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GrahamS
ClioSport Club Member
335d
Thanks matey, you'd be surprised at how just a couple of editing tricks make the video have a totally different feel. I've wanted to publish a video like that for ages. Strangely one of the first videos I experimented with was very similar but never made it onto the youtube! The music was intended to be slightly different, elegant with a sense of build up to the start. Took me and Mart 4 hours to film enough decent footage to make that 2 minutes clip.
Thought that was you. Recognised the picture!Loving those M&S biscuits mate
Ah yes, it certainly was. So easy to miss people on days like that when the weather makes you want to stay in your garage. Some wicked Megane's there. Would love one really but costs are ££££ The panel damage was there. Full story on page 4 or 5 I think...bus.
GrahamS
ClioSport Club Member
335d
Bedford GT
Time for a quick update now I've made a video. Mart and I went to Bedford only 10 days after our previous Brands Hatch outing, however, this time we were much better prepared for rubbish weather and spent the weekend before checking over the car to make sure it was tickety boo.
The O/S CV boot had started to leak so we spent a while doing the job everyone loves, cleaning up grease and then re-filling the CV,making sure we used plenty of blue roll to wipe the sludge off everything we touched. After that I finally gave the car and oil change. Now, hate me, because I haven't changed the oil in this car since I put the engine in a few years ago. I have however put over 20l of oil in the engine so in my eyes it's changed it's self a few times by now. I did however do the filter this time, using a spare one I'd been hoarding in my spares box for a few years. As I've said in previous posts, the engine does need a bit of work to ensure longevity. I have the stem seals and tools needed but am fighting a battle to allocate any kind of investment to this car and it needs at least £500 spending to make what I want. Anyway, after that we fitted Marts R1Rs on the car which immediately hit the arch on the back. All this is explained in the video but the stub axle spacers proved to be way too big with et35 TDs and R1Rs.
On to the trackday then, we headed up the night before and I got a great night sleep in the Travelodge next to some mandemz who thought it was great to be loud all night. We met Rich, Fraz, @Mazz and Luca at the track and thankfully, given the crappy weather, I'd nabbed the last garage on the Thursday. We had two incidents, the first with the stub axle spacers which had to come off immediately and second when we hit the noise limit and had to put the centre silencer in.
When the weather is naff, sharing a trackday works really well. Although not on this one because of the repairs, it usually allows for much more time chilling out, chatting to people and taking photos. The cost is just so much more bearable and this whole say including all fuel and Travelodge. only set me back £130. I'm slowly trying to get better at taking motorsport photos and if any of you are so kind to follow us on Instagram you will know 99% of the photos we post are ones I've taken. Tips welcome!
The Cup is now in hibernation for a while. I am hoping to do Cadwell and Oulton this year but as always, trackdays are the bottom priority on the spending list! That said I do have a voucher to use so at least one of them will be done.
Enjoy the video and piccies. As always, thank you for reading and thank you to all those who take the time to watch my videos, comment and like them. It really is appreciated and makes the effort worth it. PS, when I posted the photo of the black 182 on Insta, noone spotted the easter egg of the caliper carrier being upside down!
Time for a quick update now I've made a video. Mart and I went to Bedford only 10 days after our previous Brands Hatch outing, however, this time we were much better prepared for rubbish weather and spent the weekend before checking over the car to make sure it was tickety boo.
The O/S CV boot had started to leak so we spent a while doing the job everyone loves, cleaning up grease and then re-filling the CV,making sure we used plenty of blue roll to wipe the sludge off everything we touched. After that I finally gave the car and oil change. Now, hate me, because I haven't changed the oil in this car since I put the engine in a few years ago. I have however put over 20l of oil in the engine so in my eyes it's changed it's self a few times by now. I did however do the filter this time, using a spare one I'd been hoarding in my spares box for a few years. As I've said in previous posts, the engine does need a bit of work to ensure longevity. I have the stem seals and tools needed but am fighting a battle to allocate any kind of investment to this car and it needs at least £500 spending to make what I want. Anyway, after that we fitted Marts R1Rs on the car which immediately hit the arch on the back. All this is explained in the video but the stub axle spacers proved to be way too big with et35 TDs and R1Rs.
On to the trackday then, we headed up the night before and I got a great night sleep in the Travelodge next to some mandemz who thought it was great to be loud all night. We met Rich, Fraz, @Mazz and Luca at the track and thankfully, given the crappy weather, I'd nabbed the last garage on the Thursday. We had two incidents, the first with the stub axle spacers which had to come off immediately and second when we hit the noise limit and had to put the centre silencer in.
When the weather is naff, sharing a trackday works really well. Although not on this one because of the repairs, it usually allows for much more time chilling out, chatting to people and taking photos. The cost is just so much more bearable and this whole say including all fuel and Travelodge. only set me back £130. I'm slowly trying to get better at taking motorsport photos and if any of you are so kind to follow us on Instagram you will know 99% of the photos we post are ones I've taken. Tips welcome!
The Cup is now in hibernation for a while. I am hoping to do Cadwell and Oulton this year but as always, trackdays are the bottom priority on the spending list! That said I do have a voucher to use so at least one of them will be done.
Enjoy the video and piccies. As always, thank you for reading and thank you to all those who take the time to watch my videos, comment and like them. It really is appreciated and makes the effort worth it. PS, when I posted the photo of the black 182 on Insta, noone spotted the easter egg of the caliper carrier being upside down!
GrahamS
ClioSport Club Member
335d
What's going on here then?
This is more an update for update sake but there is a lot of change coming in the garage. I forgot to mention in my last post that I'd done the previous 3 trackdays with an overdue cambelt! Go me. After beating on the cup so hard over the past few years it needs a lot of work, is leaking like a sieve and is starting to show it's age. I've written about doing it so many times and something always stands in the way of getting it done, mainly my brain saying it's not worth it.
This time though things are different and after having a couple of different Clios over the past few months this one popped up with a good condition shell and a bust engine. It really did sound like a total bag of nails but the rest was so original and untouched I couldn't say no. I'm sure a few of you will have seen I bought Dan's megane converted car which ended up bring broken. I did originally want to use this shell but it had a plate welded over the gearbox tunnel and a few too many holes in for my liking so I had to chop it in. This one is nice though and will hopefully turn into the track car I can be proud of.
Where does this leave the cup then. Well it's currently sat up waiting to be stripped down. The condition of the shell had always bothered me, the metal had been folded in the front wheel arches after it'd been in a previous crash, the dent in the side as never going to be cost effective to fix and the floor had taken a knock too. All those things just put it over the edge for me. Not to mention the green bits I'd put on it. Whilst I like them, when you're parked in a travelodge for the night they're the kind of thing which could easily draw an unwanted crowd and end up with all my tools being stolen.
The plans for this one are to take it slow and build the car I've always wanted. That means everything painted and zinc coated to make it nice and clean to work on. Preventative measures will be taken to ensure it's kept rust free for as long as possible and the exterior will be a bit more subtle. Quality is the priority with no rushing jobs or cut corners.
For the running gear it's going to be the same suspension, ASTs, but this time with a turbo hanging off the engine. The engine is going to be a combination of a few bits I've got laying around including a nice low mileage block rebuilt up with standard internals, new bearings and 197 valve springs. I don't intend to chase power and just want a nice torquey track car.
I've always wanted to do this and it's now going to become a reality.
Ciao for now. Another update to come in a few weeks/months whenever I decide to stroll back into the garage. I'd quite like to do the cambelt on the cup and get one last track day in it....
This is more an update for update sake but there is a lot of change coming in the garage. I forgot to mention in my last post that I'd done the previous 3 trackdays with an overdue cambelt! Go me. After beating on the cup so hard over the past few years it needs a lot of work, is leaking like a sieve and is starting to show it's age. I've written about doing it so many times and something always stands in the way of getting it done, mainly my brain saying it's not worth it.
This time though things are different and after having a couple of different Clios over the past few months this one popped up with a good condition shell and a bust engine. It really did sound like a total bag of nails but the rest was so original and untouched I couldn't say no. I'm sure a few of you will have seen I bought Dan's megane converted car which ended up bring broken. I did originally want to use this shell but it had a plate welded over the gearbox tunnel and a few too many holes in for my liking so I had to chop it in. This one is nice though and will hopefully turn into the track car I can be proud of.
Where does this leave the cup then. Well it's currently sat up waiting to be stripped down. The condition of the shell had always bothered me, the metal had been folded in the front wheel arches after it'd been in a previous crash, the dent in the side as never going to be cost effective to fix and the floor had taken a knock too. All those things just put it over the edge for me. Not to mention the green bits I'd put on it. Whilst I like them, when you're parked in a travelodge for the night they're the kind of thing which could easily draw an unwanted crowd and end up with all my tools being stolen.
The plans for this one are to take it slow and build the car I've always wanted. That means everything painted and zinc coated to make it nice and clean to work on. Preventative measures will be taken to ensure it's kept rust free for as long as possible and the exterior will be a bit more subtle. Quality is the priority with no rushing jobs or cut corners.
For the running gear it's going to be the same suspension, ASTs, but this time with a turbo hanging off the engine. The engine is going to be a combination of a few bits I've got laying around including a nice low mileage block rebuilt up with standard internals, new bearings and 197 valve springs. I don't intend to chase power and just want a nice torquey track car.
I've always wanted to do this and it's now going to become a reality.
Ciao for now. Another update to come in a few weeks/months whenever I decide to stroll back into the garage. I'd quite like to do the cambelt on the cup and get one last track day in it....
Iain C
ClioSport Club Member
Sound good mate.
Clio RS
Best thing is the dish on the left bottom of the pic *lol*
GrahamS
ClioSport Club Member
335d
Yeah man I can’t wait!
Yours will always be better than mine ? it’s going to be a super long build taking any spare change I make from the last couple of breakers.
Fear not! The insta stuff is a nice and quick way to show what we’re up to but there will always be a project thread to go along side with more detail, specs and issues we come across. On the story you’ve probably seen a lot of work happening on @martin.‘s car so once that’s finished, the videos are out, I’ve redone the dci’s fuel system, replumbed and rewired the house I’ll be able to focus on getting this one up to scratch
Quite a few parts have already been acquired for the works so it will just come down to time after I’m stocked up
Porridge! The fuel of car days.
GrahamS
ClioSport Club Member
335d
The build is nearly at the point of starting full steam ahead now. Both the Cup and Black Gold have remained static for months, however, all should change in the next 6 weeks so. We've started stripping the engines so I can send a few things off for machining and blasting. So far the 23k bottom end engine is in great shape bar a couple of small bits on the crank and deck to sort.
Engine 1 - 23k bottom end
This engine is now stripped after sitting in my garage for the past two years waiting for this day. Sadly due to a small leak in the roof a bit of moisture has put a touch of surface rust on the deck and a couple of journals which were above the oil line. Thankfully the bores remain in brilliant condition so I'm confident this can be saved. The bearings were in good condition, confirming the mileage really is low, but there was a bit of scum in the bottom of the sump and on the oil pump. I did clean one piston and it came out well. The head which I bought, supposedly the matching head, is a sorry state with a huge chip on one of the journals. It really wasn't worth the £125 I gave for it. The casting is scrap but I'll salvage the lifters and valve gear from it. I'll be drilling the block for the oil drain fitting before sending it off to the machine shop, unless they can do that for me. I hope they can as a 15mm drill bit isn't cheap! The bearing colours are as follows and even though Renault only supply one size replacements it's noteworthy that there is some minor difference between the journals. When my measuring gear arrives I'll check it out properly.
![IMG_9383[1].JPG](https://cliosport.net/attachments/img_9383-1-jpg.1438782/ "IMG_9383[1].JPG")
Engine 2 160k+ - This it the one which currently sits in the cup. It's done 160k+ and runs amazingly well. Yes it drinks oil because the seals are shot but I'm hoping the head is in good condition given it's thorough service history. I'll strip this when the Cup is finally killed.
Engine 3 100k+ - From the Black Gold base car. It ran, just...and sounded like it had low compression when it did it last revolutions. Sadly I didn't get a video but it stank of fumes and struggled to start. I anticipate the cambelt has slipped and the valves have met the head and know the previous owner did the cambelt themselves shortly before it went Pete Tong. Fingers crossed for a salvageable head.
In case you haven't guessed by now, my biggest hurdle is to find a good condition 182 head. When I find one it will receive new valve guides, lapped valves, new valve seals and 197 valve springs. I am trying to source decent OEM cams as the cup has 438s in.
I now have a massive parts collection for the turbo build. Bar a couple of tiny bits It's all ready to go full steam ahead. Everything is meticulously stored and photographed so I know how it goes back together.
One thing can't be underestimated on this build, the time commitment. I am already really looking forward to when this is done and finished because at this point I'm dreading the huge amount of work ahead. The evenings and weekends are short and with time so valuable I truly question whether this is what I want to be doing with it. I'm sure I'll be pleased with the result but I can't hide the desire to get this started, and then finished. When it's done the car needs to be impeccably clean and well presented. This is a dream I've always had and never accomplished. Having worked on Marts car it makes spanning a lot more pleasurable. Almost everything will be refurbished/painted before going back on.
Recommendations for good machine shops, vapour blasters, zinc and powder coaters in the South East please as I'll be needing the lot!
Engine 1 - 23k bottom end
This engine is now stripped after sitting in my garage for the past two years waiting for this day. Sadly due to a small leak in the roof a bit of moisture has put a touch of surface rust on the deck and a couple of journals which were above the oil line. Thankfully the bores remain in brilliant condition so I'm confident this can be saved. The bearings were in good condition, confirming the mileage really is low, but there was a bit of scum in the bottom of the sump and on the oil pump. I did clean one piston and it came out well. The head which I bought, supposedly the matching head, is a sorry state with a huge chip on one of the journals. It really wasn't worth the £125 I gave for it. The casting is scrap but I'll salvage the lifters and valve gear from it. I'll be drilling the block for the oil drain fitting before sending it off to the machine shop, unless they can do that for me. I hope they can as a 15mm drill bit isn't cheap! The bearing colours are as follows and even though Renault only supply one size replacements it's noteworthy that there is some minor difference between the journals. When my measuring gear arrives I'll check it out properly.
Engine 2 160k+ - This it the one which currently sits in the cup. It's done 160k+ and runs amazingly well. Yes it drinks oil because the seals are shot but I'm hoping the head is in good condition given it's thorough service history. I'll strip this when the Cup is finally killed.
Engine 3 100k+ - From the Black Gold base car. It ran, just...and sounded like it had low compression when it did it last revolutions. Sadly I didn't get a video but it stank of fumes and struggled to start. I anticipate the cambelt has slipped and the valves have met the head and know the previous owner did the cambelt themselves shortly before it went Pete Tong. Fingers crossed for a salvageable head.
In case you haven't guessed by now, my biggest hurdle is to find a good condition 182 head. When I find one it will receive new valve guides, lapped valves, new valve seals and 197 valve springs. I am trying to source decent OEM cams as the cup has 438s in.
I now have a massive parts collection for the turbo build. Bar a couple of tiny bits It's all ready to go full steam ahead. Everything is meticulously stored and photographed so I know how it goes back together.
One thing can't be underestimated on this build, the time commitment. I am already really looking forward to when this is done and finished because at this point I'm dreading the huge amount of work ahead. The evenings and weekends are short and with time so valuable I truly question whether this is what I want to be doing with it. I'm sure I'll be pleased with the result but I can't hide the desire to get this started, and then finished. When it's done the car needs to be impeccably clean and well presented. This is a dream I've always had and never accomplished. Having worked on Marts car it makes spanning a lot more pleasurable. Almost everything will be refurbished/painted before going back on.
Recommendations for good machine shops, vapour blasters, zinc and powder coaters in the South East please as I'll be needing the lot!
[emoji897]
Iain C
ClioSport Club Member
I've actually no idea what i'm looking at obvs. Still need to come over and have a look tho
GrahamS
ClioSport Club Member
335d
Sadly this project is going to take a huge U-Turn...of sorts. I'd been felling very unmotivated about it for quite some time due to the time requirement and vast expense of the plans. Work is significantly more demanding than at the inception of this plan and on the rare occasion I have free time, motivation to go into the garage and lay on the floor under a car is very low. I'm getting old now and sadly have priorities ahead of the Clio! I have seriously contemplated selling all my car parts but had passed the point of no return so the change of plans aren't quite that extreme.
This weekend I thought it was about time to get the ball rolling though. Over summer I built a beastly workbench to facilitate tinkering in the garage so set about fitting the stainless top.
![IMG_9706[1].JPG](https://cliosport.net/attachments/img_9706-1-jpg.1442919/ "IMG_9706[1].JPG")
Once that was finished I jacked up the back of the car to inspect the sills properly. Sadly this is where it all went downhill. The O/S had non factory seal sealer on which was hiding a big line of rust where the 1/4 has been replaced previously. In the first pic you might just be able to see where I've been able to stick a screwdriver through the sill. On the inner 1/4 you can see where it's been hit. Admittedly it's not the worst rust you've ever seen but when taking into account getting the cage welded in, painting the interior and all the extra work to get the shell to the same place my cup is, not only is is a big expense but the shell isn't structurally in any better condition that what I've already got. I think you can see where this is going....
![IMG_9729[1].JPG](https://cliosport.net/attachments/img_9729-1-jpg.1442923/ "IMG_9729[1].JPG")
![IMG_9731[1].JPG](https://cliosport.net/attachments/img_9731-1-jpg.1442924/ "IMG_9731[1].JPG")
![IMG_9734[1].JPG](https://cliosport.net/attachments/img_9734-1-jpg.1442925/ "IMG_9734[1].JPG")
![IMG_9737[1].JPG](https://cliosport.net/attachments/img_9737-1-jpg.1442926/ "IMG_9737[1].JPG")
I'm keeping the cup and getting rid of the BG as soon as possible. I'm planning on removing the looms as I want the ABS from it, will salvage the rear beam, windscreen and flog off the body kit. Plans for the engine build are the same as they were but I will be saving a lot of money by painting things with a brush instead of the full OCD I had planned with blasting and powdercoating a lot of bits. It won't be mega OCD like I had wanted but it will still be better than most cars in the engine department. This build is already costing a fortune and at this point unneeded expense makes my brain go into meltdown. Lets not beat about the bush, if I carried on at the current pace this engine rebuild, turbo conversion and tarting up would be north of £5,000, that's excluding all of the existing suspension, cage, seats etc. Even for the most seasoned of car enthusiasts at some point that kind of build hits home.
Moving on from the shell and looking at the engines. We took apart the engine from the BG to find some really weird damage. The second piston had eaten itself. The timing hadn't slipped and although it looks like the tip of the sparkplug may have come off in the past the engine has clearly got crazy hot. Oil was cooked to the head. The piston had got so how the side has deformed. The crank was all OK and within spec but not as good as the first one I measured a few weeks ago. The head was mullered though so I'm going to look at a good one next weekend which should complete the engine build list and a few bits can go off for machining. The dephaser is brand new so I'm nabbing that for the new one. We think the injector had gone on the culprit cylinder.
That's it for now. Sorry to those that were excited for the BG being done. The engine and choo choo at the end will be worth it. In the long run I may get the bodywork done on the cup but it's a long way down the road. In the mean time I want to get out on track instead of stuck in the garage. Expect a lot of progress over the next 2 months.
G
This weekend I thought it was about time to get the ball rolling though. Over summer I built a beastly workbench to facilitate tinkering in the garage so set about fitting the stainless top.
Once that was finished I jacked up the back of the car to inspect the sills properly. Sadly this is where it all went downhill. The O/S had non factory seal sealer on which was hiding a big line of rust where the 1/4 has been replaced previously. In the first pic you might just be able to see where I've been able to stick a screwdriver through the sill. On the inner 1/4 you can see where it's been hit. Admittedly it's not the worst rust you've ever seen but when taking into account getting the cage welded in, painting the interior and all the extra work to get the shell to the same place my cup is, not only is is a big expense but the shell isn't structurally in any better condition that what I've already got. I think you can see where this is going....
I'm keeping the cup and getting rid of the BG as soon as possible. I'm planning on removing the looms as I want the ABS from it, will salvage the rear beam, windscreen and flog off the body kit. Plans for the engine build are the same as they were but I will be saving a lot of money by painting things with a brush instead of the full OCD I had planned with blasting and powdercoating a lot of bits. It won't be mega OCD like I had wanted but it will still be better than most cars in the engine department. This build is already costing a fortune and at this point unneeded expense makes my brain go into meltdown. Lets not beat about the bush, if I carried on at the current pace this engine rebuild, turbo conversion and tarting up would be north of £5,000, that's excluding all of the existing suspension, cage, seats etc. Even for the most seasoned of car enthusiasts at some point that kind of build hits home.
Moving on from the shell and looking at the engines. We took apart the engine from the BG to find some really weird damage. The second piston had eaten itself. The timing hadn't slipped and although it looks like the tip of the sparkplug may have come off in the past the engine has clearly got crazy hot. Oil was cooked to the head. The piston had got so how the side has deformed. The crank was all OK and within spec but not as good as the first one I measured a few weeks ago. The head was mullered though so I'm going to look at a good one next weekend which should complete the engine build list and a few bits can go off for machining. The dephaser is brand new so I'm nabbing that for the new one. We think the injector had gone on the culprit cylinder.
That's it for now. Sorry to those that were excited for the BG being done. The engine and choo choo at the end will be worth it. In the long run I may get the bodywork done on the cup but it's a long way down the road. In the mean time I want to get out on track instead of stuck in the garage. Expect a lot of progress over the next 2 months.
G
Defender 110
I genuinely don’t blame you - especially with the amount of time the DCi has consumed from you.
I’ve gotten to that stage in life that I get no satisfaction from even swapping over suspension etc anymore. I’ve lost all enthusiasm to bother modifying cars.
I get bursts of enthusiasm and then it disappears as soon as the plans start to get in motion lol.
Im looking forward to seeing the Cup make a return now 😎 just keep it simple and enjoy it. Once you go OCD, you won’t want to abuse it on track.
I’ve gotten to that stage in life that I get no satisfaction from even swapping over suspension etc anymore. I’ve lost all enthusiasm to bother modifying cars.
I get bursts of enthusiasm and then it disappears as soon as the plans start to get in motion lol.
Im looking forward to seeing the Cup make a return now 😎 just keep it simple and enjoy it. Once you go OCD, you won’t want to abuse it on track.
Akay
ClioSport Club Member
Clubman Cooper S
I know the feeling @GrahamS , I remember chatting to you on Messenger when I broke my 172, life gets in the way and especially when you own a property other things take priority.
I have had a lot more fun with the £1k MR2, relatively standard and just general upkeep rather than the worry of £5-6k of parts just... sat there.
The time of year doesnt help either. Regroup and see what you think when its lighter and drier/warmer.
Workbench is a beast btw.
I have had a lot more fun with the £1k MR2, relatively standard and just general upkeep rather than the worry of £5-6k of parts just... sat there.
The time of year doesnt help either. Regroup and see what you think when its lighter and drier/warmer.
Workbench is a beast btw.
Iain C
ClioSport Club Member
Dont blame you mate. Its taken me 2 months to get the time to change a fuel pump in mine.
Just get the cup running and enjoy it.
Just get the cup running and enjoy it.
Z34 370z Nismo
Ahhh noo. I'm sorry dude I anyways wondered why there was silicon seal under the jack points. I intend to scrap it out at 110k and do some welding and repair work on it. I had no idea the rear quarter had been completely replaced. I'd always assumed it been hit, because the paint was slightly off :/. That sucks.
What happened to the engine then? Faulty injector? The cambelt, pully and water pump are all brand new was done by specialist down in Dartford.
Damn was looking forward to seeing my little car running round again. Oh well, it had a rough life before me, was at the end of its life when I brought it. Alot if bodged crap I sorted, like an halfruads air filter hanging on with duck tape and a manifold that looked like it spent a few years on a battle field, the list really does go on too. Clearly was longer than I anticipated.
Some how I managed to squeeze 5 more years out of that engine. Loved that little car 😂.
Last edited:
GrahamS
ClioSport Club Member
335d
This is exactly it, the DCI really tipped me over the edge of car maintenance this year so it's been a battle to work on a flithy car ever since😂. Now the project is in full swing and parts are becoming clean enthusiasm is growing. It won't be full OCD but it will be pretty!
Yeah man that's funny because at the time I couldn't relate but now I totally understand! Something has to give and the gut says the car by a long long way.
There's no way to make that job clean either, don't you love the smell of fuel on your clothes 😂
Bar that little bit it was bloody clean so testament to the work you did on it! I did save a few bits from it including that nice new dephaser and the standard cams to use in my new engine
We really can't work out what happened. The engine got extremely hot as the oil was baked onto the head and the ring lands on the damaged piston had buckled. I think the injector had failed and the cylinder overheated as a result. The damage to the surface and head and piston looks to be det although as it's only one cylinder it's an unsolved case at this point. I cleaned the damaged piston up and it now lives on my desk at work. Everyone think's I'm a nutter!I didn't realise you didn't do the cambelt yourself. The timing was out marginally and the bottom pulley bolt wasn't very tight. The timing hadn't slipped as I'd originally suspected and the bottom end was all in good condition with a still in tolerance crank.
Project go go
We're off to a good start now and have scheduled to finish by the end of February. A quite staggering amount to get done in such a short space of time but it should be achievable.
Let's start by finishing off the brief appearance of the BG 182 in the thread. @Martin. and I stripped the BG in a couple of hours and given motivation was at zero I let it go with quite a lot still on the shell. We removed a couple of key spares for the DCI but most notably the 182 boot floor (which took hours to get out) and ABS system. I'm going to fit ABS to the cup as part of the rebuild. It's a safety blanket I would much rather have. The boot floor I'm undecided what to do with but am probably going to make it into a lid for the 172 wheel well so I can have the beauty of the flat floor for loading things in the car and the additional storage of the wheel well.
It's finally the return of the Cup. It's been stored since March and was starting to acquire the barn find style musty interior and mossy exterior. Before setting about work in the garage we gave it's a good wash, trying to pressure wash as much of the underneath as possible. I'm pleased to say a lot of the previous work I'd done on the car had held up to the elements well and it looked OK underneath.
After it was dry we set about stripping it ready for the speedy build. Within 2 hours the engine was out and started to come apart. Unfortunately I didn't have the required 14mm male hex to remove the dephaser seal so bastardised the cap with the angle grinder. Given the engine had done about 160k it was in amazing condition, a real nod to being religious with servicing. The first owner of the 182 it came from had it from new to 135k, meticulously servicing it and clearly giving it the lease of life which let me thrash it for 3 years without a hiccup. You should be able to see the condition of the journals in the photo, only one had a larger score.
Now the engine has been removed things have started moving at quite a pace.
I've got bits being powdercoated, vapour blasted and bolts zinc plated by TSR Vapour Blasting.
All the engine parts are back from Vulcan Engineering who turned the job around in only 4 days just before Christmas. I had the following done and will be assembling it all mid January.
- Block/crank
- Hot wash
- Decked
- Squirters removed
- Cylinders honed
- Painted
- Journals polished
- Surface corrosion removed on crank thrust faces (see earlier post)
- Head
- Hot wash
- New valve seats cut
- Supertech valves lapped in
- New valve guides
- Skim
- Cams journals polished
- Assembled
Yesterday we fully stripped the engine bay in preparation for rust treatment, the ABS system and a light dusting of paint. The interior is also back to bare bones and all the looms are out of the car. Due to the ABS I'll be using a 182 engine loom, adapted for the cup heater set up and EPAS. I've got quite a lot of wiring to do so will hopefully make some big progress on this over the next week or so. The box I took out the car was a bit manky so along with a spare 129 I had they've gone to @NorthloopCup for a sympathetic refresh and gripper. No more leaks, that's a big goal of this project.
That's all for now. Everything is being filmed so once it's done and edited I'll get it up on the tube
Thank you for all those which watched and commented on Marts 182 build review, I quite enjoyed making that one.
Z34 370z Nismo
😭😭😭😭😭
Ye I changed the cambelt and stuff on my 1.2 as that's a single loop and not as difficult as the 182. I could have done it, but i don't have time to/space/tools, if the clio was a spare car I'd have done it and probably would have kept her after the engine gave up.
Sad to see the old girl go, fun track days and a lot of hours driving in that car, she did well.
Didn't fancy taking the sportlines then 😂
That cup looks nice though. Looking forward to the end product man.
GrahamS
ClioSport Club Member
335d
A few updates so there aren't too many in one hit. Over Christmas, with the help of @Martin. we managed to get quite a lot done on the car in preparation. We're working to very tight timescale with mapping booked mid February and the car currently in a million pieces but with all the preparation I'm confident it can be done! The main time consuming aspect has ironically been cleaning and painting, something you won't have seen much of in this thread previously but has become somewhat an obsession of mine during this build!
First major job was to get the engine bay sorted. In the previous installment I posted a few photos of the areas with corrosion and wanted these sorted. The treatment consisted of a good knotted wire wheel session, a coat of Bilt Hamber Electrox, top coat and some U Pol powercan lacquer. Whilst it looks ok, being anal, in reality it's a little bit flat. I've solved quite a lot of this with some compound and it's a lot better but as always, you can't expect bodyshop finishes with a can! The biggest issue I had with this job were the paint fumes from the 2k paint I'd inadvertently bought. I'd read about it before spraying and deliberately tried to stay clear of it but sadly in the heat of doing a mass car parts order, failed to read the full description of what I was buying. Hands down, I will never be spraying with it ever again, the risks are huge and considering I take my health very seriously I'm pretty livid I exposed myself to it. Don't make the same mistake as me!
I've also spent literally hours and hours on the wire wheel cleaning up parts, mainly all the bolts from the front end in preparation for yellow zinc coating. All the nuts and bolts were pretty vile but after about 12 hours in vinegar they came up brilliantly on the wheel.
The subframe has had a lick of paint. It was absolutely vile and despite being a little damaged on the bottom has come up very very nicely. Pressure wash first then the knotted wire wheel took years and years of crust off. This is a factory galvanised part so I was very careful not to go through that coating. Even though I zinc primed it this of course isn't as good as a hot dip.
First major job was to get the engine bay sorted. In the previous installment I posted a few photos of the areas with corrosion and wanted these sorted. The treatment consisted of a good knotted wire wheel session, a coat of Bilt Hamber Electrox, top coat and some U Pol powercan lacquer. Whilst it looks ok, being anal, in reality it's a little bit flat. I've solved quite a lot of this with some compound and it's a lot better but as always, you can't expect bodyshop finishes with a can! The biggest issue I had with this job were the paint fumes from the 2k paint I'd inadvertently bought. I'd read about it before spraying and deliberately tried to stay clear of it but sadly in the heat of doing a mass car parts order, failed to read the full description of what I was buying. Hands down, I will never be spraying with it ever again, the risks are huge and considering I take my health very seriously I'm pretty livid I exposed myself to it. Don't make the same mistake as me!
I've also spent literally hours and hours on the wire wheel cleaning up parts, mainly all the bolts from the front end in preparation for yellow zinc coating. All the nuts and bolts were pretty vile but after about 12 hours in vinegar they came up brilliantly on the wheel.
The subframe has had a lick of paint. It was absolutely vile and despite being a little damaged on the bottom has come up very very nicely. Pressure wash first then the knotted wire wheel took years and years of crust off. This is a factory galvanised part so I was very careful not to go through that coating. Even though I zinc primed it this of course isn't as good as a hot dip.
GrahamS
ClioSport Club Member
335d
Then the subframe got new rivnuts. I do plan to run an undertray when the car is done so this is a must have for me. These are zinc coated m6 rivnuts with an approximately 9mm OD.
![IMG_0017[1].JPG](https://cliosport.net/attachments/img_0017-1-jpg.1448322/ "IMG_0017[1].JPG")
The brake booster, it's brackets and the pedal box got a clean and paint in anticorrosive. These were all in need of care after some brake fluid had clearly run down them in the past. I'm sure most clios are like this!
We stripped a spare set of calipers I had and refurbished them with a BigRedd seal and piston kit. These are the original calipers which came on the cup all those years ago. Despite spending a very long time cleaning the calipers up the Screwfix 650 degree paint reacted a bit when baked in the oven so there are a couple of marks. Passable for brakes although next time given a send and return service isn't much more I'll probably do that. I cleaned off any paint on the mounting surfaces to ensure the torque setting isn't impeded by a soft paint layer.
I got the powervamp battery fitted behind the passengers seat, being careful not to drill through the fuel tank on the otherside! I've order some Varley battery foam and some nylon spacers to prevent the battery having pressure applied on the backside of it when the cage is tightened down. You can see here the centre ridge would be pushing into the back. The white will be getting a touch up before it goes back on the road, don't worry.
The brake booster, it's brackets and the pedal box got a clean and paint in anticorrosive. These were all in need of care after some brake fluid had clearly run down them in the past. I'm sure most clios are like this!
We stripped a spare set of calipers I had and refurbished them with a BigRedd seal and piston kit. These are the original calipers which came on the cup all those years ago. Despite spending a very long time cleaning the calipers up the Screwfix 650 degree paint reacted a bit when baked in the oven so there are a couple of marks. Passable for brakes although next time given a send and return service isn't much more I'll probably do that. I cleaned off any paint on the mounting surfaces to ensure the torque setting isn't impeded by a soft paint layer.
I got the powervamp battery fitted behind the passengers seat, being careful not to drill through the fuel tank on the otherside! I've order some Varley battery foam and some nylon spacers to prevent the battery having pressure applied on the backside of it when the cage is tightened down. You can see here the centre ridge would be pushing into the back. The white will be getting a touch up before it goes back on the road, don't worry.
Greeny.
ClioSport Club Member
440i + 182
I know what you mean about life getting in the way of playing with cars, this is usually why at trackdays you either get young guys or older men and this is exactly the reason i try not to throw to much money at mine and try not to take to much of it apart, I just enjoy it for what it is and replace consumables when time allows.
Ignoring what I said above, I love this project and your attention to details as always
Ignoring what I said above, I love this project and your attention to details as always
GrahamS
ClioSport Club Member
335d
Couple more bits in progress.
These are the brackets we made up for Marts oil cooler back in the summer. Although they aren't perfect they do work very well and allow the cooler to be mounted square, utilise the vibration isloating rubber mounts of the radiator and keep the cooler and radiator core close together. Last weekend I took them off to have some laser cut for both the cars. Made up a copy of them on Sketchup and had a company called laser master cut a couple of sets in 304 Stainless Steel. Their turn around has been amazing and these have gone from drawing to cut items in only 3 days! They need bending but I've also purchased a rather good little tool to get this done right!
Wiring is the next big tick on the list. I've already done the skuttle panel loom and adapted the 182 loom to take the 172 cup heater matrix and added in the factory EPAS power wire so it runs through pin E3 of the R107 bulkhead connector with the correct 80A fuse in the OEM location. I've gone to this loom as it has cruise control in and swapping the above wires is easier than adding cruise in to the existing loom.
I found a couple of wire breaks in the 182 engine loom which will be addressed over the coming days, after which I can move onto some small interior wiring jobs. I'll save that for next time!
Lastly
A few bits have gone off for powercoating and by my next post I will have the following back:
Here's a sneak peak of the vapour blasting.
That's it for now. A new video documenting the engine disassembly of this build will be out on 18th Jan
These are the brackets we made up for Marts oil cooler back in the summer. Although they aren't perfect they do work very well and allow the cooler to be mounted square, utilise the vibration isloating rubber mounts of the radiator and keep the cooler and radiator core close together. Last weekend I took them off to have some laser cut for both the cars. Made up a copy of them on Sketchup and had a company called laser master cut a couple of sets in 304 Stainless Steel. Their turn around has been amazing and these have gone from drawing to cut items in only 3 days! They need bending but I've also purchased a rather good little tool to get this done right!
Wiring is the next big tick on the list. I've already done the skuttle panel loom and adapted the 182 loom to take the 172 cup heater matrix and added in the factory EPAS power wire so it runs through pin E3 of the R107 bulkhead connector with the correct 80A fuse in the OEM location. I've gone to this loom as it has cruise control in and swapping the above wires is easier than adding cruise in to the existing loom.
I found a couple of wire breaks in the 182 engine loom which will be addressed over the coming days, after which I can move onto some small interior wiring jobs. I'll save that for next time!
Lastly
A few bits have gone off for powercoating and by my next post I will have the following back:
- Wishbones
- ARB
- Cup alt brackets
- Gearbox mount and spider
- Rear brake hose bracket
Here's a sneak peak of the vapour blasting.
That's it for now. A new video documenting the engine disassembly of this build will be out on 18th Jan
frayz
ClioSport Club Member
Amazing work dude. Love the attention to detail 🙂
GrahamS
ClioSport Club Member
335d
Thanks matey, it's certainly time consuming but the end result should be good
Thanks Dave, detail is an enemy and blessing of this current build but I'm doing it once and once only so it has to be good!
GrahamS
ClioSport Club Member
335d
Over the last week I've been extremely pressed for time so finding time in the garage has been extremely tough but none the less, there are updates!
Last weekend we went to Autosport which was a great show and far far exceeded my expectations and I picked up a couple of bits for the Clio. We can cover those another day when I use them!
I also got all my bolts back from plating all powerder coated parts and beautifully vapour blasted bits.. The quality of the bolts covering is amazing but wow there's a lot to sort through. It just shows the hours spent on the wire wheel have paid dividends.
Monday - Thursday evenings were spent getting boxes and boxes of parts together and cleaning up the last few things, such as the pistons, to make sure I had everything for the weekend. On Friday night we fitted the oil cooler brackets back to Marts car after I'd removed them for templating. This meant that by Saturday exhaustion was really setting in and I was struggling to concentrate on what I was doing. Thankfully Alex at AWMotorworks was on hand to keep my engine assembly on the straight and narrow and as I type the engine is now a completed item. I've known Alex for years from back when I first got into the Clio scene. we were both a long younger and shared a love of dci reps. I haven't grown up much but as a lot of you will know he runs a very successful RenaultSport specialist near Stanstead. I had to do a last minute Renault order as it turns out the head gasket kit and cambelt kits are missing bits to do the job, namely the crank bolt, end caps and dephaser solenoid seal. I decided to get a new dephaser as I didn't want to risk reusing my old one.
Last weekend we went to Autosport which was a great show and far far exceeded my expectations and I picked up a couple of bits for the Clio. We can cover those another day when I use them!
I also got all my bolts back from plating all powerder coated parts and beautifully vapour blasted bits.. The quality of the bolts covering is amazing but wow there's a lot to sort through. It just shows the hours spent on the wire wheel have paid dividends.
Monday - Thursday evenings were spent getting boxes and boxes of parts together and cleaning up the last few things, such as the pistons, to make sure I had everything for the weekend. On Friday night we fitted the oil cooler brackets back to Marts car after I'd removed them for templating. This meant that by Saturday exhaustion was really setting in and I was struggling to concentrate on what I was doing. Thankfully Alex at AWMotorworks was on hand to keep my engine assembly on the straight and narrow and as I type the engine is now a completed item. I've known Alex for years from back when I first got into the Clio scene. we were both a long younger and shared a love of dci reps. I haven't grown up much but as a lot of you will know he runs a very successful RenaultSport specialist near Stanstead. I had to do a last minute Renault order as it turns out the head gasket kit and cambelt kits are missing bits to do the job, namely the crank bolt, end caps and dephaser solenoid seal. I decided to get a new dephaser as I didn't want to risk reusing my old one.
GrahamS
ClioSport Club Member
335d
The engine build went really well apart from one point where I mixed up the 2nd and 3rd rod caps causing them to catch on the crank. This is where Alex's experience really kicked in and he knew exactly how much lateral movement the rods were meant to have and we pinpointed the issue quickly before doing any damage. I let Alex do all seals (particularly the RTV ones) and he gave me a huge number of tips along the way to make the assembling a breeze. God it was a luxury to use professional torque wrenches but I must resist the urge to get one for myself! I've never assembled an engine before and whilst I have no doubt I could have done it with extensive research, given the machining and parts bill I didn't want to risk doing something wrong so was thankful for the help. Undoubtedly if I'd done it alone the end result would have taken a quality hit. There are times to pay a specialist and this is one of them. I dragged @Martin. along who filmed the whole thing so as always I'm very grateful for his creative powers whilst I was stressing about the rod caps.
Today we had the wonderful task of craning the engine out the car. Thankfully Ren is very tolerant of my car antics and helped get it out and get it on the stand. Then all I had to do was finish it off by bolting on the last few covers. Bloody hell I'm over the moon with how it's turned out, just needs protecting with some ACF50 to keep the vapour blasted parts looking good.
Modified aspects of the engine are as follows:
ARP rod bolts
Megane F4Rt 1.3mm MLS head gasket
Oil drain drilled and tapped
Supertech valves
197 valve springs
1.2mm Pure Motorsport valve shims
75 degree thermostat
Pure Motorsport cam cover finishing bolts
Everything else on the engine is either brand new, blasted or reconditioned so for all intents and purposes this is now a 0 mile engine.
It's crunch time in the next five weeks as the list of jobs which haven't been done on the schedule is growing as mapping approaches and even worse a Snetterton Trackday at the end of February, This weeks job is to get a lot of wiring done.
All the videos for this build are being released after the next one has been filmed and therefore you can now enjoy the first episode of this series where we remove the engine and strip them
Today we had the wonderful task of craning the engine out the car. Thankfully Ren is very tolerant of my car antics and helped get it out and get it on the stand. Then all I had to do was finish it off by bolting on the last few covers. Bloody hell I'm over the moon with how it's turned out, just needs protecting with some ACF50 to keep the vapour blasted parts looking good.
Modified aspects of the engine are as follows:
ARP rod bolts
Megane F4Rt 1.3mm MLS head gasket
Oil drain drilled and tapped
Supertech valves
197 valve springs
1.2mm Pure Motorsport valve shims
75 degree thermostat
Pure Motorsport cam cover finishing bolts
Everything else on the engine is either brand new, blasted or reconditioned so for all intents and purposes this is now a 0 mile engine.
It's crunch time in the next five weeks as the list of jobs which haven't been done on the schedule is growing as mapping approaches and even worse a Snetterton Trackday at the end of February, This weeks job is to get a lot of wiring done.
All the videos for this build are being released after the next one has been filmed and therefore you can now enjoy the first episode of this series where we remove the engine and strip them
Last edited:
R29TJR
ClioSport Club Member
2005 RB 182 Cup
I can't believe I'd missed a number of updates on here, which I've just caught up on. As much as I love IG I miss the detail from a forum write up.
The attention to detail is amazing and I can't wait to see it in person.
Looking forward to watching the video later this evening.
The attention to detail is amazing and I can't wait to see it in person.
Looking forward to watching the video later this evening.
GrahamS
ClioSport Club Member
335d
Cheers dude. Me too they're rather nice.
Thanks Gus, it took quite a while to get all the bits together and them prepared for assembly. Many many months coming to a head over one short day. Glad you like the videos, it's quite a cringe to watch yourself on camera! I do them to look back on in the future and hopefully share some knowledge along the way
Get me that ACF50 so it stays that way!
Cheers Tom, always got to keep the forum posts alive. It's a log for future me when I've forgotten how I did something and always a good place to see how nice it looked when everything was fresh! Hopefully it gives someone inspiration too for a slightly different way of doings things too
Weekly updates at the moment otherwise there are too many in one go! I'm sure you already know what episode 2 is
frayz
ClioSport Club Member
Done a lovely job on that motor Graham.
How far did you go with machining? Original pistons so just a hone?
How far did you go with machining? Original pistons so just a hone?
GrahamS
ClioSport Club Member
335d
Thanks matey. Yeah just a hone and 0.006” skim on the sump and top deck to clean it up. Standard pistons cleaned up with new rings to make it nice and fresh in the bores.
