1991 Tungsten Grey R21 Turbo

(While you're here dont forget my myraid of other active threads... the Phase 1 R9 Turbo thread, the 21 Quadra thread the Clio V6 thread, and the (very short) 220 Trophy thread )

Not my car for a change but i've got this sickly individual in for examinations. First look indicates little or no oil pressure... oh dear! Stand by for further shenanigans

So I dug into it and it does have SOME oil pressure but not enough to let it ride. When up to temp its tripping below the min pressure warning level. It also smokes like its on 60 Embassy a day!

I spent a day fixing the oil pressure switch, sender, and wiring...someone has been here before and made a right old patchwork of it, but I traced the right wiring and corrected it, fitted new sensors and now we have working oil level/pressure on the dash Before I got into it sending 12v to the oil switch was turning the windscreen wipers on! View attachment 213741







Urgh, not good. Whoever chopped this lot in needs a good beating.



This is where I isolated the oil switch wiring and ran a patch wire over to the output from the instrument panel.

Nothing going wrong on cars terrifies me as much as electrics do.

Rust and corrosion can be cut out and replaced.

Electrics can baffle even the most dedicated and capable minds. Not forgetting the small, yet plausible risk of setting the damn thing on fire when messed about with!

Darren S said:

Nothing going wrong on cars terrifies me as much as electrics do.

Rust and corrosion can be cut out and replaced.

Electrics can baffle even the most dedicated and capable minds. Not forgetting the small, yet plausible risk of setting the damn thing on fire when messed about with!

Click to expand...

100% agree. Fortunately these are right at the start of the electronics age and are still fairly simple by modern standards. Can you imagine picking this sort of thing apart on a car 30 years newer? Makes me shudder!

DaveL485 said:

100% agree. Fortunately these are right at the start of the electronics age and are still fairly simple by modern standards. Can you imagine picking this sort of thing apart on a car 30 years newer? Makes me shudder!

Click to expand...

Watched a YouTube video recently of a bloke in America buying a ropey looking Bentley at auction.

Pretty sure that NASA operates some space missions with less complex electronics. A bottomless pit of issues.

Out she comes.





Did a bit of cleaning, looks like the crank rear main seal was hurling oil everywhere

New engine, popped the inlet studs out to properly clean the mating surface up



This is a Phase 1 engine, going in a phase 3. While most differences dont matter that much and it all fits together, the one that does is the fact this engine has a distributor cap & associated drive, whereas the car is a wasted spark model with coil packs. I removed the dizzy drive system and put a core plug in the hole.



Ten it was just general engine prep to go in, making sure the locating dowels are right, ancilliaries, blah blah. The flywheel also needs to be wasted spark, being a 60-2 with one reset point against the phase 1 two reset point type. While I was there I fitted a new spigot bearing (tried the bread trick to remove the old one, it works, I was staggered!), also a new clutch friction plate and release bearing. These, surprisingly, are plentiful in supply - its covers (and full kits) that you cant get.

The bread trick... (youtube it)




And in she goes!



Then its just a case of reassembling the jigsaw puzzle.



And back together





Fired up first time, no problems - once it was run up and the coolant bled I packed away for the day. I had a couple of bits left to refit so 30min the next day and I toddled off to the fuel station to top it up a bit. It drove nice, no smoke, no issues that I could see. 2 miles down, longer drive next time!

Well lets see where were we. Ah yes, test driving.

It didnt go well. Started an intermittant miss, and as I was diagnosing (Cylinder 1, as it turned out) it started leaking. Ominous.



Then it went kaboom. Fully dropped a cylinder, clouds of white smoke out the back, coolant all over the shop.

NOT IDEAL. But hey ho, whaddya do... just crack on and fix it. As you can see in the image below the HG was absolutely hanging, three breach points in the fire rings and generally falling apart. I think when it was refitted it wasn;t retorqued after run-up, as the bolts didnt feel the right tightness when I undid them. When I examined the head after the skim, I found most of the small coolant channels were blocked with salt, the block had an inch of silt in it at the back too.






I had it apart pretty fast.



Dropped the head off for a skim, when that was done I cleaned all the deposits off the valves and other general cleaning related stuff



After several attempts to extract the broken exhaust studs (2 of), I gave up and drilled them, and retapped. Fitted 9 shiny new studs.



Not budging!



Drilling & keeping it straight and level.

Better.




Has a few days off the cars, with a work trip to Poland in there too which was nice. Back on it on Saturday though. Note I also studded the coolant housing as the threads didnt look great further up the hole.






Bolted up, the M8 [10mm hex] metal lockers are excellent for the exhaust manifold.



New cambelt and tensioner went on too and it fired up first time of asking.



Then I rebuilt the rest, and ran it up to temp. I think I was done & packed away before 7pm, not bad considering it was gone 1pm when I started.



The following day I retorqued the head bolts to spec, set the valve clearences and changed the oil & filter - put some proper oil in it, 5w50 VR1.

So, now thats done, back to road testing. Drives really lovely, engine sounds fab. Running wastegate pressure at the moment so should be turning that up a bit this week runs considerably cooler now the head & block are cleaned out, and oil pressure is great.

Nice job but why does the attachment in the second post after talking about switching wipers on show 2 mk2 Clios?

Sash said:

Nice job but why does the attachment in the second post after talking about switching wipers on show 2 mk2 Clios?

https://cliosport.net/attachments/213741/

Click to expand...

At a guess its some sort of error from copy/pasting the post from TurboRenault, we use the same forum software as here so I bet an image was named that, over there, and ive not edited the post properly and that image name, /attachments/213741, on here, is that Clio picture.

Apparently the washer jets have never worked since he bought the car, so...

After this car went back to the owner he loved it so much it became his daily driver

Fast forward to earlier this year, someone reversed into it and broke the headlight and bumper cue a massive war with the insurance companies... in the end resolved but with the car not repaired.

The owner is emigrating to Australia this year, so... I've bought the car off him as-is lol. Collecting Friday!

I've opened pandora's box on this car now, one handbrake cable was seized solid so I fitted a new one. Now working well.

Next up the wiper linkage was flapping about, and turns out was broken. I stuck it back together with some of the glue from @Sparkie and WOW that stuff rocks! Glued the broken ally end, then stripped and greased all the linkage arms and spindles as they were dry.

Wet, pre baking




Post oven baking for 30min at Gas Mark 5 - rock solid. Well impressed!



Next up, speedo not working, it needs a cable I think so that should be "fun".

Are we all ready for another storytime of woe and misery?

Good, because I have one for you!

So - I got everything done and was ready to put it up for sale. Cleaned it up, took the pics. Looking sharp.





On the road, tax, insurance and MOT. All good right?

Wrong.

I noticed when it was up at fan temperature, just occasionally, it would flicker the oil pressure light. I didnt like that and I didnt want to sell a car that wasnt right, so I popped the sump off to inspect. Nothing untoward save a little wear in the oil pump - expected at this age I suppose. I stuck some new big end shells in there while I was there as the old ones were showing some signs of wear. Put it back together with new oil (£60) and cranked it over - no oil pressure. Cranked it over and over - no oil pressure.

Confused. Sump off again. Not easy as the subframe is H shaped and the back six bolts are right above the - of the H. Have to lift the engine. Stripped the pump, nothing wrong. Everything where it should be. Tested it with a cordless drill in a bucket of oil - all working. Reassembled it again, refilled the oil and cranked it - and got oil pressure. Whats the difference? No idea...waste of an afternoon.

Still flickering the pressure light at hot temps. Unhappy. Sump off again, managed to source another oil pump - brand new. BRAND NEW. Theres another £100.

Sump off again, fitted new pump, but shimmed the relief by a couple of mm. As you do.



That was a bloody mistake - reassembled, refilled the oil with new stuff (another £60) and fired it up. All good... as it warmed up I raised the revs a bit and...it blew the oil filter seal out the side and pumped about a litre of oil on the floor before I shut it down.

FUMING. OK fine, too much oil pressure on cold oil then I suppose. So I strip it AGAIN, remove the shim and reassemble. Very unhappy. Refill with oil and fire it up. Note I am leaving it overnight between refitting the sump and filling the oil to let the sealant set...

All seems good. Run it up the revs to maybe 2000 as it warms, then 3000., all good. Off the jacks it comes and before I pull it out of the garage I raise the revs higher now its warm and hold it at maybe 4000rpm for 10 secs or so. No load, just static on throttle.

BANG-rattle-rattle-rattle-rattle accompanied by an oil pressure light. Shut it down quick, storm out of the garage in a massive huff.

Came back to it a few days later, yep you got it sump off AGAIN. Sick of it. Turned the engine by hand and the drive key isnt moving (Cambelt aux drive driven). WTF. Long story short the secondary rotor inside the oil pump has jammed, which jammed the primary, which jammed the drive key, which jammed the aux drive and its shredded the aux drive here



Bits of metal in the sump.

No idea why the pump rotor has seized. No scoring, no witness marks, no evidence of heat. The rotor is jammed solid, wont turn, or lift out. Its going back to the seller for analysis. That rotor there just sits on that shaft and is driven by the other one, which is undamaged. Confused x 10. s**t quality I guess but its all that was available.





So now I am fitting a whole new engine. FML.

At this point tbh, I am out of enthusiasm for 21's. The gearbox on the red one and then this have just killed it. Had enough, once they are sold i'm done for a bit.

Nightmare that. Rare for pumps to fail like that.