Mk1 Valver Track Car

[jams]

As a few people may know I’ve been wanted to buy a track car for a while, wasn’t too sure what to buy for a project car though. First of all I wanted a mk2 ph1 but they were too expensive to insure, thought about a Mazda mx5 but quite a bit more to buy and a bit too much to insure as a second car. Finally thought about a mk1 because I know a few people have recently bought them. Started looking round for one and signed up to clio16valver. One came up in Peterborough so seeing as I was stopping down that way for FCS I went to see it. I loved it as soon as I pulled up.

Saturday 20th June

Me and my brother (Gaz) took the trip down to Peterborough to buy the valver today. Gaz drove it home because I can’t get temporary insurance because of my age. Got it home alright and took some pictures with mine and my mum’s car (all three Mk’s of Clio).

Tuesday 23rd June

When I bought the car the gear lever was really sloppy and it was very hard to feel the gears. When it was in first gear the gear lever still moved a lot, as if it was in neutral. This was because the bushes needed replacing in the linkage. So out came the gear lever unit. This meant taking the decat off simply undoing either end of the linkage.

As you can see from the picture, the bushes at the bottom of the lever had elongated. These were replaced along with some more bushes at the box end on the linkage.

Put it all back together and there is a lot more feel now and can put it in every gear easily.

That’s all I’ve done so far but still more progress to come.

 

[Djw Dave]

Win! Would love a red valver!

 

[Matteh]

sah-weet

so when's the f4r going in

 

[jesus]

Looks mint dude! Loving the turbines.

 

[Whiteley]

Blatent thread title copy!

Spot on though mate

 

[f0xy]

updates ahoy...will have to come and have a nosey when mines running

and btw, that link on msn, yes its a 4-2-1. Valver manifold = 4-2-1, Williams manifold 4-1

 

[Matteh]

also it's cast (and heavy as f**k)

williams manifolds are tubular

 

[jams]

Cool, I've got a williams manifold just sittin there, I'll get it on sometime. Cheers for all the comments!

 

[jams]

Blatent thread title copy!

Spot on though mate

Sorry fella, I didn't know what to put as a title so just thought of the simplest things really. Didn't know it was the same as yours

 

[Needster]

What a colour!!! Love it!! Be interesting to keep up to speed on this little project. Nice.

 

[Fletcher]

Nice is that clioheads old valver?

 

[Aluco]

Sweeettt mann !

 

[Matteh]

Cool, I've got a williams manifold just sittin there, I'll get it on sometime. Cheers for all the comments!

you need the downpipe and (de)cat too

 

[JonniP]

/\ +1 need the downpipe to mate the manifold and then the flange to the cat is at a different angle so you need a willy decat unless you have an adjustable one

 

[Mark One]

wow. That's the best condition paintwork i've seen on a red valver.
Mines a J-reg too. No CAT required

 

[*Clare*]

Very tidy Jams...

 

[Fletcher]

Just found this pic from a CS meet...

 

[jams]

Nice is that clioheads old valver?

I bought it off a fella called steve on clio16valver, he only bought it in march this year but not sure who off.

you need the downpipe and (de)cat too

I think I've got the downpipe aswell, there is already a decat on the valver downpipe. Will this not fit the williams downpipe?

 

[f0xy]

unless its an adjustable one, no..

The flange on the manifold downpipe is different between valver and williams, its rotated 90* degrees...so you would need a williams decat

 

[jams]

I don't really know how to describe it but on the valver one, the centre section end flange on the decat, the gholes are horizontal and on the manifold end they are vertical. On a williams decat are they both horizontal?

 

[Fletcher]

I bought it off a fella called steve on clio16valver, he only bought it in march this year but not sure who off.



I think I've got the downpipe aswell, there is already a decat on the valver downpipe. Will this not fit the williams downpipe?

Always liked this valver.

 

[jams]

Always liked this valver.

Cheers fella, hopefully it'll be even better in the months to come :evil:

 

[Christopher]

Nice one!

Looks cracking!

 

[Winston]

Nice to see a real RED!!!! valver & Ph1's rule!!

 

[jamie rigby]

love this car!! hope your comin the KK meet on sunday init...

 

[jamie rigby]

Nice to see a real RED!!!! valver & Ph1's rule!!

+1

 

[jams]

love this car!! hope your comin the KK meet on sunday init...

Nope sorry mate it won't be there. It's only going on the road in september . I'll be in the 1.2

 

[steve86]

just seen this thread, hello jams mate you okay? sorted the linkage then dude, it is clioheads old valver the advert will probably still be on here from when he sold it, i do miss it already even though i werent driving it i liked seeing it everyday lol.

 

[jams]

just seen this thread, hello jams mate you okay? sorted the linkage then dude, it is clioheads old valver the advert will probably still be on here from when he sold it, i do miss it already even though i werent driving it i liked seeing it everyday lol.

Yea I'm good mate, how you doing?

Yep got it all sorted, fitted the windscreen seal tonight, took some pictures of it and need to get them up. Also tried to change the manifold and downpipe and the bolts holding the downpipe and the monaifold together are bloody tight!!! Don't want to snap the stud, tried spraying a bit of wd40 on see if that does anything but still no result. Going to get some penetrating fluid tomorrow, see if that frees it up.

 

[AdamAnderton]

looks good mate was looking on clio16v and said to jord wot about this one, jord replied is james car now, im also on the look out for one good choice mate ill have to come and have a look at it

 

[jams]

looks good mate was looking on clio16v and said to jord wot about this one, jord replied is james car now, im also on the look out for one good choice mate ill have to come and have a look at it

Yea no worries fella, just gimme a shout sometime. Lowton is slowly going to be full of mk1's, a lot of people seem to be buying them atm

 

[jamie rigby]

looks good mate was looking on clio16v and said to jord wot about this one, jord replied is james car now, im also on the look out for one good choice mate ill have to come and have a look at it

me too

if i wanted a valver this is the colour id want it, gutted your not coming the meet init tmoz , believe your picking jord up on the way

 

[jams]

Over the past week I’ve been doing a few things. When I bought the car it didn’t have a windscreen seal.

The windscreen was still siliconed in so didn’t leak but to fill in the gap I thought it would be best to get a window seal. Picked one up from a locally scrappy’s off a 1.2 for £3. Tried fitting it to the valver and discovered the windscreen isn’t in the centre of the frame, it’s slightly too far to the drivers side. This means when the seal is put in, on the passenger side there is still a gap of about 5mm so the seal simply falls out again. To solve this problem I just put some clear silicone under the seal and pushed the seal in.

The car was a bit low when I bought it so I though I’d lift it up a bit seeing as it’s on coilovers. So started by taking the wheel off and cleaning them up by spraying AG engine and machine cleaner and cleaning the threads with a toothbrush. Before adjusting them I measured the distance from the top of the hub mounting on the coilover to the bottom of the spring. Then I’d adjust the coilover on the opposite side to the same measurement so they would both be the same height on both sides.

Having a look in the engine bay I noticed a few pipes with kinks in. I found out what the pipe was and it’s the main coolant pipe that comes out of the block and into the radiator.

On the drive home the car didn’t overheat at all which I’m surprised about. I just need to drain the coolant and adjust the pipes and jobs a good un I hope.

The car came with a few spares as well and this included a Williams exhaust manifold and downpipe. I’d been told that this gave some more power and the Williams manifold is tubular where as the valver manifold is cast and quite a lot heavier than the Williams manifold.

Valver manifold

Williams manifold and downpipe to go on

I dropped the downpipe off the bottom of the manifold and found you can’t get the downpipe out of the engine bay until the manifold has been taken out. You can get it out by taking the offside drive shaft out but seeing as I was going to take the manifold off anyway I though I’d just leaving hanging for the mean time.

Whilst I was undoing the eight nuts that hold the manifold to the block, I realised the shaft that the nut was on was also spinning. I was using a 10mm ratchet spanner and continued the whined the nut out. Suddenly the spanner stopped and I realised what had happened. I’d wound the nut out and hit the manifold and I could turn it any more because part of the manifold was in the way but I couldn’t wind it back in because it was a ratchet spanner. So I was stuck for a while.

Then realised it was only a small part of the manifold which was stopping it so got a screwdriver (acting as a chisel) and a hammer and ‘gently’ removed the part and all was well . After all eight nuts were off I tried to remove the manifold and it was still solid. Then I realised there is a strut that holds the downpipe end of the manifold against the block to stop the manifold from moving with engine movement, but as I found out the bolt was bloody tight!!! Managed to get it off eventually and then sure enough the manifold came off easy enough.

Not got round to putting the Williams manifold and down pipe on yet but that is next week’s task.

Thanks for reading

 

[Matteh]

good job on ditching that valver manifold, they're such pigs to work with!

 

[jams]

good job on ditching that valver manifold, they're such pigs to work with!

So heavy aswell!! A lot of difference between the two.

 

[jams]

Not done an update in a while but plenty of work has still been done.

As in my last update I said I wanted to fit the Williams manifold but I’d only got as far as taking off the valver manifold.

Williams Manifold to be fitted:

On the end of the manifold where the downpipe attaches there is a mount to hold the manifold solid against the engine block so when the engine moves, the manifolds moves with it to prevent the manifold from cracking. Anyway, the last person to take the manifold off had sheared the bolt wasn’t sure how to get it out so tried soaking it in paraffin for about three days to see if it did any good. I didn’t want to soak the whole manifold in paraffin so rigged it up using a vice and a few blocks to wood to hold a tub of paraffin up to the bolt.

That didn’t loosen the bolt so back to square one. Couldn’t be bothered trying to get it out so in the end just drilled it out using a 9mm drill in a hand drill. It perhaps wasn’t the best way to drill it out, me and my dad had some hairy moments but all came out well in the end.

Got a new gasket for the joint between manifold and block

Old

New

And a new fire ring which goes between the manifold and downpipe. Here you can see the thicknesses of the old one compared to new.

Old

New

Anyway mounted the manifold and discovered that the mount to hold the bottom of the manifold against the block couldn’t be used because the manifold is a different length to the valver one so all that work was a bit of a waste but it was my fault for not checking it in the first place.

The holes that are used to connect the downpipe to the decat only just line up allowing you to get the bolt in but it’s tight.

Also went to connect the downpipe to decat and found the downpipe has a slight flange on it and the decat is flat.

Downpipe

Decat

So out came the grinder and:

All good and connected the rest of the system up wth no problems using exhaust assembly paste so hopefully they should all seal. Had a look over at everything in the bay just to check before I started it and found one of the power steering hoses is quite close to the manifold.

I think this is because of the Williams manifold being a different shape to the valver one so where the valver manifold would have cleared the pipe quite a bit more the Williams one is quite close so I need to move the pipe slightly to prevent it from bursting when the manifold gets hot.

Can’t tell if it blowing or not yet because it hasn’t got a lamda sensor in but I’m picking one up shortly from f0xy (jord).

I’ve also started putting the passenger seat in as well but not finished yet.

Thanks for reading

 

[f0xy]

lol, good work with getting the grinder on the scene.

 

[Whiteley]

Angle grinder, the choice of RUR specialists.

 

[Daz Clio Cup]

Angle grinder, the choice of RUR specialists.

Thought it was P clips and cable ties?

Looking good jams, the red looks quite good if i'm honest, be good to see it in the flesh sometime

 

[jams]

If marham happens this year I'll be there hopefully so probably see you there.