Mk1 F4R/172'd Track Car Project [Year 3 - Engine and Chassis Rebuild]

[chrispy.clio]

Bright coloured subframes FTW!

Nice colour.

 

[Silent_Scone]

likey!

 

[JackJack]

Powdercoating looks good.

 

[BioHzrd]

Jord you be at FCS with this ?

 

[f0xy]

Nah, at Mallory Park the day before instead!

 

[f0xy]

Anti Roll Bar, meet my friend...

Needless to say it took 15mm off either end of the 182/Trophy ARB without any hassle at all. I then used a flap disk on a grinder to tidy up the ends. The bushes went on to the ARB fine, then fitted it to the subframe...

Sorted! Just put a quick coat of paint on the steering rack so I can fit it tomorrow, then fit the whole thing back to the car

 

[Nafoff]

very nice mate... fair play
quick questions if poss... what milage do you get from the passat?

 

[f0xy]

Mileage as in to diesel? Over the last 2800 mile its doing an average of 49mpg, does around 140-160 miles to £20

 

[maynard]

Nice work with the ARB

 

[elcie]

Painted it orange as it was cheaper. love it

what are the Williams strengthening/bracing plates ?

 

[f0xy]

Not sure why they were used, got them from a valver I had which had Williams widetrack on it. They fit on the 172 wishbones, not sure what they are meant to do other than add strength to be honest.

Subframe was fitted to the car before, no pictures though as it was going dark and raining. Probably getting the block and head back tomorrow if I have time, along with picking up rings and shells. Gaz Shocks called too saying my shocks are en-route back all complete

 

[sideways danny]

pretty shite with that headbolt, I had a DCI do something similar a while back which I put down to the halfords socket having a strange shape so points are not in contact all the way down.

 

[f0xy]

Thats exactly the reason it happened I think, the bottom edge of their w*nky E-torx sockets is like chamfered and the teeth only start say 5mm into the socket. Although, ive always used the same one in the past and never had an issue so who knows. It seemed like the teeth snapped off rather than rounding, was very weird.

 

[f0xy]

Got home today to a box from Gaz... Shocks have had new black bushes, new pistons, new adjusters, new seals and new covers...

Also picked up the Rings, Big End Bearings, Mains Bearings and Thrusts...

Then this evening decided to go down to the car and give the engine bay another quick coat of hammerite to freshen it up now that the subframe is fitted...

ARB is close to the chassis but just fits as others confirmed...

Hopefully this will have an engine back in shortly...

More soon!

 

[vivelesport]

your crazy foxy xD

 

[Silent_Scone]

It's orange!

 

[david_]

Good work mate! Are those bearings for stock(new) or reground crankshaft?

 

[f0xy]

OE spec as new, crank has never been touched and only on circa 38k as far as I know, looks very clean.

Going to be assembling it and checking with plastigauge as a precaution in the next few days, if all is good it will be built up. Only thing im waiting to find out about is thrust washers, ive got a pair of new OE spec ones as I dont have the ones from this block/crank, so I'm waiting to hear whether they have to be adjusted to suit the crank float or if OE is fine...

 

[laberridge]

wow! some serious time been put into this mate, haha loving the orange with it, guess it very unique

 

[Cro]

Nice option on the subframe Jord. Did Gaz end up charging you any extra for the replacement parts they put in?

If you're feeling generous fancy taking pics of when you rebuild the bottom end back up? Could really help me when I come to do it to my spare block instead of having to leave it to someone else

 

[Jonny1*2]

Looking good Jord. Who did the powder coating? Looks wicked! Was it mates rates, or just a good deal?

 

[f0xy]

Just a good deal, never used the place before. Was down the road in Westhoughton, near Leigh!

 

[f0xy]

Engine build starts tomorrow, got everything now after pulling in some favours from various people who will be mentioned as I go along. Picked the head and bottom end up earlier; head has been skimmed and dipped, bottom end has been decked and bores honed.

Also picked up these the other day, bit of fun for this year (well, if its dry)...

More updates over the weekend

 

[KEVRSI]

like the car love the renault parts database on your BLOG

 

[f0xy]

Ive got a list of a few hundred more parts to add to it, just not got the time at the moment though. Its getting a fair amount of hits from this site and Google mind, so people must be finding it useful!

 

[Jonny1*2]

That's one clean head/block :approve:

 

[quik97]

what parts list?

 

[Rob]

http://www.cliosport.net/forum/show...er-Database-Common-Requests-Prices-Details-**

 

[Fred@BTM]

http://www.cliosport.net/forum/show...er-Database-Common-Requests-Prices-Details-**

all parts numbers are slowly getting chagned over to Nissan numbers, so the renault numbers will become useless

 

[f0xy]

Dosent really make a difference as the numbers will super-seed to the nissan numbers for quite a while yet I would imagine

 

[cliovicky]

where u get them slicks from cheat ?

GET ME SOME !!!!

 

[f0xy]

Il give you a call this week Northy, might need a few bits from you, il speak to you about it then

 

[f0xy]

Update time... finished the short motor this afternoon/evening. Started with checking the ring gaps:

Fresh block/light hone...

New set of rings...

To check the gap of the ring it needs to go into the cylinder, be squared then measured with a feeler gauge. Gave the bore a bit of WD40, and popped the ring into the top of the cylinder..

Used the piston to square the ring up and push it down in the bore slightly..

Then used the feeler gauges to measure the ring gap..

This was repeated for all the rings for each cylinder, noting each gap as I went along.

The Renault workshop manual specifies the following gaps..

Upper Ring: 0.225 ± 0.075mm
Sealing Ring: 0.5 ± 0.1mm
Scraper Ring: 0.9 ± 0.5mm

Mine came out at:

Cylinder 1 - Upper: 0.254mm, Sealing: 0.457mm, Scraper: 0.483mm/0.406mm
Cylinder 2 - Upper: 0.254mm, Sealing: 0.457mm, Scraper: 0.406mm/0.483mm
Cylinder 3 - Upper: 0.254mm, Sealing: 0.457mm, Scraper: 0.483mm/0.483mm
Cylinder 4 - Upper: 0.254mm, Sealing: 0.457mm, Scraper: 0.403mm/0.483mm

So considering they all within tolerance, I carried on. Removed the old mains shells from the block..

New mains bearings...

Fitting them to the block...

Using a straight edge to get them fully seated..

New bearings in the mains caps..

All the new upper mains bearings fitted...

Now that those were fitted, I wanted to check the clearance of the new bearings to the crank with some Plastigauge, so I could be sure it was correct to Renaults specification. Very simple stuff but works very well!

Gave the mains bearings a light dusting of WD40 to avoid any scuffing. The crank was then sat in the block, it does not need to move for these checks hence why it hasn't been oiled..

Laid a small piece of Plastigauge on each mains journal..

Then sprayed the mains caps with some silicone release agent to avoid the Plastigauge sticking...

Fitted the caps and torqued them down to the correct setting...

Then left it for 5 minutes. Came back and removed the caps to reveal the squashed Plastigauge...

Which tells us the clearance of the bearing. Using the supplied chart, it allows you to see a good enough measure...

Comparing my results with Renaults specification, everything checks out...

So I was happy to go ahead and build it up properly

Thanks to Rob I now had a tube of Graphogen assembly compound, something I wanted to use when building this up instead of plain old oil.

Applied liberal amounts to the new mains shells..

Then fitted the new thrust washers into the grooves on the 2nd journal...

Sat the crank in place...

..and applied more Graphogen to the caps before fitting and torquing them up to the correct specification..

The flywheel end cap was sealed with..

Next the Rings needed fitting, then the pistons into the block. Started with a bit of a clean up...

...and some new big end shells..

First up were the scraper rings. Its worth noting the gaps in the rings have to be in certain positions on the piston... I followed the Renault diagram...

Then the sealing ring which has a mark that goes on the top side...

And finally the upper ring...

Fitted the new shell to the rod...

Then popped it into the block...

Which was then repeated for the other three pistons...

After all the pistons were in the block, I turned it back over to fit the big end caps. I had already applied Graphogen to the rods before fitting the pistons into the block, so only the caps required it before bolting them up...

Once that was done the oil pump drive cog and chain were fitted, along with the block end plate..

Then the oil pump and windage tray..

...and finally cleaned the sump and fitted it to the block...

Finished by giving the whole thing another coat of paint, but thats pretty much it, one complete short motor :approve:

Will probably get on with the head tomorrow and get it bolted onto the block, ready to go back in the car. Less than two weeks until Mallory now :sleepy:

 

[bmh.01]

Looking good, no silicone on the no.1 cap and oil pump plate joints before putting the sump on?

 

[daveski]

Great update, thank you for adding so much detail

 

[f0xy]

Cap 1 was injected down the sides early on Ben until it came out everywhere then left to set, I cut the tops off before putting the sump on as per the Renault manual. Ive never put any silicone on the Oil Pump before when fitting, where should it go?

 

[bmh.01]

That how i've been doing it. No leaks so far.

 

[f0xy]

Oh yes, done that

 

[Rob]

Bloody great level of detail Jord, always a pleasure to read your stuff.

 

[bmh.01]

Oh yes, done that

Cool, i'm not picking just i've seen them leak due to not being done/not enough. So thought it worth mentioning.