I have been getting all the small details of the engine install lined out. The engine compartment is completely sealed all the way around the engine front and across the back. Zero hot air from under the engine will get recycled into the cooling fan or carb throats. All fresh clean cool air going into the cooling fan and into the carbs as the engine was designed by VW/Porsche. In my experience this makes all the difference between a hot running engine and an engine that runs the correct temp. (You don't want the engine to run too cool either).
I took the Puma for a few test runs last night and today. When I got brave enough and trusted the car today I opened the carbs past half throttle... the engine is all that and a large bag of chips. It gave me the kick in the pants neck snapping acceleration I was looking for and I was no where near full throttle. The engine is amazing and will (measured with my seat of the pants feel) kick my Suby Speedster's ass when it comes to acceleration. This is what I was hoping for, mission accomplished in this area. I am going to have a muffler shop retrofit the chrome A-1 in and out muffler I have left over from my 2276 side winder header. I pushed this muffler onto the header collector and it does the job to quiet the engine and still sound mean. I will make an appointment tomorrow to have the muffler installed. The car will be much more user friendly. The sound and pull this engine has is really amazing as it should be. I was adding up the bills on this engine and I could have bought 2 - Ford 347 turnkey roller engines with aluminum heads and 465HP for what this engine has cost. It may not be practical but boy is it fun. I had three people wave and yell cool car on my short drives. People seem to like the Puma.
