By cleverly buying and selling parts,
Wayne E. has managed to build this Mk5 Fiesta with turbo’d Puma engine, for
next to nothing...
Unless you're lucky enough to have been
born into a family that has its own money tree, any work on your car will be
dictated by how much spare cash you have. Now, some people will work all the
hours they can to pay for those 6-pot brakes or tasty new turbo, while others
will simply bang it on a credit card. And both ways are fine. But there is
another route to explore - and if you do it right, building your ideal car may
cost less than you'd think.
Fiesta
MK5 - Deals On Wheels
If you're handy with a spanner, there really
is a whole world of opportunity out there in fast Ford land. From badly listed
eBay parts that can be snapped up for a bargain - to unfinished projects that
the owner just wants to see the back of - if you have the skills and time, you
can achieve a whole lot for very little.
"I've hardly spent any money out of my
wages to build this," states Wayne Elliott. "It's all been done by
buying and selling bits to fund the next mods." It all began with a Mk5
Fiesta that he dropped a 1.7 Puma engine into. Then, after that was smashed up,
he transferred the bits to a new shell. But each time he bought a new car, the
bits were stripped and sold to fund new parts. Rather than pay top dollar for a
genuine Racing Puma engine, Wayne got hold of a regular 1.7-liter lump and then
added the Racing Puma goodies such as the inlet manifold and ECU. The engine
was built up using forged internals, which again were sourced from eBay to keep
costs down.
"I've
hardly spent any money out of my wages to build this,"
Speed of a puma
Now, although there have been numerous Puma
engines slotted between the wings of Mk5 Fiestas (including our Jamie's), we've
not seen many turbo'd versions. The reason for this is, probably, due to the
fact there are no off-the-shelf parts such as exhaust manifolds, as with
2-liter Zetec units. But that wasn't about to stop Wayne. He says, "I
could've just done a 2-liter Zetec turbo, but that's been done so many
times."
The Mk5 was actually finished and running
the Puma lump back in summer 2012 and a very nice thing it was too. But Wayne
had always wanted to turbo it. He came across a Puma with a ready-turbocharged
1.7 lump and bought it. "It was a bit of a bodge job," laughs Wayne.
But it did offer the T25 turbo and the other ancillaries required. He continues,
"I bought the car to see how the conversion was done, but as it turned
out, the adapter plate on the exhaust manifold was only 5mm thick and the turbo
was actually touching the bulkhead."
“the
turbo'd 1.7-liter is running an estimated 250-260bhp”
So, Wayne decided to sell the rest of the
Puma and keep the engine and gearbox. He then set about figuring out the turbo
conversion for himself. Take a look at the box on page 85 to see how he did it,
but the main issue involved getting at the exhaust manifold at the rear of the
engine. Having a good mate handy with a lathe was also a godsend as it allowed
an adapter plate to be machined for the turbo to fit, without touching the
bulkhead.
Speaking with Wayne, he makes it all sound
very straightforward, but it's clear a lot of hard work was involved. Although
he does admit that getting the turbo positioning right was a challenge! With a
custom map, Skyline injectors and some custom boost and intercooler pipework,
plus a free-flowing 3in exhaust, including downpipe, everything was in place
for a decent slug of power. The car hasn't been on a rolling road yet, but
Wayne estimates 250-260bhp, which isn't shy in a little car like this.
