imprezaworks
ClioSport Club Member
Mk5 Golf GTI :)
Such a tease.
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Potatoes does a project - BG 182
- Thread starter Potatoes
- Start date
Such a tease.
imprezaworks
ClioSport Club Member
Mk5 Golf GTI :)
I'd want a full set of the same tbh. Have b14's cone down to £500 yet?
Nearly @imprezaworks, I was so sold on Koni's after talking to @car.crash, might Koni the rear and stick nice coilies up front... or I might not.
imprezaworks
ClioSport Club Member
Mk5 Golf GTI :)
B14's were £715 ish last time I asked.
Let's hope....
Let's hope....
Dropped the car off at @markfishy earlier in the week for a mini overhaul and am missing it terribly... currently driving around in an old 2.4 petrol Volvo V70 barge.
Looking forward to getting her back in a few days and I'll update on the work Mark and his team completed... there was quite a lot to do to get it mechanically sound!
Looking forward to getting her back in a few days and I'll update on the work Mark and his team completed... there was quite a lot to do to get it mechanically sound!
Thanks @182_steve
Picked her up from @markfishy (Mark Fish Motorsport) today having basically had a complete overhaul of all the issues that hadn't been dealt with in the cars recent history. It turned out to be a pretty significant job...
What I asked Mark to do:
After discussions, what Mark did:
I won't go into the cost other than to say it cost more than the price I paid for the car... those of you that have used Mark Fish before will know 2 things, 1) he's a little expensive and 2) he's worth it, you're paying for his significant knowledge and experience. For those of you that haven't been to him before, 1) he's a little expensive but 2) he's absolutely worth it and 3) he has many awesome cars in his garage! His experience and attention to detail meant we had a few long conversations about the car and it's issues - bearing in mind I'm not an engineer, he explained everything - and I then decided what he should tackle and what I could manage at home. The more lazy I got the more expensive the job got.
Spotted!:
I know, his place is packed full of Clio's! This one stood out, it was up on the ramps when I dropped the car off on Tuesday 31st and was parked, looking ready to be picked up when I picked mine up today:
The Drive Home:
The timing had previously been out slightly and there were a couple of seals in the inlet that weren't sealed... along with many other little issues. That meant the car had been running lumpy, there was a lack of torque and some strange noises between 1,000 - 3,000 RPM. I'd originally thought this was normal however driving home it became clear the engine just hadn't been looked after properly. There was much more torque before the 4,500/5,000RPM than before, it idles much more smoothly when cold and engine braking in 1st/2nd is now smooth. I also found a few miles to warm up and bed in the brakes... I'll need to do a bit more of this.
I'll see some of you tomorrow at North Weald breakfast meet, for the rest of you; until next time, happy Clio-ing
What I asked Mark to do:
- Change cambelt/dephaser/aux belt
- Change oil and filter
- Change pollen filter
- Install my pre-cat lambda
- Let me know what else needs work... and do it!
After discussions, what Mark did:
- All of the above
- Top-up gearbox oil
- New crank shaft pulley bolt
- DS2500 pads
- New brake fluid
- Lower cambelt cover
- Inlet manifold gasket
- CV boot clip
- New spark plugs
- Inlet manifold breather seal
- Inlet plenium chamber bolts
I won't go into the cost other than to say it cost more than the price I paid for the car... those of you that have used Mark Fish before will know 2 things, 1) he's a little expensive and 2) he's worth it, you're paying for his significant knowledge and experience. For those of you that haven't been to him before, 1) he's a little expensive but 2) he's absolutely worth it and 3) he has many awesome cars in his garage! His experience and attention to detail meant we had a few long conversations about the car and it's issues - bearing in mind I'm not an engineer, he explained everything - and I then decided what he should tackle and what I could manage at home. The more lazy I got the more expensive the job got.
Spotted!:
I know, his place is packed full of Clio's! This one stood out, it was up on the ramps when I dropped the car off on Tuesday 31st and was parked, looking ready to be picked up when I picked mine up today:
The Drive Home:
The timing had previously been out slightly and there were a couple of seals in the inlet that weren't sealed... along with many other little issues. That meant the car had been running lumpy, there was a lack of torque and some strange noises between 1,000 - 3,000 RPM. I'd originally thought this was normal however driving home it became clear the engine just hadn't been looked after properly. There was much more torque before the 4,500/5,000RPM than before, it idles much more smoothly when cold and engine braking in 1st/2nd is now smooth. I also found a few miles to warm up and bed in the brakes... I'll need to do a bit more of this.
I'll see some of you tomorrow at North Weald breakfast meet, for the rest of you; until next time, happy Clio-ing
Great stuff, must be a bit weight off the mind knowing all that is done......... at the end of the day, as with most things, you get what you pay for! I'd be exactly the same as you with this, just pay the money to get it done right and have full confidence in the car there after. Pay a cheap bodge job and could end up having to do it all again or worse. I too have spent more on my Clio than I paid for it now, it's a familiar tale haha!
massiveCoRbyn
ClioSport Club Member
Several
I used @markfishy to MOT my car last year. Was definitely worthwhile as he noticed a couple of things that I wouldn't have done. I wouldn't trust many people with my car, but Mark really knows his onions.
Potatoes does a project’s project takes an unexpected turn…
Today I’d planned to clean up the coilovers I bought recently, re-install my RARB and do a few jobs to the Clio but got distracted somewhat. I woke up this morning with an urge to make a curry and set my mind to that… I’m a huge fan of making curries, recently making a lot of various Gujarati curries over the last year. My favourite take-away curry is a Chicken Dhansak which is a Parsee staple that made it over to UK take-aways. I’ve never mastered making it, and that needed to change! (I did end up doing a few jobs and normal service will resume in the next update)
What followed over the last few months was > 5 failed attempts including one that just tasted of s**t, literally it tasted like actual s**t - I think I fucked up when adding the tamarind pulp; 2 of the 5 were poured down the toilet immediately and replaced with a take-away!
I finally landed on a mix I was getting happy with and then started to refine the ingredients mix and cooking techniques to get to something I was happy with. This was end result:
CHICKEN DHANSAK
Serves 6-8 persons
Ingredients:
1.3 kg chicken, washed and cut into medium sized pieces
2inch stick of cinnamon/cassia bark
2 black cardamom
120ml groundnut oil & clarified butter mix
5 tbs garlic & ginger paste
2 large onions
2 sweet potatoes
6 green finger chillies
4 tomatoes
1/2ts turmeric
1-2ts Kashmiri chilli powder (or .5ts of red chilli powder & .5ts of paprika)
3ts coriander seed powder
1ts cumin powder
3ts dhasnak/parsee masala*
2ts dried methi leaves (kasuri methi)
2ts salt
2ts tamarind concentrate
1 cup chicken stock
2 sweet potatoes
350g toor dal
1ts honey
*I use my own recipe for the dhasnak/parsi masala and realised I still haven’t shared it… I used this recipe as a base and just included a heap of black cardamom pods to the mix: http://www.cheekychilli.com/2012/12/03/parsi-sambhar-masala
Instructions:
Before starting, rinse the toor dal thoroughly in a sieve, then drop them into a pot of water and bring them to the boil and then cook for 30 minutes or until soft. While that’s heating to the boil, finely chop the onions. Then, get your oil/ghee into the curry pot and heat it up, drop in the cassia bark and black cardamom pods and after around 3-5 minutes spoon in the garlic/ginger paste (keep the heat relatively low otherwise this can spit!). Let that sizzle until the smell of raw garlic disappears (around 5 minutes) and then drop in your chopped onions and cook on a low heat for 30-45 minutes, stirring regularly. Get the spice mix together, peel and slice the sweet potatoes and blitz the chillies and tomatoes in a blender during this time too so you’re fully prepped.
10 minutes before the toor dal is ready, drop in the chopped sweet potato and cook until both are soft. Once the onions have browned and gone completely soft, remove the cassia bark and 1 black cardamom pod, chuck in the spice mix, stir like crazy and once the mixture makes you cough (around 1-2 minutes) drop in the tamarind concentrate, the blitzed tomatoes and chillies, again stirring until the mix is warmed through. At this stage your toor dal and potatoes will be cooked through. Drop them into the curry pot, don’t worry if you get some water in there with them but try not to get more than ¼ cup at this stage, if either the toor dal or the potatoes need a little more softening up, leave the mix on the heat, when ready take it off the heat and let it cool for a few moment… then remove the final cardamom pod and blitz the hell out of your curry with a hand held blenderJ
Once you’ve got a smooth texture, drop a cup of chicken stock into the mix, do this in stages and check the texture to make sure you’re happy, 1 cup was perfect for me but you may want to add more or put less in. Let it cool totally while chopping up some chicken (or lamb/tofu/paneer), once it’s cool, get the chicken in, stir so the chicken is completely swamped and stick the pot into a fridge and let the chicken marinate through the day. For context, I started this curry at just gone 9am and it was in the fridge just after 10am… didn’t need to touch it again until 20mins before I served it that evening!
- Get on with your day -
When you’re about to cook up the curry in the evening , stop. Go to the fridge, remove a beer and continue back to the cooking area. Stick the curry on the heat and start to heat the chicken through (around 20 minutes), with 10 minutes left to go, put the rice on, naan in the oven and, finally, serve.
I'll be back with a proper update soon, in the meantime, happy Clio-ing
Today I’d planned to clean up the coilovers I bought recently, re-install my RARB and do a few jobs to the Clio but got distracted somewhat. I woke up this morning with an urge to make a curry and set my mind to that… I’m a huge fan of making curries, recently making a lot of various Gujarati curries over the last year. My favourite take-away curry is a Chicken Dhansak which is a Parsee staple that made it over to UK take-aways. I’ve never mastered making it, and that needed to change! (I did end up doing a few jobs and normal service will resume in the next update)
What followed over the last few months was > 5 failed attempts including one that just tasted of s**t, literally it tasted like actual s**t - I think I fucked up when adding the tamarind pulp; 2 of the 5 were poured down the toilet immediately and replaced with a take-away!
I finally landed on a mix I was getting happy with and then started to refine the ingredients mix and cooking techniques to get to something I was happy with. This was end result:
CHICKEN DHANSAK
Serves 6-8 persons
Ingredients:
1.3 kg chicken, washed and cut into medium sized pieces
2inch stick of cinnamon/cassia bark
2 black cardamom
120ml groundnut oil & clarified butter mix
5 tbs garlic & ginger paste
2 large onions
2 sweet potatoes
6 green finger chillies
4 tomatoes
1/2ts turmeric
1-2ts Kashmiri chilli powder (or .5ts of red chilli powder & .5ts of paprika)
3ts coriander seed powder
1ts cumin powder
3ts dhasnak/parsee masala*
2ts dried methi leaves (kasuri methi)
2ts salt
2ts tamarind concentrate
1 cup chicken stock
2 sweet potatoes
350g toor dal
1ts honey
*I use my own recipe for the dhasnak/parsi masala and realised I still haven’t shared it… I used this recipe as a base and just included a heap of black cardamom pods to the mix: http://www.cheekychilli.com/2012/12/03/parsi-sambhar-masala
Instructions:
Before starting, rinse the toor dal thoroughly in a sieve, then drop them into a pot of water and bring them to the boil and then cook for 30 minutes or until soft. While that’s heating to the boil, finely chop the onions. Then, get your oil/ghee into the curry pot and heat it up, drop in the cassia bark and black cardamom pods and after around 3-5 minutes spoon in the garlic/ginger paste (keep the heat relatively low otherwise this can spit!). Let that sizzle until the smell of raw garlic disappears (around 5 minutes) and then drop in your chopped onions and cook on a low heat for 30-45 minutes, stirring regularly. Get the spice mix together, peel and slice the sweet potatoes and blitz the chillies and tomatoes in a blender during this time too so you’re fully prepped.
10 minutes before the toor dal is ready, drop in the chopped sweet potato and cook until both are soft. Once the onions have browned and gone completely soft, remove the cassia bark and 1 black cardamom pod, chuck in the spice mix, stir like crazy and once the mixture makes you cough (around 1-2 minutes) drop in the tamarind concentrate, the blitzed tomatoes and chillies, again stirring until the mix is warmed through. At this stage your toor dal and potatoes will be cooked through. Drop them into the curry pot, don’t worry if you get some water in there with them but try not to get more than ¼ cup at this stage, if either the toor dal or the potatoes need a little more softening up, leave the mix on the heat, when ready take it off the heat and let it cool for a few moment… then remove the final cardamom pod and blitz the hell out of your curry with a hand held blenderJ
Once you’ve got a smooth texture, drop a cup of chicken stock into the mix, do this in stages and check the texture to make sure you’re happy, 1 cup was perfect for me but you may want to add more or put less in. Let it cool totally while chopping up some chicken (or lamb/tofu/paneer), once it’s cool, get the chicken in, stir so the chicken is completely swamped and stick the pot into a fridge and let the chicken marinate through the day. For context, I started this curry at just gone 9am and it was in the fridge just after 10am… didn’t need to touch it again until 20mins before I served it that evening!
- Get on with your day -
When you’re about to cook up the curry in the evening , stop. Go to the fridge, remove a beer and continue back to the cooking area. Stick the curry on the heat and start to heat the chicken through (around 20 minutes), with 10 minutes left to go, put the rice on, naan in the oven and, finally, serve.
I'll be back with a proper update soon, in the meantime, happy Clio-ing
Last edited:
imprezaworks
ClioSport Club Member
Mk5 Golf GTI :)
How very ghey delia
I might be a bit weird but I'm not a cannibal!
The RARB Escapade and the Story of a Rounding Cretin
In this update we’ll be focusing mainly on how not to install an anti-roll bar and we’ll explore the pitfalls of ordering an item that you’re not sure is the correct item until it arrives.
As you probably won’t recall from the last car update I’d picked the car up from Mark Fish who’d uninstalled my RARB as I’d dropped a U-bolt from the sway bar while hooning the previous month. This is where we’ll pick the story up. I scoured the interwebs for the correct sized U-bolt to fit the RARB to the sway bar, realising that finding out 1) what specific size part I needed and 2) where I could get it was not going to be easy. I eventually convinced myself I knew which size part I needed and found someone selling it in the UK! I eagerly placed my order and waited for the confirmation email to come through, I then continued to wait for it and the following day I waited some more. At some point after that I forgot all about it… parenting a 1 month old tends to make me a bit forgetful. 2 weeks later I got an email to tell me that the part was discontinued and I wasn’t getting it. Undeterred I thought “I’ll do something about this at some point” and continued to parent, try to sleep and pretend to do my job during the weekdays. During this time I mastered the art of looking busy, important and unapproachable whilst doing very little work, I’m happy to provide training on this in return for beer.
A few weeks later I was clearing out my parent’s garage in preparation for our move back up to Yorkshire and came across my RARB… “Oh yeah, I need that bloody U-bolt!”. I got in touch with Kevin at KamRacing who managed to source the part I’d requested from him, from Whiteline in Australia. Kevin got it, it turned out to be the last one, the product line had indeed been discontinued. 5 days later I was the proud owner of 2 new Whiteline U-bolts, I was both happy and sleep-deprived.
The next weekend was sunny so the little dude and I got to work. It started well; with a bit of persuasion, I got the near-side lower damper bolt loose. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the same result with the far-side bolt, the b*****d bolt wasn’t moving. As is now a normal experience for my neighbours, I swore a lot and roamed around the driveway with an angry expression on my face and a breaker bar in my right hand, then headed inside to drink beer.
After cooling down that evening, I headed off in the morning in search of a friendly garage who’d let me use their ramp to get under the car to get more leverage. 30 minutes later I returned home, slowly with a loose far-side lower damper bolt :blush:
Tools out and ready to go again we set to work, we put the drop-links on and then attached the RARB to the drop links. All was going well! It was time to get the U-bolts over the sway-bar to secure the RARB to the sway-bar and then job jobbed, but…
It was the f**king wrong size f**king U-bolt!! The b*****d thing didn’t even fit over the b*****d sway-bar!!
Roamed. Angry. Breaker bar. Beer
During the beer phase I got onto the internet and found a Whiteline U-Bolt that was bigger, the only other one I could find so it had be the right, right? Ordered. Waited. Delivered.
With a little less enthusiasm than the beginning of this escapade we got to work getting the U-bolt over the sway-bar. I got under the car while the little lad kindly passed me random tools, some bolts and a selection of stones from the driveway. In spite of his help, I got the U-bolt over and secured the RARB to the car. We got the bolts tightened and got the car back onto the ground.
Job finally f**king jobbed!
Other News:
I moved to back to Yorkshire from NW London… very happy to be home, managed to move our entire belongings, a 3yr old and 1.5mth old in one van and a Volvo V70... with a little help from my friends:
On arrival home to Yorkshire I took the car down to the RS Tuning rolling road day with the Yorkshire group a few weekends back and was very surprised to see my 13 year old engine push 173Bhp through its wheels. The car only has a K-Tech Ultra exhaust, Fatty’s induction and 2 stickers, I’m very happy with the result:
Result :smile:
I also picked up a set of Spax RSX Coilovers which I spent a lot of time cleaning up:
The dampers seem in good working order, the damping adjusters spin nicely but I cannot loosen the height adjusters. I’ve sat them in a bucket of Coca Cola for 24 hours, unleashed copious amounts of WD40 and gone to town with a (soft) wire brush the threads are now gleaming but the adjusters are going no-where… help!
I’m off to Cadwell Park on the 29th April with a few friends and am looking forward to getting the Clio back on track again following a hiatus whilst I sorted out the brakes, RARB and timing. Cannot wait! Also, I’m very keen to get back to Blyton Park now that I’m a local again, I love that circuit!
Further updates on my emissions issue, suspension upgrades and trackday fun to come, in the meantime, happy Clio-ing.
In this update we’ll be focusing mainly on how not to install an anti-roll bar and we’ll explore the pitfalls of ordering an item that you’re not sure is the correct item until it arrives.
As you probably won’t recall from the last car update I’d picked the car up from Mark Fish who’d uninstalled my RARB as I’d dropped a U-bolt from the sway bar while hooning the previous month. This is where we’ll pick the story up. I scoured the interwebs for the correct sized U-bolt to fit the RARB to the sway bar, realising that finding out 1) what specific size part I needed and 2) where I could get it was not going to be easy. I eventually convinced myself I knew which size part I needed and found someone selling it in the UK! I eagerly placed my order and waited for the confirmation email to come through, I then continued to wait for it and the following day I waited some more. At some point after that I forgot all about it… parenting a 1 month old tends to make me a bit forgetful. 2 weeks later I got an email to tell me that the part was discontinued and I wasn’t getting it. Undeterred I thought “I’ll do something about this at some point” and continued to parent, try to sleep and pretend to do my job during the weekdays. During this time I mastered the art of looking busy, important and unapproachable whilst doing very little work, I’m happy to provide training on this in return for beer.
A few weeks later I was clearing out my parent’s garage in preparation for our move back up to Yorkshire and came across my RARB… “Oh yeah, I need that bloody U-bolt!”. I got in touch with Kevin at KamRacing who managed to source the part I’d requested from him, from Whiteline in Australia. Kevin got it, it turned out to be the last one, the product line had indeed been discontinued. 5 days later I was the proud owner of 2 new Whiteline U-bolts, I was both happy and sleep-deprived.
The next weekend was sunny so the little dude and I got to work. It started well; with a bit of persuasion, I got the near-side lower damper bolt loose. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the same result with the far-side bolt, the b*****d bolt wasn’t moving. As is now a normal experience for my neighbours, I swore a lot and roamed around the driveway with an angry expression on my face and a breaker bar in my right hand, then headed inside to drink beer.
After cooling down that evening, I headed off in the morning in search of a friendly garage who’d let me use their ramp to get under the car to get more leverage. 30 minutes later I returned home, slowly with a loose far-side lower damper bolt :blush:
Tools out and ready to go again we set to work, we put the drop-links on and then attached the RARB to the drop links. All was going well! It was time to get the U-bolts over the sway-bar to secure the RARB to the sway-bar and then job jobbed, but…
It was the f**king wrong size f**king U-bolt!! The b*****d thing didn’t even fit over the b*****d sway-bar!!
Roamed. Angry. Breaker bar. Beer
During the beer phase I got onto the internet and found a Whiteline U-Bolt that was bigger, the only other one I could find so it had be the right, right? Ordered. Waited. Delivered.
With a little less enthusiasm than the beginning of this escapade we got to work getting the U-bolt over the sway-bar. I got under the car while the little lad kindly passed me random tools, some bolts and a selection of stones from the driveway. In spite of his help, I got the U-bolt over and secured the RARB to the car. We got the bolts tightened and got the car back onto the ground.
Job finally f**king jobbed!
Other News:
I moved to back to Yorkshire from NW London… very happy to be home, managed to move our entire belongings, a 3yr old and 1.5mth old in one van and a Volvo V70... with a little help from my friends:
On arrival home to Yorkshire I took the car down to the RS Tuning rolling road day with the Yorkshire group a few weekends back and was very surprised to see my 13 year old engine push 173Bhp through its wheels. The car only has a K-Tech Ultra exhaust, Fatty’s induction and 2 stickers, I’m very happy with the result:
Result :smile:
I also picked up a set of Spax RSX Coilovers which I spent a lot of time cleaning up:
The dampers seem in good working order, the damping adjusters spin nicely but I cannot loosen the height adjusters. I’ve sat them in a bucket of Coca Cola for 24 hours, unleashed copious amounts of WD40 and gone to town with a (soft) wire brush the threads are now gleaming but the adjusters are going no-where… help!
I’m off to Cadwell Park on the 29th April with a few friends and am looking forward to getting the Clio back on track again following a hiatus whilst I sorted out the brakes, RARB and timing. Cannot wait! Also, I’m very keen to get back to Blyton Park now that I’m a local again, I love that circuit!
Further updates on my emissions issue, suspension upgrades and trackday fun to come, in the meantime, happy Clio-ing.
Another great update, progress is indeed being had!
😂 yep they do think they're helping bless 'em!
😂 yep they do think they're helping bless 'em!
