Ph1 172 & Clio DCi
So I decided some time ago that I needed some cheap motoring in my life and where better to turn than a Clio DCI, £30 a year tax, big MPG, it just had to be a winner.
I struck lucky as a girl I use to go to school with called and said she had seen i did alot with Clio and would I be interested in her Clio that had blown the engine up as the turbo had gone!
Now this being my life, nothing was easy! She said she wanted £150 for it and I could have it. I drove 3miles from my house to hers to pay the cash and collect the car with a mate and a row rope.
When I got there she told me the car had blown up in Essex at her work and it was sitting in a greyhound training farm with the paperwork in the glovebox and the key under the sun visor!
No biggy, me and 2 mates jumped in the tow car and drove all the way to Essex to be greeted with a fully locked and closed training facility. After a short phone call to her she insisted we could just jump over the fence and unlock the gate from the inside and that's what we did.
In the corner of the yard, there she was. My new purchase! As we started to rig the DCi up to the tow car (it was pretty dark by now) we were greeted by a rather unimpressed guard dog that wasn't very happy to see us!
I managed to drive the DCi out the yard and down the road a bit on the starter motor as my mate jumped in the tow car and shot off down the road! We jogged back, shut the gate with the dog locked in the yard, Jobs a gooden
!
We towed the DCi threw central London from Essex all the way to Staines on a rope!! 70 odd miles. The amount of people who tried to get between the tow car and the DCi in London traffic to be greeted by a tow rope was hilarious.
After a safe return back to the workshop, the work begun, old engine out, complete new engine in. Start it up and it sounded like an utter dog! 4 totally dead injectors! £600 in Renault later and she was alive, be it bloody slow!
When your use to a 200bhp Ph1 172 as a daily, this really doesn't excite you in anyway shape or form. How ever, 600ish miles to a tank and £30 a year to tax, who really cares. I PROMISED myself this was a cheap get around and all spare funds would be going towards my Westfield Cosworth project AND THE DCI WOULD REMAIN TOTALLY STANDARD!
How ever. Lately I've sorta slipped up, it all started with a cheeky remap, i mean what the hell, I own the kit to do it so why not. The gains were epic! It turned quite a mundane boring to drive car into a little warrior. Loads and loads of torque. It just made it feel right and when you went to overtake someone at 70mph, it just felt more safe to do so!
Next I went over the local scrapyard for a wiring loom from a mini for the westfield only to be greeted by a DCi106 that had been smashed hard up the back! It had always bothered me that my DCi didn't come with an intercooler and as there was one here with all the pipes for £40. Baaahhhhh what the hell!
As I had all the boost piles off my DCi anyway to fit the intercooler I decided to remove the EGR valve too as if I drove round town a bit, the next time I gave it a boot full, it would smoke the town out, then clear so I decided to rule it out anyway.
Removing the EGR valve and housing perfectly exposed the actuator arm for the turbo and I noticed it was adjustable from the factory! As it was now intercooled I though what the hell, a bit more boost won't hurt and wound it up by quite a margin.
THE RESULTS ARE EPIC!
Thanks to the lack of EGR and colder air the fuel consumption has got even better than it was! And the little 1.5 has been turned into a little powerhouse. The car is So So So much fun to drive now. It really takes off well from as little as 1500rpm in any gear whatso ever.
I'm really really happy with it, so happy infact, I've just agreed to buy some Turinis for it.
I struck lucky as a girl I use to go to school with called and said she had seen i did alot with Clio and would I be interested in her Clio that had blown the engine up as the turbo had gone!
Now this being my life, nothing was easy! She said she wanted £150 for it and I could have it. I drove 3miles from my house to hers to pay the cash and collect the car with a mate and a row rope.
When I got there she told me the car had blown up in Essex at her work and it was sitting in a greyhound training farm with the paperwork in the glovebox and the key under the sun visor!
No biggy, me and 2 mates jumped in the tow car and drove all the way to Essex to be greeted with a fully locked and closed training facility. After a short phone call to her she insisted we could just jump over the fence and unlock the gate from the inside and that's what we did.
In the corner of the yard, there she was. My new purchase! As we started to rig the DCi up to the tow car (it was pretty dark by now) we were greeted by a rather unimpressed guard dog that wasn't very happy to see us!
I managed to drive the DCi out the yard and down the road a bit on the starter motor as my mate jumped in the tow car and shot off down the road! We jogged back, shut the gate with the dog locked in the yard, Jobs a gooden
! We towed the DCi threw central London from Essex all the way to Staines on a rope!! 70 odd miles. The amount of people who tried to get between the tow car and the DCi in London traffic to be greeted by a tow rope was hilarious.
After a safe return back to the workshop, the work begun, old engine out, complete new engine in. Start it up and it sounded like an utter dog! 4 totally dead injectors! £600 in Renault later and she was alive, be it bloody slow!
When your use to a 200bhp Ph1 172 as a daily, this really doesn't excite you in anyway shape or form. How ever, 600ish miles to a tank and £30 a year to tax, who really cares. I PROMISED myself this was a cheap get around and all spare funds would be going towards my Westfield Cosworth project AND THE DCI WOULD REMAIN TOTALLY STANDARD!
How ever. Lately I've sorta slipped up, it all started with a cheeky remap, i mean what the hell, I own the kit to do it so why not. The gains were epic! It turned quite a mundane boring to drive car into a little warrior. Loads and loads of torque. It just made it feel right and when you went to overtake someone at 70mph, it just felt more safe to do so!
Next I went over the local scrapyard for a wiring loom from a mini for the westfield only to be greeted by a DCi106 that had been smashed hard up the back! It had always bothered me that my DCi didn't come with an intercooler and as there was one here with all the pipes for £40. Baaahhhhh what the hell!
As I had all the boost piles off my DCi anyway to fit the intercooler I decided to remove the EGR valve too as if I drove round town a bit, the next time I gave it a boot full, it would smoke the town out, then clear so I decided to rule it out anyway.
Removing the EGR valve and housing perfectly exposed the actuator arm for the turbo and I noticed it was adjustable from the factory! As it was now intercooled I though what the hell, a bit more boost won't hurt and wound it up by quite a margin.
THE RESULTS ARE EPIC!
Thanks to the lack of EGR and colder air the fuel consumption has got even better than it was! And the little 1.5 has been turned into a little powerhouse. The car is So So So much fun to drive now. It really takes off well from as little as 1500rpm in any gear whatso ever.
I'm really really happy with it, so happy infact, I've just agreed to buy some Turinis for it.
