready to rock and roll. My wideband should be here from the USA in a couple of weeks so hopefully everything is on by then and I can start setting up the 5th Injector and fpr. Decided to run an auxiliary fpr to increase fueling up until map is at atmospheric, then have the boost switch activate the 5th injector from there. Hopefully ill be able to tweak here and there between to two and have it run a fairly stable Afr all the way through the rev range.

Mk4 Rick

Looking good mate

xr-stu

thought it was about time for an update!

after a few months of inactivity due to being away with work, ive had this week off and have cracked on, on monday i ordered a load of parts, ashley 4 branch manifold, new airfilter, load of silicone hoses, boost gauge and a new 5th injector (more on that later...), and picked up a ton of various hoses, clips, joiners, etc locally. spent most of the week faffing about waiting on everything but got the last parcel yesterday afternoon and got to it! got it started at about 2.30am this morning and fuck me it sounds good! :dd:

rather than going through everything the basic spec is now as follows:
eaton m45 from mercedes c200k on DIY made mounts, 5pk2060 belt.
escort RS turbo intercooler
microdynamics PIC5 5th injector setup
FSE fuel pressure regulator
ashley 4 branch 'competition' manifold
magnex 2.25" s/s exhaust from fiesta RS turbo (obviously modified)
bosch recirculating dumpvalve (from some form of audi)
pipercross foam filter
shitloads of silicone

ive also fitted an innovate MTX-L wideband, obviously to help me set it up.

so this morning i calibrated the wideband, and before heading off in a blaze of black smoke and borewash i double checked hoses etc and thought id test the 5th injector, as it was an unknown second hand ebay part, as the original that came with the kit (also used) wasnt working. sure enough, neither does the replacement. im unsure if its the injector thats faulty or just whether the voltages from the controller arnt right for that particular injector. either way, a spare beige injector from a 2.0 mondeo i broke a while back works fine when rigged up so ive decided to use that instead. fitting it isnt straight forward, after a bit of head scratching ive basiclly chopped the end off the mondeo fuel rail and will use that with a few tweaks. it wont be particularly pretty but aslong as it works and will be safe (not leak fuel) thats all im bothered about. hopefully ill get that squared away tomorrow and can start setting it up.

will get pictures and a little video later in the week as im waiting for a new phone.

The Underdog

iv been thinking about this project and wondered how it was going. get some pics and a vid of it running when you can

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Cool matey. Ive also replied to your thread on project puma.

xr-stu

well ended up getting an engineer mate of mine to knock me up a little collar and used that to mount the top feed beige injector. worked a treat and doesnt look too shonky really. took the car out for its first run to try and set the fueling up and iron out any problems, first stop was BP for a tank of their finest then returned to the car and it would start fearing something nightmareish i popped the bonnet to find a vacum hose loose! popped it back on then cracked on. made a few adjustments to the fuel pressure and was having some issues with irratic AFRs, then it dawned on me the ecu would be seeing the AFRs are lower than they should be so was probably trying to lean out the mix to compensate for the extra fuel i was adding by upping the fuel pressure. i disconnected the lambda, after a few runs up and down the road and a few tweaks it seems spot on! more luck that judgement possible but at cruise and low loads the AFRs are sitting around mid-high 12s, gradually dropping as load increases down to low-mid 10s throughout the rev range under full load. quite rich but better to be on the safe side considering the high compression and standard timing - although im guessing now the ecu isnt getting a lambda readout it may have retarded it slightly for safety?! dunno.

either way its running alright, theres a slightly flat spot when under full load as i change up a gear but nothing i cant drive around.

my mate who came with me got this short vid to show the AFRs mainly but i thought id put it up. this was on the first shake down, the exhaust was blowing quite a bit so it sounds like shite, but you get the idea.



im gonna have another play with the fueling and try and lean it out very very slightly for the sake of economy and to try and guard against bore wash. its running less than .5 bar at the minute so nothing major but goes alright. already thinking about what can be done to the inlet side of things to try and help it along a little. and may have a tinker with the dump valve to try and make sure its not bleeding off any boost as its at full boost by just under 3k then doesnt seem to make any more throughout the rev range. any sugestions on that would be welcome, or feedback and ideas in general for that matter!!

xr-stu

also, i hit the limiter on purpose to see what the AFRs did, which was the whole point of the video! im not just a shit driver :dd:

will get a few pics of the install tomorrow hopefully, hoping to pick my new phone up in the morning.

xr-stu

Just a couple of pics to show the install.

the plenum and bracket were painted before they went on but i dont have any pics unfortunately.







the 5th injector kit initially came with a bosch cold start injector but it didnt work, i got another from a porsche 924 but that didnt work either! wondering if it was a voltage/impeadance issue i tested a mondeo injector and it worked so decided to run with that. the cold start injectors had a union fuel feed and bolted dirrectly into the boss which made life pretty easy. to fit the mondeo injector i had to open up the boss to 13.5mm, then got a mate to make up a collar to join the injector to the take off from the mondeo fuel pressure rail.





the 5th injector controller and boost switch.

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Cool progress.So the engine internals are standard then?? Does it feel nippy then.

Carlos-Titx

Good little project this. Nice to see something else from the norm.

It's Czech Mate

Cool project