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MK2 1.4 16v



  Mk2 Clio 1.4 16v
Had this about 3 years now. Bought it for a couple of hundred quid when I needed a emergency daily, left it standard for a bit, then left it stood for a bit, then my other working car blew up on Boxing Day 2021 and it's been my actual daily since.

Last year I thought I'd make it very low, so I did. I made some very short coilovers for the front, modified Lupo coilovers to fit the back, raised the engine and box and chopped and plated several bits that were in the way.

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I've had several silly low cars and they don't do well in standing water at motorway speeds so decided to raise it up autumn/winter and go back to 195/50 tyres so I could put Rainsport's on. Tried raising the suspension that was on it, but to clear I had to wind the preload up that tight that the car had no rebound travel at all, which as I expected was properly terrifying. After a couple of months my bum hole couldn't take it any more so I built another pair of front coilovers with separate preload and ride height adjustment, added some adjustable shocks and some Mike Arter top mounts.

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On the back I swapped to MK3 Golf style coilovers, they're not perfect yet but I'll get round to them. The stock wheels were also knackered. When it was stood for a few months (on grass) the paint had all flaked on the back, so I wire brushed them with a angle grinder to get the weights to stick, and they suddenly needed a lot more weight than before to balance. Quick scout on eBay and I found some super cheap Rota copies of Enkei's so they went on with 195/50 Rainsports, along with some 10mm (f) and 20mm (r) spacers. Around this time I also made a 2 box exhaust out a chopped up GT86 system and some other crap I had laying around. It both sounds really nice and is too loud for a old man like me and at some point I'll try and quieten it down but it'll do for now.

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  Mk2 Clio 1.4 16v
My "easy" commute is 35 miles each way up and down the A1 which the car was great for. However some evenings when I feel like it I can also use pretty much only white roads to do the same journey. Even with good discs and pads I was overheating the brakes so after speaking to a guy called Adey who did a F4RT 1.2 Twingo he pointed me in the direction of Peugeot HDi calipers and 280mm Clio disks working with the non Sport hubs. I've done it on the cheap for now, but thought I'd clean and paint the calipers before I eventually get round to fitting them. Got some drilled and grooved discs because they were £20 on FB marketplace, Yellowstuff Pads because I get a mega discount on them at work and braided lines but should be plenty.

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And then drove up to Newcastle and picked a engine up. I've got set of very specific requirements for what I want this to drive like, and a F4R swap doesn't fit that, plus at my age if I wanted a F4R I'd just buy another 172 as insurance is cheap as chips.
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This is gonna sound a bit retarded to most, but I really don't want much torque. I basically want the engine to be as difficult to drive fast as possible. To that end I picked a Twingo RS133 K4M and gearbox up. I build engines for a job, and I reckon I can hit my target of a peaky 140-150bhp fairly easily.

I can't use the Twingo block as the bell housing end is wrong, so I pulled a brand new (yes really) Mégane block out of storage, gave it a fresh hone and my colleague fly cut the deck face as I wasn't happy with the standard finish.

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Got the Twingo rotating assembly cleaned and polished ready for balancing. Will do final clean up once that's done. The Twingo rods and pistons are quite a lot different/lighter than the stock K4M stuff so should help it rev. Think I'll stick with new standard bolts for now, they'll hold up to a M9R piston swinging round on them so should be fine.
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And that's where I'm upto so far. I've got a brand new head to do get into with the porting tackle when I get time, and I need to blank the VVT bits off on the Twingo cams.

Will update as I progress.
 
  Mk2 Clio 1.4 16v
Got the brakes on, they work great but I'm not a fan of the longer pedal travel required so going to upgrade to a Sport master cylinder when I get round to it.

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Made
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Much more confidence inspiring now, can really scrub speed off quickly.

I've been doing a lot of messing with the suspension in the meantime to get that dialed in. Changed to softer/longer front springs and messed with the preload a lot to a point where I'm really happy with it. I'm still running without a front anti roll bar so can't just go for a "known" setup.

Other than some new pheasant damage on the front end car still looks the same.

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Brigsy

ClioSport Club Member
  T.Turbo
Just seen the new piston pics. Should give a fair increase in compression, interested to see how it all comes together, keep the updates coming mate (y)
 
  Mk2 Clio 1.4 16v
Me too lol. Managed to pick up a JB1-521 out of a base model Twingo to nick the 4.5:1 diff out of too, though I'm also trying to source a South American market 1.0 Clio 4.9:1 diff that can be shipped over in the Fueltech stuff we distribute through work.

The 4.5 diff will give 120mph at 7000rpm when fitted to my 510 gearbox, though there is a shorter 5th available that I may try depending on how it goes.
 
  Mk2 Clio 1.4 16v
@stealthstylz After doing the 280mm brake conversion the brake pedal feel is different ?
Yeah, the caliper pistons are much larger than standard so require the master cylinder to move more fluid to achieve the same pressure, hence you have to push the pedal further to do that. The brakes are actually more progressive than standard, but because you have to push the pedal further it makes it harder to heel/toe downshifts during heavy braking as the pedals get too far apart.
 

TheBandit

ClioSport Club Member
  Monaco172, Green 1.2
@stealthstylz have you had chance to change over the master cylinder?

I have been running this conversion for a couple months and getting on well with it. Prefer the linear feel so much more. I have 182 MC ready to go in and was wondering how you got on
 
  Mk2 Clio 1.4 16v
No I haven't swapped it, and I don't think I'm going to. Now I've got used to it they're really good. General driving they're much nicer to use that the sharp feeling stock brakes, and then they're very progressive when you need to stamp on them hard.
 

TheBandit

ClioSport Club Member
  Monaco172, Green 1.2
That's what I was thinking... If MC fluid/pad pressure is the same as before and the pedal progression from the bigger calliper cylinder feels good why mess with it 🤷‍♂️
 


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