mk1 valver rally car

[wookie]

Hi all, thought it was about time to see what peoples views on my little clio are, i bought it last june i think as a standard 1.8 16v off a guy i work with, and have been using it for road rallying ever since, so ill start with the history lesson 1st and try to not bore everyone to tears.

As i bought it.....

got 2 toyo's for the front to replace the bald tyres on it, and it sailed through its mot, so on went a pair of crappy spot lamps with good bulbs as all the road rallys are at night, changed the pads all round for ferodo ds2500's and changed the wheel bolts for studs,and off we go...

1st road rally we did in it we won, followed by another 2 on the trot,making it look alittle different via the joys of mud...,

after a good start to the year in my mk5 xr3i i ended up winning the plymouth road rally championship last year with lots of extra silver ware picked up at the awards evening, and the little car still hadnt missed a beat...,apart from being soooooo slow!!

So that brings me to the start of this year, 2 road rallys completed, winning them both, but after that they dried up, so i think what the hell, my escort isnt finished yet...

Theres a mk2 escort under there honest!!

So lets go staging in the clio!
Bought/ordered all the bits i needed to get the car msn log booked and off i go....

I had to make new feet as the ones supplied by omp were pathetic...

Also made up extra 'gussets' to bolt into captive plates in the a and b pillars seeing as the car was in bits....,

Then a coat of paint...,

Extingishers, electrical cut out, pull cables, seats,harness's mud flaps,nice shiney tank guard

peltor intercom fuel testing take off etc etc and we were ready to get logbooked....,

we got log booked on the morning of the 1st stage rally for me as a driver and obviously the little clio, all went to plan and i now have my msa log book!

Had a fantastic day which showed up that i need better brakes as they were fading to nothing, and more power as we had time to look around at the scenery on the straights....,all the pics can be found here...

http://www.edpphoto.com/azimghur09-51-60.HTML/bparker57-azim09-0464.htm

hoping the link works just keep clicking next

out of 68 starters and being seeded at 57, we finished 38th overall and 9th in class, being pip'd by 5 seconds on the last stage by a carbed mi16 205 so i was very happy indeed at how my bog standard little clio went, and obviously so were others as i had an article written about me in the motoring news with my own headline lol, which wasnt 'fat man drives clio' believe it or not.

So assuming folks are still reading, plans include a williams motor running an emerald ecu on the plenum for road rallys, and r1 throttle bodies for stage rallys

which made 164bhp on my mates valver engined 5

and got some 172 discs and calipers to try to see if they fit the valver hubs lent off a friend...,if they dont then im thinking wilwood 4 pots will find their way onto the front....,other than that im very happy with it considering this is a budget car, the escort is where im spending the proper money.

Any comments good or bad feel free (assuming any of this has worked in the slightest!)

Ben(wookie)

 

[hissingsid]

Look's a good laugh mate I rally a 172 and I know the 172 hub and calipers wont fit, I would would just try some comp brake pads high temp one's, remove the fog lamp's to let more air in and use them open wheels on the front.

 

[wookie]

got ds2500's all round which in the lanes are great, but just cant cope with the stage events, ds3000's would be better but the disc is still very small hence trying the 172 fronts. K-tec do a big disc kit which could be a cheap option.

 

[DIDITNO]

ive got a big brake kit from k-tec, stuck pagid blues to it, and never had any probs with fade, but probably dont give um the stick you do.

 

[Hutchie]

foxy had his hubs machined to fit the valver setup

heres a bit out of his project thread.
http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showthread.php?t=364502
and his blog is here, its worth a look
http://www.f0xy.net/hybrid/

As mentioned previously, I am going to be using 172 running gear on the hybrid. The coilover suspension that is going to be used is designed for a Williams, so they are a slightly different size than the 172 hub. To make the coilovers fit the 172 hubs, they needed to be machined down, as they are slightly too fat to fit inbetween the coilover strut. I dropped the 172 hubs that I had got off at a precision engineering company earlier in the week, and had 2mm taken off each side of the hub, taking it from 26mm to 22mm, the width of a Williams hub.

I went to pick the hubs up, but while I was there, they told me that the hub had to be split to stop it spinning when it was being machined. They asked me did I want the hub re-pressing there and then, but I decided to say no, so I could change the bearings while they were in pieces. I am going to take them back to be re-pressed, along with the wishbones when I recieve the bushes for those, as they need to be pressed into place also.

I could have probably got away with not replacing the hub bearings, but I thought I may aswell do it while they were apart as they will not need replacing for very long time. The hubs need cleaning up and painting ideally, along with the other pieces of the hub, as hopefully, these will never need to come apart again once re-pressed.

After having these machined, I realised the bolt holes that go through the hub are alot larger than the ones that go through Williams hubs, so the 172 hub bolts will not fit through the Williams coilovers. This means im going to have to get the holes on the coilovers machined to a slightly bigger size, to allow me to use the larger bolts that the 172 hubs need. Ive not had time to double check this yet, but im hoping there is enough ’spare’ material round the bolt holes that are on the coilovers to allow them to be machined safely, I will just have to see.

 

[jamie rigby]

more more more

 

[Whiteley]

Good stuff. They're not Valver hubs f0xy is running, but 172 hubs, along with 172 shafts, wishbones and williams ARB too.

A way around it would be to use 172 hubs with the Valver stub axle and bearing pressed into it to allow you to keep the rest of the valver setup but with 172 brakes and hubs.

I've got a weld in OMP cage in mine, had exactly the same issue with the footplates - looks like you've come up with a better solution than me though!

 

[wookie]

winston(spelling?) said the same thing about the hubs needing the stubs pressed in etc, i could do that in work fine but really cant be bothered, the k-tec big disc kit looks favourite at the moment, will phone them on monday and ask if i can have them with plain discs and no pads, see what they say.

And the foot plates supplies by omp were crap, i dont think they had ever looked at a clio before they made them, tho having done so much welding and fabrication on the escort it was just a case of making them up, biggest pain of that job was getting the tank out first...,note to self, drain the tank 1st!!!!

Also windscreens have a fit if you hit them with a cage leg when fitting it lol, but nothing like having a new screen to peer through, and had the dash flocked when the screen was out as i was having the escorts done, so thought 'why not'

 

[f0xy]

as said the 172 hubs would need 4mm machining off the strut mount in total, 2mm each side. You would then have to press the axle out and press the valver item in with the bearing. Would fit straight on then and you would have the advantage of the 172 calipers which are more powerful, along with more disk (280mm) and pad options in the future... Not much work at all!

 

[wookie]

Also made up new mounts for the exhaust as it always hung low and scraped in the smaller lanes on road rallys, but had to take it off and weld the centre back to the middle box as it had broken being stainless, so fiited a flexi joint at the front to try and stop it doing it again

didnt take a pic of the centre one, but now at last it sits flat and level!

And a pic i forgot at the end of the day just after stage 8...,were flying on that stage, well as flying as the poor little car would anyway, and took out a line of cones on the exit of one corner as i wasnt prepared to back off....,so i took a pic of the side where the bumper is still attached lol

 

[wookie]

as said the 172 hubs would need 4mm machining off the strut mount in total, 2mm each side. You would then have to press the axle out and press the valver item in with the bearing. Would fit straight on then and you would have the advantage of the 172 calipers which are more powerful, along with more disk (280mm) and pad options in the future... Not much work at all!

ill keep that in mind

 

[wookie]

Well due to a chance post in a forsale thread, i now have a williams motor sat in my garage awaiting dropping into the clio, Winston just happened to be passing my doorstep this evening on route to falmouth so he very very kindly dropped his engine off to me, so a huge massive thanks to him and his mate(dont know his name sorry so ill call him vag boy lol) and wish them a safe trip down and then home as they will be on the road for a fair while yet!!

And being the kid that i am, i couldnt help bolting my bodies on as soon as it hit the floor lol

R1 43mm throttle bodies being controlled by a brand new emerald ecu

We use an emerald ecu in our red 205 stage car and we like how it works etc plus i can make use of the 3 stored map function to run either bodies or the plenum...,so all i need now is a 172 flywheel and i can bolt it all in, got a month till the next road rally so going to be a busy boy!

 

[f0xy]

good ole winston!

Looks good

 

[Whiteley]

Very nice

Photo of the cone side of the bumper?

 

[wookie]

lol i might have not taken a pic of that side for a good reason!

Its not too bad, just some red cone 'rash' on the bumper and its broken the mounts for that and the wing, so everytime you brake hard and bumper comes forward...,ill mount it on bonnet pins properly when i take the front end apart.

Knocked over 2 oil drums too but must have touched them so lightly as no marks on the car.

Hoping once in and mapped ill be looking at at least a good torquey 165bhp, anymore would be a nice bonus, will have to see.

 

[Greeny.]

Quality project, a good read!

LOL love this shot:

 

[wookie]

^^^ i am quite proud of that pic

Pic of other side, said it wasnt that bad, but the picture doesnt show how nothing is connected to the car lol

So yesturday i parked it at the top of the driveway after rearranging the 'fleet'

And positioned it so it can talk to the red 205 about how embarrassing it is having no engine

Last time it will look like this....

So what to remove 1st...,the bonnet, 1st nut/stud, sheared off, and i thought 'hear we go, ive been here before!':dead:

I had forgotten how messy french engine bays are, last road car i worked on like this was my b16 civic, which is so simple and well organised, and having big paws wasnt helping matters.

Also never worked on a renault of any kind before, who's stupid idea was it to hold the drive shafts in like that? bolts on one side, not a prob, but a roll pin on the other which somebody had butchered and was rusted solid grrr...,got it out in the end after fasioning a 5mm punch and applying my 22 stone on the end of a lump hammer, came out lovely then lol.

This left me with a nice empty engine bay, which shows no sign of rust anywhere which i was expecting to find, so a nice surprise to not be greeted by any. The drivers side is caked in pas fluid as it was coming out of the cap during the stage rally, and the rest is just mud from a years worth of road rallys, so when it stops raining, im going to trailor the car into work and steam clean the bay,subframe and inner wings etc, then the bay is having a coat or 2 of white paint, im not a fan of white bay coloured car, but it will make things easier if we need to fix anything on an event in a hurry.

Now while i was taking everything apart, i found a number of things which im glad i found, 1st was that both bottom ball joints are finished, with comical amounts of play in both of them, then the long driveshafts inner cv boot, half of which is missing!

Then after lifting the engine and box out, inspecting the top engine mount reveiled it to be in 2 pieces, so ive ordered a new mount, but was pleased that my dogbone mount that i 'modified' is still the same as when i fitted it.

Then my attention turned to the engine, what a piece of crap! Ive never worked on anything that is arranged in such a way that you have to remove everything to get to anything...,some choise words may have been used at this point!

But heres an interesing pic for you all....

Hmmmm reason for my loss of water which the guy i bought it off was complaining about lol.

But anyway, thats where i left it yesturday as i was hungry (as per normal) so i have a car full of 'stuff'

And a garage floor covered in more stuff

And unfortunatly the sadev 6 speed sequential is dads, he may not be too happy if i fitted it to the clio 'by mistake'

Its pouring down today so not going to get anything done unfortunatly, so im on the net ordering bits and pieces, going to try and get a full set of silicone coolant hoses as all mine are full of sludge, and 'crunch' when you squeeze them...,yuk!

 

[Russ Rallye]

Quality project mate, that pic on 3 wheels is epic. lol at the water leak, has it just been leaking from the head gasket for ages?
Russ

 

[.GAZ.]

Good read mate!

 

[powey]

Nice to see a full hands on approach

 

[Hutchie]

is the sequential box the st-75???

 

[wookie]

Off the top of my head i honestly cant remember, its the bigger of the 2 fwd boxes if that helps lol, we were advised by sadev when we 1st approched them to go for the larger box due to what engine we are using and what we use the car for etc.

I assume the head gaskets been leaking like that for a while, as it has used water for the whole time i have owned the car and the previous owner complained of it being heavy on water, ive been telling myself that thats why the engine was so slow, but as it wasnt pressurising the cooling system but obviously leaking ill assume it was just leaking and it being slow due to the combined weight of me and my navigator being 38 stone lmao!

 

[powey]

Off the top of my head i honestly cant remember, its the bigger of the 2 fwd boxes if that helps lol, we were advised by sadev when we 1st approched them to go for the larger box due to what engine we are using and what we use the car for etc.

I assume the head gaskets been leaking like that for a while, as it has used water for the whole time i have owned the car and the previous owner complained of it being heavy on water, ive been telling myself that thats why the engine was so slow, but as it wasnt pressurising the cooling system but obviously leaking ill assume it was just leaking and it being slow due to the combined weight of me and my navigator being 38 stone lmao!

Lmao

Sounds like it had a good innings though if the head was leaking

 

[Winston]

Vag boy.... FLOL!!! (really tickled me lol)

It was a pleasure to drop off the engine dude there was much eye candy to drool over in your garage/drive lol... hope the lump does you proud

PS.. Awesome tri-podage

 

[wookie]

Cheers mate

Come to a bit of a dilema now...,swaping between the plenum and the bodies in place looks to be a right git, so thinking that i have to have the plenum for road rallies where stage rallies i can run either, i think im going to have it mapped with the plenum on it and sell the bodies, bit of a shame but im having to make compromises all the time as using it for 2 different things.

 

[wookie]

Right, little update, bodies have been sold back to the original owner, he turbo'd his f7r and it took him all of 2 days to realise how crap turdblowers are, so he's going back to n/a, so im sticking to the plenum to keep within road rally rules(stupid rules!)

Trailored the clio into work last night and steam cleaned the engine bay, makes it alittle nicer place to work in now, tho still toying with the idea of a coat of white paint hmmm, will see.

And yes thats a comedy horn, no road rally car is complete without one lmao

The night before i took a road trip to Bournmouth to pick up aother set of williams wheels i had won on ebay

But when i got there, he had another set, so bought them also

With mint pirelli p6000's in 195/50/15's on them...,shame they are coming straight off lol
He also had a rad with the fan(my fan died recently and a good rad is good for spares etc)

And a pair of spare front williams wings

So well happy with the 'haul', just had to then try and cram 8 wheels 2 wings and a rad into my poor little civic

Not easy with no hatch!!

Onto more bits, i have a 172 flywheel, just need a clutch now as i foolishly thought the valver clutch might be the same size, but always knew in my head it wouldnt be, and ordered a full set of samco coolant hoses as they were £14 more than what renault wanted for new rubber hoses!!
Got all gaskets etc i need, and have picked out all the standard management wiring from the engine loom just leaving all the sensor wiring etc for gauges and starter/alt etc, which was amazingly easy, just sticky and oily yuk lol.

Got the regs through for a stage rally on the 18th of October at Smeatharpe which id have liked to have done, but the samco's will be 4 weeks and then got to have it mapped so i dont have enough time

 

[Andrew Cooke]

early 172 flywheel uses the 200mm clutch same as the valver, later 172 uses the 215mm jobbie.

 

[Matteh]

don't all 172s have the same clutch? ^^

the megane F7Rs have the same clutch, but the williams and valver dont...

 

[wookie]

mines defo too small (the clutch honest lol) but at least it means a nice new clutch when it all goes back together, not worried about the soft touch arrangement as the clutch was very light before, well it was with a size 14 opperating it at least, just hoping now my starter motor works with the 172 flywheel.....

 

[wookie]

Right, alittle update to anyone whos interested ( for the 2nd time as i did all this the other night and clicked back instead of the other tab and wiped it all )

Waiting on a couple of parts so thought id make everything clean for when it all goes back together, so heres some pics in no particular order...

Then i got bored or cleaning and thought some distruction was in order...

Voila, one air intake to direct cold air to the filter, pretty sure heat soak was a problem so going to make an airbox also.

Then i turned my attention to the engine bay...

Before

After

Not a wonderful job by any means, but makes the bay alot lighter.

Then sorted the fuel lines, the standard lines are routed so badly and i had some braided line lying around so made up 2 lengths, they are fitted in but ill sort the fuel rail ends when the engines in

And tried my new header tank, i might be able to see how much coolant i have now!

Yesturday i took the gearbox into work to clean it, nice half mile walk with a gearbox under my arm lol!!
Worth it i think tho as it looks new after a lick of paint

And finaly got some paint on the engine...,there was a slight leak from the sump gasket so thats off to be renewed...

And at least the engine has nice company for the moment

And finaly parts have been bolted on rather than removed!

Replacing the water pump for the sake of it so got that all cleaned up and ready for the new one

And just to point out that im not generaly a bufty type person, this is what my dad uses for road rallys...

Group a 1.9 8v on 45 dcoe's, challenge box with 4.8 cwp and quaife lsd and full peugeot talbot sport group a tarmac bilstien suspension with big brakes...,shame it looks like it lives in a swamp lol

I know everyone likes pictures so hopefully this has done the trick

Cheers

 

[Whiteley]

Cars are for go not show, i take the same approach

 

[Bluebeard]

That 205 is making me wince.

Loveing this thread though

 

[wookie]

he loves the 205 looking like that, made it all the more amusing when a local guy used his stage impreza on a road rally a few years back, and couldnt loose a swamp green 205 off his bootlid lol, he calls it his 'spare 205' as the red one is his main one.

 

[Rob]

Friggin awesome thread, just read from start to finish. Keep up the good work and the updates!

 

[wookie]

Little update, ive been busy this week so only done alittle, basicaly got the last couple of bits painted up so started putting it all back together, seams far too easy so im waiting for it to not work lol, anyway ill start with the pictures...in no real order and my phones dying so i appologise for the crap pics!

Sump came up lovely!

Sump back on with a new gasket(didnt have one when i removed it....)

Took the cam cover off to paint it and fit renaults after-thought extra engine mount/cambelt cover bolt bracket thing

What looks like a new gasket, modeled here by the 'ex' lucky teddy, which was about as lucky as being hit by a fire bomb, and the wheel which my dad liked so much he bought for the airline to hang on:approve:

Made up a dizzy blanking plate quickly

And painted the cam cover in my lunch break quickly today in work, i have the patience of a wookie ( another reason for the name ) so didnt wait for it to dry so its not the best job, but will do, so fitted that this evening, so apart from my 172 clutch which still hasnt arrived, its all ready to go, will fit the plenum etc when its in the car as got to sort/make wiring looms etc.

But on a plus note, the radiator im planning on using in my escort arrived today and the ht leads so i had a quick play with both of them to get an idea of positions etc.

Plan for the weekend between work and welding up a mates land rover is to make up some new front brake pipes, and make up new mounts for the front bumper...,going to see if i can get a new heat shield from renault also along with a new heat exchanger.

Cheers

 

[wookie]

Still waiting on a clutch so not done anything, but came across these pics my navigator took the weekend before i took it apart, so thought id share...

And our mascots...,got kermet the frog from my ex aswell but he is on the cage lol

Enjoy

 

[jamie rigby]

love it mate!

 

[AdamAnderton]

Just read through and some good things going on in here
some thing i may have to try
good project look forward for more

 

[wookie]

So do i lol, im stuck till my 172 clutch arrives

Only thing i did tonight was finish off the scoop/vent in the bumper, and finish off the mounts for the bumper, which if id realised was so easy id have done them months ago! (read that as im just lazy!)

Ill post up some pics in a sec from tonight,i put the plenum on to check that i can remember where everything goes and i can, and it was dark so didnt take any pics, but i put 2 valver wheels with toyo's on which i use for road rallys on the front of my civic, as doing a rally friday and the clio is in bits obviously, but leading the championship so cant miss any rounds (sounds good but the championship has been poo this year, still nice to retain my title tho hehe) and it looks retarded! Ill take some pics tomorrow to give everyone a good laugh, thinking williams wheels in anthracite and lowered 40mm would look good tho...,well different at least!

 

[wookie]

Pics...

Plenum rested on, looks ok

And following on from foxy's thread...,my not quite so subtle air intake lol

should sort out the heat soak problems a treat once i have fab'd the airbox

I want this engine bay tho!

And what its in...

Proper clio maxi...,only 95000 euros i think mmmmmmmm

So i stopped myself drooling over that and bought myself a Tong Law long primary 4-1 exhaust manifold for my escort

Building up 2 cars is bloody expensive!!!