B-shaw’s PH1 Exclusive

So yesterday I did a couple of completely non clio related things.

1st up, I got my 1st tattoo
No reason for me to tell you guys that at all, but there you go.

Secondly, I bought a new car (I actually did this before the tattoo)

I've bought a practical daily estate car, so I can hide the clio away in the garage for winter and use it more as a weekend/track toy.

A chap I know on the internet posted up his old daily for sale, a 320d E46 touring. I've always liked these just never been in a position to buy a second car. I hadnt really thought about a daily for a while, until this popped up.
Swung a few messages between us and bought this a couple of days later...





A SAAB 9-5 2.2 TID Vector
Because for somereason even at 30 with 10 years no claims, insurance on a 2.0 diesel BMW is extortionate (almost double the clio)

Some bits are broken, but it was £350 and 30 seconds from my work, which is currently where I've dumped it



They have cool lines, dont you think? These kinda old Saabs

And look at all this space for stuff and activities



Drivers window has fallen off the rails (along with me according to a few of my mates)
Hopefully this is literally a £2.50 fix, and its these little biggers that have broke...



Sat here thinking now, I shouldve linked my Nectar card to my ebay for these expensive purchases.

Key covers because, well...



It has MOT until the end of the month, but itll probably be put through one tomorrow at the garage over from my work to see whats what with it.
It doesnt like going into 2nd, hopefully a linkage issue and not a box issue (pray for me)

Best part about it, IT HAS CUP HOLDERS

Hopefully, this will bring a better quality of life for the clio. It also means it's not an issue if it throws a paddy on track and breaks things.
It'll stay insured and MOT'd over winter, so if I fancy a blast, its a quick £25 or whatever to tax it and I can use it.
May remove box and get it rebuilt over winter.
Really need to take a proper look at the sills and repair/treat the rust I found a bit back.

Hope you all like my new landyacht anyway

It's a win win situation. Gets a thumbs up from me 👍.

Sod it, have another one 👍

WOULD YOU LOOK AT THIS....



Aint no clios with that luxury 😂

Gave it a wash



What'sit been, 3 weeks of daily use now as I taxed it end of Nov too. Loving it, besids it constantly going into limp mode, problem I've stilll not gotten to the bottom of.

Gave the clio a wash today, as it'd been sat in the garage covered in much and salt.





Landyacht V toy




Got a busy year ahead for the clio, loads I want to do to it and with it.

Bought a pov spec dash top, so it removes the airbag and has a little storage tray in it, currently at my mates house waiting for me to collect.
Possibly getting the doorcards trimmed, unless I can find a decent set of Ph1 door cards.
Belts are being done at Micks in April
Need to figure out whats causing the castor difference, so will be stripping the front suspension down again, annoyingly.
And try find out why the steering is so bloody heavy still, although I've gotten used to this now, I'ts still annoying me.
Really want to get the box rebuilt, so new clutch too.
PMS shifter and PMS exhaust.
Ally bonnet wants paint and to be fitted too.

Booked onto a Nurburgring trackday in October too, so whatever happens, want the above done by then.

Mad to think, when I got the belts done the 1st time round, I honestly thought that it'd be the only time I'd need to do it as I never thought I'd keep the car this long.
5 years in like 3 weeks that I've had this.
Lets hope its the last time I have to do it. 911 in 3 years!

I really do love the look of this Exclusive, definitely go a similar route if I got my hands on one.

Done some christmas shopping for the clio over the past few days

Yesterday I collected the dash top & I managed to get some standard PH1 doorcards
Today, I collected a PMS exhaust off @Daniel for a bargain price.



The Saab managed all journeys whilst being in limp mode throughout, fun times



Think I'm going to get the dash top flocked, as the reflectionon the screen can be annoying, not really a fan of flock but its a racecar now right?

Hopeully get the exhaust on after MOT (8th Jan)

Gearbox rebuild, clutch and PMS shifter next.

Sorry I couldn’t meet you today mate. Hope the exhaust is ok. 👍

2 weekends back, I did a bit of work on the clio.

Passed its MOT on the thursday, took it straight to the unit to do exhaust and cooling ducts.



Got these off eBay, bit expenive I thought but looked better than anything I'd be able to make so bit the bullet.
I wouldnt say they were worth the money, they could easily have been made to fit better and more secure, the push fit just isnt secure enough. bit of a ballache to fit as they kept moving in the fog light surrounds.







Still need to make some deflector plates, but that should be the easy part, hopefully.



Gave the PMS tip a blast on the polisher at work



Never ever try to remove/refit the cat section on your own. you will loose your head and throw tools around in anger.
Always get help and complete the job 100x quicker. Even if this means waiting a day/week/year/lifetime, its not worth the hassle on your own 😂

Got it all fitted, had to cut out the bumper in a another place so going to need a new one.
Now, if anyone suggests to me that cutting up a £500 (new) exhaust is a better option than replacing a £30 bumper, I will find the tools I threw around the unit and launch them straight at your stupid head (the joys of fcebook idiots).





Does stick out a lot though, so I may well end up cutting the exhaust up to shorten it

Nice and raspy, just what I wanted.




















Going to hopefully get the doorcards swapped tomorrow if the weather is good.
Cars back home now so dont have the luxury of a dry well lit unit.

I chopped the tip from Johns as it stuck out a bit far for his liking as well.

Couple of other pictures.

So, the conversion to 15's is going swimmingly, as expected... NAAATTT

Swapping my wheels for some Team Dynamic Pro Race 1.2s, theyre white and they come with AR1s

These will be going silver, and will be track only.

Because the AR1s will almost definately try to kill me at even the hint of rain.... I've bought these



£150 for the 4 with Mitchelin Pilot Exalto with loads of tread left. These will be staying on for now, and I'm going to paint these the same colour as my old wheels, Sepang Bronze.
Also notice, theres a mint PH1 gearbox under that pink sheet that will be being fitted some time before I go to the Ring (along with PMS shifter and new clutch)

Anyway, today I needed to remove my wheels to be posted and to put the F1s on....

Instantly came across a problem
Yep, they dont clear the bloody brembos.





I struggled to get a picture of where its fouling, but its the front upper and lower corner of the calipers.
The plan, to take another 1mm off the mounting faces then remove a very small amount off the corners that are fouling, if the extra 1mm doesnt solve the problem.
I refuse to run bigger spacers so I'm hoping itll be enough to shave the surface off the calipers.



Kinda thinking white doesnt look so bad?

This was a ballache, my small trolley jack was 12 miles away at the unit, my big one wouldnt fit, I could barely fit to get to the scissor jack... was sersiosly hard work along with having to stop as i kept getting cramp through being squeezed into the gap trying to operate said scissor jack 😂



Got there in the end though, these are being collected on Tuesday

Tbh, I'm a bit emotional about it, I absolutely LOVE these wheels and the colour combo. But change is a good thing right? Wanted 15's for a while, now I have 2 sets to choose from

Decided on a plan of action to sort some other issues out too.

The castor issue, I'm swapping the powerflex bushes over to my old original wishbones as I know they were perfect before, I may also make my own strengthening plates whilst I'm at it.
I'm ditching the PMS top mounts for BC adjustable mounts.
This means I cant run the PMS strut brace right? WRONG, I'm going to weld it on, be mint.

Hopefully this will cure a couple of problems, but only time will tell I guess.

Got to be my favourite ph1 the exclusive!

if a minty standard one came up for sale I recon id ditch my daily or ph2 for one!

also a big Saab fan! looking forward to watching this thread

B-shaw557 said:

So, the conversion to 15's is going swimmingly, as expected... NAAATTT

Swapping my wheels for some Team Dynamic Pro Race 1.2s, theyre white and they come with AR1s

These will be going silver, and will be track only.

Because the AR1s will almost definately try to kill me at even the hint of rain.... I've bought these

View attachment 1453964

£150 for the 4 with Mitchelin Pilot Exalto with loads of tread left. These will be staying on for now, and I'm going to paint these the same colour as my old wheels, Sepang Bronze.
Also notice, theres a mint PH1 gearbox under that pink sheet that will be being fitted some time before I go to the Ring (along with PMS shifter and new clutch)

Anyway, today I needed to remove my wheels to be posted and to put the F1s on....

Instantly came across a problem
Yep, they dont clear the bloody brembos.

View attachment 1453965

View attachment 1453966

I struggled to get a picture of where its fouling, but its the front upper and lower corner of the calipers.
The plan, to take another 1mm off the mounting faces then remove a very small amount off the corners that are fouling, if the extra 1mm doesnt solve the problem.
I refuse to run bigger spacers so I'm hoping itll be enough to shave the surface off the calipers.

View attachment 1453967

Kinda thinking white doesnt look so bad?

This was a ballache, my small trolley jack was 12 miles away at the unit, my big one wouldnt fit, I could barely fit to get to the scissor jack... was sersiosly hard work along with having to stop as i kept getting cramp through being squeezed into the gap trying to operate said scissor jack 😂

View attachment 1453968

Got there in the end though, these are being collected on Tuesday

Tbh, I'm a bit emotional about it, I absolutely LOVE these wheels and the colour combo. But change is a good thing right? Wanted 15's for a while, now I have 2 sets to choose from

Decided on a plan of action to sort some other issues out too.

The castor issue, I'm swapping the powerflex bushes over to my old original wishbones as I know they were perfect before, I may also make my own strengthening plates whilst I'm at it.
I'm ditching the PMS top mounts for BC adjustable mounts.
This means I cant run the PMS strut brace right? WRONG, I'm going to weld it on, be mint.

Hopefully this will cure a couple of problems, but only time will tell I guess.

Click to expand...

What mm spacers are you running?

Is it strange to get emotionally attached to a set of wheels?
I feel so gutted that the Sparcos have gone, despite having two new sets of wheels.

The battle to run F1s over Brembos is ongoing, but I'm almost there I think.

Stripping the brakes down in here when its snowing on and off outside at... not ideal, shows commitment thoigh right?



Taken 1.5mm more off the mounting faces of the calipers giving a total of 6.5
Shaved the upper corners off a tiny bit too, whichit turns out wasnt needed, the lower corners however... Will be shaving them tomorrow.





It's so close, I think a mm off the contact areas should have the wheels on.
Weights will be a no go though haha, will have to mount them further in and hope they balance still.



These arrived today too



So light, happy I got them!
Hopefully I'll be updating with fitting wheels tomorrow.

Then I'll need to get the paint touched up on the calipers and get the brakes bled up over the weekend.

maddrt said:

What mm spacers are you running?

Click to expand...

10mm
Roll centre kit widens track by 10mm a side too

That’s some dedication to get those F1’s to fit!!

So after days of going too and from work/unit with the calipers, they finally clear the F1s

Gave them some fresh paint yesterday at the unit, was a bit cold so made an oven 😂





Worked really well, managed to prime, base coat and clear all in one go.
They were still warm when I got them home, after a 30 min drive.



Just did the front and tops where they were scratched and had been sanded. Still more tha you see once fitted.

Hopefully get everything fitted and bled back up on the weekend. Need to swap the 1.2s on so I can get the F1s to the powdercoaters.
Sepang Bronze will be back soon

Got the car back together on the weekend, brakes all fitted and bled, 1.2s on the front, but then the battery was dead so couldnt finish until the monday.







Think I'm going to keep the 1.2s white for now, until I need to change tyres atleast.

The F1's however..
I took the tyres off yesterday ready to drop at the powdercoaters today.



Will update once the wheels are back

1st look in daylight



Drove it over to the house and figured I'd get started on swapping the doorcards over

Who knew it'd be such a faff.

Exclusive ones removed, finally the last of the leather is gone.



Anyway, put the standard ph1 doorcard in place and well, none of the bottom screw holes lined up, both sides, it was asif they were about 5mm smaller han the exclusive ones, nothing would make it go down, god knows why



Anyway, got pissed off, got the drill out, drilled the holes bigger and made them fit 😂



Looks so much better now though



Didnt fit the rear door cards yet, the rest of the post will explain why
When I removed the front speakers, they were past their best, so I've ordered some 3 way pioneer speakers to go in there, hopefully will stop distorting if I turn the volume up, rears are already Sony 3 ways so better than the fronts OE Renault ones.
I did debate putting the rears in the front and not running any in the back, but for the sake of £23 I just kept to all 4.

Today, I decided to look at something I'd been putting off for a fair few months,
I whipped the skirts off to check he sills for rust.

Scrapped away the bubbling paint and had a good poke on both sides...







Taking it down the unit next weekend to get it cut out and welded up.

Still looks fit even with rotten sills

Turns out this repairing rotten sills stuff takes way longer than you'd expect.
Couldnt go to the unit Saturday as all the boys were prepping for Ultimate Dubs, wasnt space for the clio, so dropped it down 1st thing Sunday, by the time I'd gotten back home to get the Saab and gotten back to the unit it was gone 12.

Cut the outer sill out and found I needed to replace bits of the inner sill which I was hoping to avoid.





Cut the lower arch section out and then the middle sill skin



Made a knocking block out of ply, kinda worked



Cleaned the 3rd sill skin up, treated with rust converter and made a new inner part



Welded in



Not the best, still getting the hang of welding such thin stuff.

Arch section welded in



How to make a drainage hole without the correct tools...



Hammer a deep 13mm socket into it and hope for the best

Outer panel alost finished



Realised I fucked the rear corner up, meant to be square and not rounded off. Probably wont change it now as its not on show, but will see how I feel tomorrow.
It may bug me too much and I'll have to fix it.
Hopefully will all be welded up to primed/treated tomorrow.

And to think, I wanted it all done besides paint on Sunday 😂

It literally took 3 hours to make that outer sill panel fit properly, this s***s so time consuming.

Small update

Passenger side sill is all welded up, hoped to be pretty much finished besides paint today but couldnt make it to the unit so I'm further behind haha.

Adding a lip after id welded the panel in.







Treated the inside with the rust converter stuff for any bits I'd not managed to cut out.

Tomorrow will be mainily painting/treating bits.
Heat has warped the lower panel a bit too so need to try knock that back into shape and give it a skim of filler.

Hopefully get the drivers done this weekend, I'm not holding my breath though 😂


Slight inconveneice also...
Got a stag coming up in Scotland, its more of a driving/roadtrip holiday than a stag mind.
Was supposed to have the car in at Micks for belts just before, but turns out hes closed for 2 weeks due to a move.
Going to be doing a 2k mile roadtrip with the fact my belts need doing in the back of my mind
No other time I can get it done either as I'm literally flat out up until the stag, with another stag and other bits going on.

Love a long term project thread.

I wouldn’t worry about the belts too much - I know of a few cars years over due belts and one I know of still on it’s original belt...! On a 53 plate..! Lol.

just get them done when you get back and I’m sure you’ll be perfectly fine.

Little update seeing as I'm now off work until Wednesday at the earliest..

Finished the passenger side last Saturday

The heat had warped the lower part of the rear quarter so I had to get the filler out to sort that, It was only minimal but noticable with the skirt on. This annoyingly meant I had to paint a much larger area of the rear quarter than I had wanted to.



Also had a look at the front jacking point as it was all bent and rusty.
Pulled it all back straight and stictched along the seam where it had split apart.



Far stronger now, no movement when I jacked it up.
Just need to sand the rear quarter back nd polish to hopefully blend it all in.

Was planning to start the drivers side on the Sunday but ended up being out all day at Caffeine and Machine

Heres some Porsches











Aaand back to the clio

Got sent home yesterday dinner time so went straight to the unit.







Bit more to replace this side, but doesnt seem so bad on the inner sections. last pic is with the rust converter stuff on, kinda stuck at home twiddling my thumbs now though as this needs 24hrs to properly work.

I'll be back on itthis evening though.
Made all the panels to go on the inside sectiions so should be a simple case of welding them together tonight then start making the outer sill panel.

For those curious, this is all the protection stuff I'm using.

Slowly progressing with this.
Inner sill welded and primed



Outer made and tacked in



Welded and primed





The above was last Monay I think it was, the night the "lockdown" was introduced
Had a feeling it was coming, so went to the unit to try get it ready to bring home, good job I did really.

Following day, snuck to the unit to get it ready to drive back

Last bit of welding to do was sorting the front jacking point, as you can see it was a mess, totally split and bent up.





Cleaned it up best I could, bent it all kinda back into shape and just put lots of little tacks on any seams to stop it from splitting and moving around



Horrible to weld as can never properly clean it up, else id have just welded the lot rather than tacks.
Did the job though, no movement when jacked up.

Rear quarter had warped again from the heat, despite doing tiny little runs of welding and allowing to cool.





Put some high build on it and drove it back later that day, after cycling up to the unit and basically dying 😂

Home


Decided yo get some work done on Sunday



Rear speaker cables annoyed me so decided to sort them out
For some reason they were like 1m long all rapped up, not any more



Soldered instead of multiple spade connections



Done



Also soldered the resistor in to trick the carbon cannister plug.
Hasnt turned CEL off but I'll assume I need to reset it then see if its sorted it.

Prepped drivers side for paint yesterday, decided to sort the massive chip from when a fuel pump fell on it at the petrol station too.



Also sanded the passenger side down 1200 throigh to 2500 grit, then got the polish on it



Not the best blend but unless you look closely you honestly cant tell once polished,surprised myself at how good its actually come out



From up here you honestly wouldnt notice



Todays setup, really missing the unit atm



Need to paint the front jacking point tomorrow andpolish the passenger side a bit more. Had to stop yesterday as my arm was about to fall off I think.

Try get it all ready to rivet the skirts back on next week,
Like to let the new paint harden for a few days before I sand & polish it.

Also, was my Birthday Sunday so treated myself to a new toy



More to come over the next weel or so.

Nice progress chap

Great job on the sills mate, never been an Exclusive fan but this is a different beast

So Thursday, we set this radius tool up in the press at work, never seen it before, but it was like, a really nice radius, perfect I thought for the deflector plates to go with my brake cooling ducts...
Got home that night, pulled the clio out, whipped a wheel off and patterned up something I thought may work.
Come Friday afternoon I'd made them, trial fitted them today and made some minor changes, will paint tomorrow and get them fitted some time next week...







Theyre far from the best design, and I've realised Ive put the ducting lower thanis ideal, but whatever, for a rushed job I dont think theyre too bad? lol

Realised today in the sunlight, that you can really see a difference in paint where I've painted the lower rear quarter.

Barely noticable normally...





But in the sun, yeah, the new paint is much darker than the original.
Nevermind, track car not a show car ey.

Also today I made a decision to go a new route with this, engine wise.
It's been something I've been toying with for ages, I've probably mentioned it in here before now.
Over winter I'm going to 20VT it.
Aiming for around 270bhp

Reasons I think this is a sensible option.
Cost, mostly cost. how many thousands need to be spent to get the F4R to 270/300bhp?
And how many for the 20vt? Well, its a few for the F4R and less than one for the 20v
How much is a box and LSD for the clio, more than I paid for the clio, VAG box with lsd, less than I paid for the clio 😂

Reliability... how reliable is a high boost F4R, I'm sure lots of people will confirm, theres a chance it wouldnt be reliable in the slightest. And the 20v, people daily them with 400+ without issue (so 270 be a walk in the park I'm sure) providing its built correctly atleast.

Parts are so much easier to get too, thouands of them about, for cheap too.

Think I've found a guy local to help me with the loom, Fabrication of mounts, downpipe, boost pipes etc I can do myself.
Driveshafts, if needs be I can cut both up, weld together and get someone to make a custom set the same. (but I'm hoping I'll be able to simply buy a set from someone whos already made a some for the same setup)

Because of this, I'm going to gamble and not get the belts done (Sorry @MicKPM) its almost half a grand thrown away as it wouldnt have much effect on engine value I don't think when it comes to selling.
You are more than welcome to say "I told you so" if it snaps on me when I'm at the ring 😂

Still going to swap box, new clutch, fit PMS shifter before the ring though I think. Canot hack it crunching into 3rd all the time, and these parts will hold the value still, maybe.

Thoughts?

Started last week with cleaning up the skirts ready to go back on

Check the state of this passenger side one, all of that is tar, this pic was taken after cleaning the mud off it



Next, I used a LOT of this on it...



ta-daa



Drivers side had been bent from the sill bending on the jacking points, so set about sorting that





Just used a heat gun, it started moving back by itself just from the heat, but used some pliers to get it spot on. gone solid again now.

Took it to work, used the air rivet gun to bang the clips and the skity back on



Absolutely loved the drive back, sun was shining, took the scenic route. 1st proper drive I've had with the new exhaust and the AR1's. Reminded me why I own this car still

That day I finished the polishing on the drivers side rear quarter... looks great in the pic but its noticable in real that its been painted



Finally got the rear doorcards back in and speakers fitted





I wouldnt say the sounds much different, butit doesnt distort loads when the volumes upped, which is what I was after, so I'm happy tbf,

Next up, decided to tackle the exhaust. As I'd mentioned before it annoyed me that it stuck out too far, I also noticed that it was close to the rear beam and the rear hanger was actually hitting the backbox..







Removed de-cat pipe



Cut 1" off it



Refitted it all



What a difference an inch makes ay

Painted and fitted deflector plates



Painted centre caps



Today, the F1's are going on once I've cleaned the car insude and out.
Treated the wheels last night with Carbon Collective platinum wheels, hopefully my life will be made easier when washing the enormous amounts of brake dust off from these PBS pads

Couple of updates to catch up on.

Centrecaps in, wheels all ceramic coated and fitted







Match on the centres isnt perfect but never mind

Cleaned the 1.2s and put them away ready for the tracks to open





Colour of these is totally different to the old set, despite supposedly being the same colour.
Do look a little lost too with the different offset to the TD's
I'm happy with them though, nothing wrong with change right?

Talking of change,

It's official...



Here lies a 20vt destined for the clio winter 2020

B-shaw557 said:

Here lies a 20vt destined for the clio winter 2020

Click to expand...

Oh yes, I will be following this with great interest, as it is on my mind as well for quite some time.

Make sure you change the cam belt and tensioner while the engine is out. I had one fail on me (of the morning I was booking it into get replaced) on my old vRS. And also the oil pick up pipe which is another common one. And iirc there is a hard plastic breather pipe under the inlet that is prone to splitting.
Will be interesting to see this finished.

Some small updates

Took friday off work to strip the VRS

Managed to get pretty much everything that I wanted to sell off





How I left it on the Friday, just the bits I need to remove now.

Went back Sunday and spent the full day on it



Loom labelled
Engine & box pulled
Loom completely removed
Gear selector removed
Accelerator and clutch pedal removed
Clocks removed

Some bits I've kept I hopefully wont need, nut just to be safe for now.
Not sure How I'm going to run the ph1 clocks with this but I really dont want to have to run the skoda ones. Must be a way to convert the cable speedo feed, f**k knows.

Quick turnaround I'd say though,
Car bought Sunday, Scrapped the next Tuesday



Did a buy too...



BC Racing coilovers.

Few little jobs to get done.

Buy/install BC adjustable top mounts.
Swap polybushes into my old wishbones as I think the ones Iswapped for are bent.
Replace all bearings and see if that gets rid of the mega heavy steering issue.
Going to hold off on making a strut brace, will just make one to suit the 20vt swap so will run without for the rest of this year.

So my B14s, PMS top mounts and strut brace are all going.
Hopefully will cover the cost of the BC's

Oh, and I'm pretty much broke even on the skoda and thre wheels havent sold yet. So currently the20vt conversion is free.

KitsonRis said:

Make sure you change the cam belt and tensioner while the engine is out. I had one fail on me (of the morning I was booking it into get replaced) on my old vRS. And also the oil pick up pipe which is another common one. And iirc there is a hard plastic breather pipe under the inlet that is prone to splitting.
Will be interesting to see this finished.

Click to expand...

Everything servicable will be swapped, decided to go forged rods as they cost so little, so why not? lol
Yep, will change pickup and pump
Don't want to spend a fortune but also dont want any unreliability issues, so will be upgrading stuff like that where I can.

This looks incredible - nice work!

Are your old anthracite 16s forsale?

B-shaw557 said:

Everything servicable will be swapped, decided to go forged rods as they cost so little, so why not? lol
Yep, will change pickup and pump
Don't want to spend a fortune but also dont want any unreliability issues, so will be upgrading stuff like that where I can.

Click to expand...

It’s so easy to do a full service on an engine once it is out so makes sense to. I would have liked to have cleaned and painted the engine I put in but I needed it done quick as it was my daily car. I used a Gates cam belt kit which was about £99 from eBay. Also iirc there is also a known issue with the sump plug hole and it can weep a lot. I only found out after I put it all back, after I had the sump off to do the pick up pipe so it was a right pain to change while on the car plus I hardly did any miles and needed new oil. New sump was real cheap too from GSF with their discount code.

Are you going for the bigger turbo from the BAM engine? K04 I think it is?

Started stripping the engine down last week



Got it on the new stand



Wanted to pull the head to measure the small end on the rods (some are 19mm tapered, some are 20mm) so I could do a buy.

Looks like its very recently had a full belt service



Got the head off after having to queue at halfords for god knows how long for a Ribe tool (never heard of this before, yet another tool added to my collection)





Inside 2 bores look like this, still got the honing marks in



Outter two are considerably more worn for some reason



Friend of mine thinks it may be bore wash, it was defo overfueling, could be a pair of fucked injectors, who knows. replacing them anyway.

Reason I wanted to measure the rods...





Parts for these engines are so cheap and easy to find, mad.
These rods cost me £184.99 and despite being cheap actually seem up to the job. Only horror stories have been the bolts failing.
Supposedly come with genuine ARP bolts but may change them just to be safe.

Another buy I did...



Full Ko4 setup from a BAM
I'd been toying with different turbo ideas from the off, but this came up cheap and made sense.
I was going to go ko3 hybrid, but theyre around £600
The ko4 setup, with a light hybrid (billet cartridge) can see the same power and costs less.
I paid £200 for this setup, billet cartridge is less than £300. Have sold the Ko3s for £50 and will be selling the remainder of the bits andsome of the ko4 its I dont need.

One issue, manifold is cracked. Infact, both the ko3s one and the ko4 one are, common on them, probably cant find one without a crack now.

So, I'm actually dead excited about this... I'm going to make my 1st turbo mani

Today I started by simply getting a pattern made up to copy to cad to get a ko4 turbo flange made.
Cannot find one for less than around £50, which is more than the head flange thats 4x the size. So getting one made up at work



Paint trick worked quite well I thought lol. The rests on Andy at work to draw it up on cad and let the miller do the magic.
Few thing's ill be getting made at work to save me some pennies. Buzzing to actually get started and have bits made rather than buying off the shelf.

Onto some actual clio stuff..

Old non cup wishbones are being prepared to go back on





I'm praying I can remove the powerflex bushes from the current wishbones without ruining them, really don't want to buy another set.

These may be going on this weekend, along with the BC's providing my new bearings turn up tomorrow from McGill.

Went out for a little blast last week though, boy do I miss driving this thing,
And that damn PMS exhaust sounds the nuts. I'm really going to miss it sounding this good once its got a turbo on.





Maybe more updates this weekend

What the hell is this 10 image limit???

My kinda project this 😍
Awesome stuff can't wait to see it happen. Recently made my manifold from scratch so if you want any advice or tips let me know! What style are you going for? Side winder?

Don't do it Jessy...

Been a long couple of weeks with this.

Started with swappng thepowerflexbushes from the cup wishbones to my original wishbones,
Confirmed one was bent when I had all 4 off, weather it was bent prior to me buying them, or it got bent when pressing thebushes out, I'm not sure.
I took no risks pressing them out this time, drilled and cut them out instead.
Same for the powerflec ones, cut the wishbone off them rather than pressing them out



Quick coat of hammerite



The time came to get all these bits fitted



Now who remembers when I first fitted the bump steer kit and it made my steering go extremely heavy.
Well, this was the issue, we assumed it was a fucked bearing.

FUCKIN VIDEO WONT WORK NEITHER WILL IT EDIT, PEICE OF s**t



So, I bought some new bearings, removed the old ones, pressed the new ones in and welll..

AND YOU YOU c**t



1st one had been pressed in, gone solid and removed, going free again.
second one is pressed in, as can be seen, its solid, im not strong by any means but they should never require that effort to move.
The housings werent perfectly round, they were pinching the bearing thus making it almos solid.

Had to send the housings to the machineshop that made them for Mark, which resulted in the car being sat on stands for 2 weeks outside the house



You will notice the rears off also, as that was problem number two

BC coilovers and powerflex top bushhes dont go together, or atleast they didnt at 1st



BC's are bigger than Bilsteins, so the bushes wouldnt fit over
Took them into work on the monday and sorted it



2 wheels back on the floor



2 weeks later, Saturday just gone, these finally arrived at 6pm



One they had managed to fix, the other they just replaced.