My 182ff track car build (so far)

[1985michael182]

So... I have been on C.S.net for a few years now and never really posted much other than asking advice or sharing what I know or have learnt from here or whilst working on the cars.

I had owned a clio previous to owning a mk2, a white 1.8 valve which I loved. I paid £300 for it. The rear arches were shot and I had to weld new arches into it. I ended up fully repeating it. This was back in the day when max power magazine was around. I took it to Traxcar show at Silverstone with track time and to Donington park at Donny car show with track time. It spent more time sat on axle stands swapping gearboxes because of blown circlips or engines with failed oil pumps than it did on the road, but I still loved it.
When I find the pictures I will edit this...

I've owned 4 R.S clio's...

First was a very tidy low mileage 172

I bought it very cheap as it had failed the mot on the rear wheel bearings and handbrake cables. I had plans to turn it into a track car and attended Croft race curcuit for the first time to see what it drove like. After joining the Forum and doing some reading it became clear to me that the better option was to buy the 172cup or a full fat 182.
I then sold the vehicle for a tidy profit to search for the better spec car.

Then another tidy low mileage 172 came up for sale locally, noisy dephaser pulley. Obviously I used this to my advantage and bought the car very cheap.

Fitted the new dephaser,belt,waterpump and aux belt and ran it for a couple of month whilst I searched for the car I wanted.

I found a 172cup in Middlesborough with 115k on the clocks, crunch in second gear, needed belt and dephaser doing but overall in very good condition.

So, now I had a small fleet of clios and the 172 need to go to make way for the cup.

So I got to work on the cup....

I stripped it out and painted it inside

Painted the cage that was in the car when i bought it along with the mirrors

I then proceeded to renew the suspension opting for cup shocks which I painted yellow and cook sport springs.
Ktec racing engine mounts.
Toyo sport stainless manifold.
Brembo HC disks with yellow stuff pads.
Gearbox refreshed.
Poly bushed the front and back.
Bought some 15" genuine F1 alloys.
Painted the Turinis st1 subaru gold.
Fitted federal 595rsr tyres.

To be continued..........

 

[1985michael182]

I removed the huge heavy seat bases somebody had made and made my own light weight one out of inch and a half angle.

Mines the one In the centre.

The car was looking well and drove great

So we booked Croft again

Had a great day but... I wanted more power...

So fitted the RS2 and had it mapped.
Great power gains and what a noise!!

Cadwell was booked next so off we went

Another faultless day.

Now, we all get to a crossroads at some point where we are forced to either buy proper suspension or power mods. We all know we are going to choose power when we should choose handeling so obviously I started researching bodies and ECU's. Then I researched suspension. Stuck with what to buy I left it for a while and I kept scouring the for sale section to see if anything popped up that would fit what I wanted to do.

One day at work my m8 one of the salesman who also owned a cup at the time said theres a lad local stripping his clio do I want to go see what hes got. So we drive to his that night and I was greeted by this...

2005 182ff on 45,000 genuine miles, with full weld in rolecage, Jenvey 48mm bodies with gen90 ECU, pms aircon delete kit, pms top mounts and strut brace, brembo HC disks and DS2500 pads, gaz GHA coilovers, a set of 2118 speedlines, both sets of wheels had road legal slicks, pms stud and nut conversion poly carb windows, fibreglass bonnet, one off single centre exit exhaust full SS slip jointed and all he wanted was £3500 for the lot.

After researching the bodies and coilovers to fit on my cup I knew that the bodies and ECU were £2500 and the Gaz were £500+
It was a no brainer I offered him £3250 as the engine was running rough and basically got the test of the car for £250 and sold my cup to my m8 to use so he could retire his valve from the track.

 

[1985michael182]

My m8s valver

 

[Usr117063]

I like the impreza colour scheme a lot, suits the car. But makes sense to swap for one more complete, a lot of car for the money that

 

[1985michael182]

I like the impreza colour scheme a lot, suits the car. But makes sense to swap for one more complete, a lot of car for the money that

Yea I couldnt believe my luck and it was only 3 miles from my house!

 

[1985michael182]

It did look well on them.

 

[NTG999]

Excellent buy, I would have snapped that up even with the rough running, hopefully you will sort and then it is win win

 

[1985michael182]

So I managed to get hold of some of the build pre my ownership.
The car was owned by a local lad who destroyed the bearings in the dephaser and killed the origional engine. So he bought the car as the lad couldnt afford to fix it and turned it into a track car

 

[1985michael182]

So I got the car home and had a good look around it to see what I had actually just bought.

I could then see there was a few bits missing

Belts looked tired

And it had a golf cart battery

 

[1985michael182]

Next I took it to work and cleaned every inch from top to bottom, inside and out including all the underside and wheel arches.

Cleaned up pretty well but as you can see the breather on the rocker cover is just venting free with no pipes or catch tank attached so I bought the PMS one.

 

[1985michael182]

I found my Valver pictures...

 

[1985michael182]

Some of you with a keen eye will notice the smoothed door and 1/4 panels, smoothed out bonnet badge, smoothed out bumper inserts, smoothed out roof rails and debadged on the rear. I think I opened the mouth up on the front bumper aswell.
rear arches were rotten and the rear of the sills when I bought it. So ended up doing a full car respray

 

[Martin.]

Bargain that 182 was. I can't believe someone would go through all that effort with the car in saving weight, but still leave the huge lump of iron under the engine mount!

 

[1985michael182]

Haha it's most definitely removed now. It's an anti vibration thing I believe.

 

[Martin.]

Yeah, but he's fully stripped it out and got platic windows, so obviously stopping vibrations wasn't on his priority list haha

 

[1985michael182]

Ok so now it was all cleaned up I decided to see what the hell was going with the engine.
It would cough and splutter then run fine again... it was quit confusing.

So I did some research on throttle bodies and the Gen90 ECU from Ktec and found out that they needed balancing. Starting with your idle.

First I had to strip the air filter and trumpets off to gain access to the adjusters.

You need the smallest of gaps open on the butterflys so it let's air in for your idle. No gap, no air, no idle.
So I set that.
Then you need to balance all 4 bodies to read the same amount of air flow using a synchrometer.
I think it was around 5kg per hour.

Once I equaled the 4 inlets It started sounding a whole lot better on idle and not like a bag of spinners. Throttle was a lot more responsive aswell.

Next was to set the Throttle Position Sensor aka TPS.

It took me ages to get my laptop to link to the ecu and then for some reason I thought I wonder if it needs more than 12V constant to link in like the BMW's do at work when coding. So I rigged up the battery charger and hey presto I was is.

One the ktec setup videos it says to set the raw TPS value to 10 and then turn the ignition off and back on to restart it. Piece of cake.
Whilst I was wired in the the ecu I also lowered the temp at which the rad fan kicked in and turned off. From 92° down to 87°. Meerly because I was going to be working hard on track and I wanted the fans on at lower temps plus once I come back in off track until the fans go off I leave it running.

This stopped 80% of the random coughs and spits but overall alot better. There is a fuel/air ratio gauge inside on the CMComposites dash pod but at this point it's not working so I cant change my idle to make sure I'm averaging 13/2 ratio. More on this later...

I also found a power run on a graph in the invoices. Something tells me its lieing though

 

[1985michael182]

Next task was getting rid of the bloody fibreglass bonnet. I HATE fibreglass panels. As a panel beater looking at the horrific ripples in the panel made me want to set it on fire!!!
So I took it off and sold it to my mate and the cash paid for a tidy second hand steel bonnet.

Slight bit of rust on the rear edge like they all do but wire wheel soon sorted that out.
Then whilst maneuvering the bonnet around I decided it was rather heavy compared to the fibreglass one so the angle grinder and slitting disks came out after some careful marking of cut lines.

Not taking too much out so the bonnet didnt turn to s**t but enough to make a considerable difference. I then test fitted it and cut the holes for the aero catches ready for paint.

(NOTE if you copy this use a new sharp blade and plenty of soapy water to cut the sealer which sticks the frame to the centre of the bonnet. If you rush it and get heavy handed you'll dent the bonnet. Nobody wants dents or job creation)

I also stripped the front bumper and preped it all because of the stone chips and flaking previous paint work and primered them together.

Once they were primed I flatted them down and painted them, and put them back on the car to get it home that weekend. Whilst the panels were drying in the oven I painted the grilles satin black

 

[1985michael182]

Next on the agenda was sorting this engine out so it was 100%.

I started with new plugs, new injectors, coil pack and HT leads.
After some head scratching I realised it was running Meg225 injectors. They didnt look like normal R.s ones and that's why.
I had a spare fuel rail with 4 clio injectors so made for good comparison.

Meg left/clio right
Difference being the clio has 4 spray holes the meg has 8

So fuel and electric supply renewed I moved onto the brakes.

Brand new HC disks and carbon Lorraine RC5+ pads on the front and standard road brembo disks and pads on the rear with new bearings.

I removed the DS2500 crumbling crap and binned them

Refreshed the standard dot4 fluid and bled the system.

Next I thought I would tackle the fuel/air mix sensor for the gauge, turns out it's not working because theres not one fitted!

So straight onto the tinterweb and ordered one from Tweeks.

So now all that was left was oil changes really and potentially Dephaser,belt and water pump as I didnt know when it was ever done and wanted piece of mind that itcwas right. Then I got a wise idea fuelled by @NorthloopCup And his group buy of the Group N timing tool 😁

 

[1985michael182]

So, I bought the tool.
Group N timing, i didnt have a clue what it meant at the time i just knew it changed the timing slightly and gave a higher compression ratio.

I managed to get mine first as I had booked in with the mapping god Chris at EFI and needed my car ready for the following weekend so Mark shipped me the prototype mk1 tool so I could get it done.
So I had the Group N tool, a new dephaser, water pump, both belts and fresh oil and coolant to fit. Now I just needed the rains to give me a break and let me have an afternoon on the car.
Then on a fresh sunday morning the weather said no rain until 2.30pm so I got up and cracked on at 8.30.

Threw a couple of 8x4 sheets of ply down on the grass and put the gazebo up just incase the weather man lied!

All was going well took maybe 40 minutes to drain the fluids, lock the engine and take all the old parts off. But when it came to building back up again this happened ...

 

[1985michael182]

Eventually the freak storm subsided after about 20 minutes and we dried ourselves of whilst having a brew and carried on.

Managed to get it all built back up and hear it running with the new timing sounding very lumpy.

So I raised the idle from 650rpm upto 950 and it idled alot better, plus I had also fitted the new air/fuel ratio sensor so I could tweek the idle until the gauge said 13.2

Found a little problem though...

I couldnt believe it! All that work and now I've got oil in the water!

I then back tracked to try and figure out why and where it could be leaking. I eventually came to the conclusion that it must be the thermostate housing gasket. I had to remove the housing to get the Group N timing tool to fit into the cam end slots. Being the prototype mk1 tool I gave mark my findings and he then machined a relief into the tools that he sold so that the housing wouldnt have to be taken off in future.

I then ordered a new gasket and it sorted the problem. Banged in the fresh coolant, checked the balance in the bodies for safe measure and then loaded the car up ready to go to EFI

 

[Chambers_RS]

Awesome work.

Subscribed.

 

[1985michael182]

Thankyou sir, lots more to follow

 

[497adam]

When is it off to EFI?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[1985michael182]

When is it off to EFI?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's been, these are all in the past year. I'm just trying to document it all

 

[497adam]

Got a graph ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[1985michael182]

Be patient

 

[1985michael182]

Right so we were ready for EFI.
Set off on a fresh Sunday morning at 5.30am to get to Runcorn for 10am ish.
Nice run from north yorkshire and we got there to the sound of an EP3 turbo'd civic running 450bhp screaming its tits off!! Spooling and chattering. Thought it was going to pull the shackles out of the floor!!

Then it was my turn so I popped the bonnet off and left it on the trailer and got reversed in.

At this point I spotted Chris's R5 turbo! What a machine!

So this is the first ever car I've had on a rolling road after years of having modified cars, nobody tells you just how much pain they get put through to get the desired numbers. Poor little car was screaming to get off!!
He spent a good hour writing the map at increments of 500rpm and then he would do test runs to make sure his air and fuelling was right before he started doing power runs, in between these he would look at the map and tweek it where he wasn't happy.
At one point the figures on the tv screen hit 201bhp but he wasnt happy with it and reined it in a bit.
We finished up at 197.3 Bhp and 170.8lbs torque. Which I was mildly disappointed at as I wanted 200 but as NorthLoop rightly told me torque is the more important number on our engines.

(Side note, since the mapping I found out I had the wrong exhaust gasket on which closed the holes up by atleast 3mm all the way round the exhaust ports. So I think if it was mapped again I would definitely get higher figures!)

You can see the sut on the old gasket which is clearly obstructing the gas flow and then the new correct gasket holes much bigger.

Dyno run for your viewing pleasure

 

[1985michael182]

So now I had a good running engine, fully serviced and tuned up i figured i should finish off the front end and build it up.

I machine polished the headlights and wings so they shined like the fresh painted bonnet and bumper. Painted the front diamond gloss black and did the usual black decal on the lower part of the bumper to bring the front end together nicely.

And I must say it was looking very smart indeed....

for atleast half an hour anyway

This happened 😭

Morale of the story here is...
Dont go and help your mate try to set his ktec bodies up looking at your own with your bonnet up to see if they use the same screws to adjust each butterfly, then forget to shut your bonnet catches when you mate says
"take us down the road in it then"
For your brand new painted and lightened bonnet to flip up at 30mph and wrap itself round your windscreen and roof panel

🤬 🤢🤮

Pissed off is an understatement

 

[1985michael182]

As you can imagine I was gutted.
All that hard work destroyed and more damage created to fix onto of the ruined bonnet.
But.... luckily with me being in the trade I could fix it myself, so I brushed myself off, picked up my pride and put it back in my pocket and cracked on.

So the guy who I bought it off who did the interior strip to fit the cage didnt remove the roof lining gently to stop the roof from rippling, he just literally ripped it out and left creases where the glue attaches it just above the front seats.

There was also small dents all over the roof skin which I was planning on getting the dent guy to do but seen as though I had added to them and they weren't something he could get out I figured I would do the job lot.

So first job, broken screen out. Then I used my rubber mallet to reshape the bonnet skin so it was usable and would close better.

Then I used dent bars to lift the low areas (alot harder than it looks when the dent guys do it) and a modified punch and panel splitting chisel domed end to chase down any areas that where too high.

Once I was happy I used 180grit on the d.a. sander to key up the paintwork and take the tops of anything potentially still too high. I then applied a couple of coats of filler.

Even though we have dust extraction dust still goes every where so I protected my flocked dash with masking paper.

Whilst the filler was drying I rigged up the miracle pull system to remove the harsh dent that the bonnet catch had pecked into the roof.

Dressed the pull mark's with 80 and filled it. All I had to do was rub down the filler so I could prime the roof, but then I got ideas.

 

[1985michael182]

I had been given a cup roof scoop when I bought the car and figured now was a good time to fit it.
I measured up and marked where I was happy with it sitting.

I drilled the 4 holes and bolted the inner and outer together.

Piece of cake, I then used my cone drill bits to drill through the roof skin to allow air into the cockpit. (Works a treat, keeps temps low inside. Glad I fitted it)

Next I decided the aeriel base was usesless and ugly, it had no wires going to it and there was no radio so figured whilst I was doing the roof I would smooth it in, so I removed it and clean the paint off around the hole. Then I tapered the edges of the metal around the hole using a grinder as I was planning on panel bonding a patch in as welding would warp the metal too much.

Cut a patch and cleaned it up

Mixed my panel bond at 50/50 ratio

until the bond is completely mixed and a consistent colour

I then applied it to the patch and stuck the patch on

The bond takes 24hrs at 15°c to cure and I didnt have time to wait that long so I used the infrared heater and monitored the panel temperature at 75°c for 45 minutes and it was cured

 

[Martin.]

Must be so satisfying to be able to fix and improve issues yourself!

 

[JamesBryan]

An incident like that could only happen to a guy that knows how to fix it himself

I'd have been raging too at the time.

 

[1985michael182]

Its definitely a big help

Must be so satisfying to be able to fix and improve issues yourself!

Its definitely better on my wallet!!
And the boss is pretty easy, we just put some cash into the works night out kitty to cover materials.
I'm pretty picky and like thinks done properly so I only really trust myself which is big headed I know but I know it's done right.

 

[Martin.]

No one will ever take as much care on a job as you will yourself!

 

[1985michael182]

An incident like that could only happen to a guy that knows how to fix it himself

I'd have been raging too at the time.

Haha very true!

It's the last time I help a friend out Haha

I have a major complex now with checking the bonnet catches. Even if I'm not driving it anywhere

 

[JamesBryan]

Haha very true!

It's the last time I help a friend out Haha

I have a major complex now with checking the bonnet catches. Even if I'm not driving it anywhere

Need to wire up some sort of contact and have an LED on the dash to show when they're locked haha

 

[1985michael182]

I'll just weld the bonnet shut!!

 

[finch wxm]

Mega build this

 

[JackJack]

Quality work

 

[1985michael182]

Thanks guys, your going to see some major work on here shortly