T. Turbo is back

[Jekyll]

Loving these history builds. I remember it when it was updated years back on here, but now it's in your hands Jon, it'll continue to be done to a well finish.

Enjoyed seeing it (and yourself) at CSF this year.

 

[Brigsy]

Loving these history builds. I remember it when it was updated years back on here, but now it's in your hands Jon, it'll continue to be done to a well finish.

Enjoyed seeing it (and yourself) at CSF this year.

Thanks for the feedback mate much appreciated. Was good to catch up again at CSF

 

[Brigsy]

December 2020 - This is where we come into it.

So we have shook and agreed a price on T.Trophy. Im still unsure whether the sale will go through as can tell Steve is not 100% sure if he wants to sell, and totally understand as its a large decision to make after owning the car since new. My head is also spinning as i need to turf a car out of the garage to get it in as it would be sacrilege buying it and leaving it out to the elements all winter especially with all the aqua blasted bare alloy parts etc, arrange recovery truck to collect it, van to collect the spares package and timescale is tight as hes working a lot and not much time off.

As previously agreed i needed to put the car back together in a fashion and get it rolling as per last pic. The last pic on axle stands actually is mid way refitting parts as it had no subframe on up front. Opted to refit a few bits to engine whilst there and Steve showed me a few tricks on how it all slots together. Refitted suspension, driveshafts etc and body panels to save any damage when moving them about. 2 days of work to get it somewhere near.

Looks ready to drive? Absolutely not - we are pushing this out with no brakes and bare minimum parts fitted. First time its been on its wheels for a few years.

At this point moneys are transferred over. Logbook is transferred online and Steve is really unsure whether to hit the button to confirm as its final once done, after a few mins he hits the switch and its done.

The recovery truck is booked and the car is rolled out of Steves garage and winched on. Garage door shuts and Steve is gone and its final.

Stand back and seeing the Trophy in daylight loaded on the trailer on a fresh December morning and even though its covered in dust and looking "barnfind" it looks awesome. Well apart from splitter is not fixed on properly and its a total non runner with a load of work required!! But visually looks great.

My mate gets the pedal down and we follow in the orange dci on the 45min or so journey back to our house. Shez unloads the car with no brakes and underestimates how fast it will roll off the trailer with only handbrake available and nearly goes half way down the street repeat pushing up the drive into the garage.

Megane is turfed out the garage to another garage for dry storage. Trophy sat next to my Gtt in the Renault Rescue Centre as the lads have named it .

Steve sends a pic over on the group chat of the bare garage. End of an era and i think Steve is actually a little bit sad thats its gone which is understandable for us petrolheads as its been a part of his life for years. Hes normally mr emotionally dead taking the piss out of everything too so comes as a shock haha. I do say if he changes his mind it he can take it back no worries, but he replies its tainted now its not a one owner car, and thats the normal Steve back

He says hes glad its gone to a good home and to somebody who can put the car back together to the standard required. He also tells me not to rush it back together and take my time and it will turn out awesome.

I dont think i could have rushed it back together if i had tried with all the work the Kangoo needed to actually be finished and running which unknown at that point would take me to the following March to get road legal in a fashion.

I sat down and had a good think about what the f**k id commited to project wise, and needed to break this down into different sub projects so nothing was missed. Parts all over and ive no idea where half of the parts are, this aint going to be a ten min build and in for mapping. This is rebuild most areas of the car!!

To be continued..

 

[Brigsy]

Sorting the s**t out

So with the car at ours, next step was to clear out Steve's parts garages. Steve had said i had to clear everything (take the f**king lot or not at all) and as we are renault parts hoarders that was not an issue. Id be needing bits and bobs out of this lot whilst building it back up and bits for the Kangoo.

A few of the boxes of shite that i gathered. Sachs Trophy front shocks and koni rears were top of the list. They need a rebuild and a good clean up even though they were low mileage when removed.

loads of other random oem stuff from stripped engines.

I wont bore you to death with pictures of random boxes of crap, but there was at least several more full boxes of stuff and 4x f4rt engine blocks, a ndo gearbox, gear sets for ndo, new old stock parts front arch liners, several tubs of clean stored engine parts, cams etc.

Borrowed my neighbours 1.7cdti combo van as i had 2 non working vans at that point it was on its arse with all the engine blocks in, probably overloaded to be fair.

My badly organised lockup which has been sorted out a bit since as was total chaos, and was only half way through moving it all at this point. Its rammed with gear now.

Had to fit a couple of shelving units in my own garage full of bits too build the car too.

As i was off work for 3 weeks over Xmas and had quite a bit of time to shuffle bits about and do a bit. Got the Trophy out for a clean up and see what i was working with first of all. I was keen to see if any storage marks had been picked up on the bodywork as it was that dusty it was hard to see.

Bilt Hamber snowfoam and 2 bucket wash was on the cards and a quick blow dry as it was about 2degrees ambient temp.

Cleaned up lovely. Capscium red looking good, no fading due to years in the garage. Noted loads of carbon deposits up the back and tar spots on the sides which needed removing, but was not too bothered as very low on the priorities at this point as everything else needed work.

Rolled it back into the garage and had a bout of covid that knackered the rest of the xmas 2020 hols up and was trying to make good progress on the Kangoo between cold/snow showers etc so nothing happened for a couple of months.

To be continued..

 

[Brigsy]

Feb/March 2021

Not a lot had happened after Xmas/new year apart from initial wash and pushed into the garage, combination of cold winter weather, up to my eyes building the kangoo with that almost in a driving state so was pushing to get that finished.

I made an effort to sort the spares out into piles that id be needing to fit soon and piles that might come in handy. Shelving units built up in the garage to house the many parts that were cluttering the place up.

So many areas of the car needed putting back together, interior, engine, running gear, wiring to make etc. Where to start?!

Steve had issues with the epas column and wanted to change the slave cylinder on the clio v6 pedal box to make the clutch biting point feel better as it was always on the floor and change brake master cylinder for a larger diameter piston so the brake pedal feel was improved with the wilwood front calipers. In the process he had started fitting a set of infinity crossovers and component speakers with a small alpine amp, so the whole dash was loosely sat in place and fixings all removed/all over the place in the car. Decision was made to get that all finished and back together to earn a quick win.

Crossovers stashed behind the cluster. Maybe not ideal position but out of the way. Amp also stashed behind alpine stereo.

Infinity components fitted on adaptor rings in the front doors. Excuse the temporary screws i was waiting for some longer oem type torx to arrive.

Wiring adaptors used to save butchering the oem wiring.

Full days work, all back together and tested with a temp power supply hooked up so that was one quick win ticked off the list.

Walkaround vid of it with interior back together, excuse the breathing my chest was still a bit fucked after covid.

With that done i started to look at the engine. Everything loosely fitted and all looking clean but loads of work required to actually get it anywhere near a running state. Looking at it briefly, i could see several areas that i wanted to change/improve.

At this point it dawned on me that this was not going to be a simple bolt components up and its running. The thought of making a wiring loom up from scratch was not filling me with confidence, having never built one up. The rest was not looking so bad but i knew the fiddly bits would take ages.

Noted a few changes i would be making and started the long hours of searching on google to find suitable components.

To be continued..

 

[-Jamie-]

Mega build this. Steve bought my old engine from my Megane, was gonna donate me the block back to forge when the last engine went Pop

 

[Brigsy]

Mega build this. Steve bought my old engine from my Megane, was gonna donate me the block back to forge when the last engine went Pop

Cheers mate

Steve told me he got the engine off you back in the day. Interestingly the head off it is on my Kangoo and the block is in this after machining so ive got most of it now, pistons went in a r26 of my mates a few years ago with a set of cheap maxspeeding rods for a cheap upgrade.

What mileage did the engine have on when it bent a rod?

 

[-Jamie-]

Cheers mate

Steve told me he got the engine off you back in the day. Interestingly the head off it is on my Kangoo and the block is in this after machining so ive got most of it now, pistons went in a r26 of my mates a few years ago with a set of cheap maxspeeding rods for a cheap upgrade.

What mileage did the engine have on when it bent a rod?

Oh, now I'd have to think what mileage it had done. Bearing in mind that engine had hydrolocked but had done like 20k after than without issue before it bent the rod

 

[Brigsy]

Oh, now I'd have to think what mileage it had done. Bearing in mind that engine had hydrolocked but had done like 20k after than without issue before it bent the rod

I think Steve said it had a bent rod and that was it, rest was spot on, head was in decent condition when i fitted the cams. Not bad at all considering it has been hydrolocked. I guess it was just down on power but running ok.

 

[-Jamie-]

Tbf it was still making good power, made over 300 consistently on a few dyno days


Yeah I remember him telling me the head/internals looked immaculate and that it looked like it had done waaaaay less miles than it had. I wanna hazard a guess and say 70 odd k.


The only damage the bent rod had done was a little bit to the bottom of the cylinder wall but it was so far down the piston would never of got near it. Shame I never knew that or I'd of just chucked some forged rods in it. Probably still have it now if I had [emoji23]

 

[Brigsy]

I wonder if this was a different block as this one was mint in the bores after amac had bored/honed it, so yours might be in my garage. Steve was absolutely anal building this as he said it was the last engine he was building for it.

 

[-Jamie-]

I'm sure I might have a photo of the damage, I csnt remember now if it was bad enough than a hone wouldn't of cleaned it up. Will have a look through my messages from Steve and see if I can find one



Turns out he had a forged bottom end that needed one piston due to some det I was gonna buy as well [emoji23]

 

[Brigsy]

I'm sure I might have a photo of the damage, I csnt remember now if it was bad enough than a hone wouldn't of cleaned it up. Will have a look through my messages from Steve and see if I can find one



Turns out he had a forged bottom end that needed one piston due to some det I was gonna buy as well [emoji23]

Could be the same block if thats the case.

I got the cheap forged bottom end off him and sorted it, thats in the kangoo with your old 250 head on it. Works quite well for a cheapo build. I absolutely cleared him out of any Renault spares

 

[-Jamie-]

I seen sense when I started buying and properly pricing up a forged build with big turbo hence looking at going down the basic build route with bits off Steve [emoji23]

 

[Brigsy]

Small interim update.

Took T.Trophy for a run out on Sat. Weather was awesome around 30deg ambient so went for a steady ish drive around some great North Yorkshire b roads, past Croft, Northallerton area and back via Stokesley.

I dont like leaning on turbo cars massively in these temps as it all gets hot quickly but this is a cool cat and sits around 85deg coolant temp/92deg oil temp when on the move and charge temps of 5deg above ambient. Works great and the only thing that overheats is the driver with aircon removed for the turbo conversion.

It drives awesome on the Bilstein b14/Northloop roll correction kit and whiteline arb. Compliant and tight no drama just turns in, gripper plate diff doing the business, 4 pot wilwood/reyland brake combo up front stand it on its nose if needs be.

Stopped for coffee's in Great Ayton.

Temps had dropped loads by the time we were almost home as late evening so give it a tickle, it pulls effortlessly through the rpm range even on 8psi wastegate pressure.

Needs a good clean to get all the bugs off the front as not been cleaned since it was coated, this weekends job.

Next large project update coming when i get a spare hour to write it up.

Thanks for reading!!

 

[Danith]

Small interim update.

Took T.Trophy for a run out on Sat. Weather was awesome around 30deg ambient so went for a steady ish drive around some great North Yorkshire b roads, past Croft, Northallerton area and back via Stokesley.

I dont like leaning on turbo cars massively in these temps as it all gets hot quickly but this is a cool cat and sits around 85deg coolant temp/92deg oil temp when on the move and charge temps of 5deg above ambient. Works great and the only thing that overheats is the driver with aircon removed for the turbo conversion.

View attachment 1607842
It drives awesome on the Bilstein b14/Northloop roll correction kit and whiteline arb. Compliant and tight no drama just turns in, gripper plate diff doing the business, 4 pot wilwood/reyland brake combo up front stand it on its nose if needs be.

Stopped for coffee's in Great Ayton. View attachment 1607843
Temps had dropped loads by the time we were almost home as late evening so give it a tickle, it pulls effortlessly through the rpm range even on 8psi wastegate pressure.

Needs a good clean to get all the bugs off the front as not been cleaned since it was coated, this weekends job.

Next large project update coming when i get a spare hour to write it up.

Thanks for reading!!

I've never really had turbo cars, except the R26. But I get it now with the 'heat management' thing with them. My Skoda showed that up at Bedford and Oulton. Guess that's why some of the Meglio Clios don't seem to be out on track as regularly too?

 

[Brigsy]

I've never really had turbo cars, except the R26. But I get it now with the 'heat management' thing with them. My Skoda showed that up at Bedford and Oulton. Guess that's why some of the Meglio Clios don't seem to be out on track as regularly too?

Its crazy how much work is needed to make them reliable for sustained fast driving in high ambient temps. The heat in this engine bay is mega, does not cause too much of an issue for what we use it for, but if used on track it would need quite a bit of work to stop radiant heat off the exhaust manifold cooking everything near it. Ive already had to fit a nimbus heatshield to reflect heat away from the brake fluid reservior, as without it heatsoak in traffic was causing the fluid to rise approx 20mm. Its ok now ive heatshielded it.

 

[Yarp]

Its crazy how much work is needed to make them reliable for sustained fast driving in high ambient temps. The heat in this engine bay is mega, does not cause too much of an issue for what we use it for, but if used on track it would need quite a bit of work to stop radiant heat off the exhaust manifold cooking everything near it. Ive already had to fit a nimbus heatshield to reflect heat away from the brake fluid reservior, as without it heatsoak in traffic was causing the fluid to rise approx 20mm. Its ok now ive heatshielded it.

There’s no way to get round it entirely without being pretty drastic. There’s the option of a custom pedal set with the reservoir inside the car but that comes with plenty of challenges on its own. Even just topping up the fluid!

At least in the past when I’ve had turbo’d Vauxhalls the turbo was on the front of the engine so didn’t tend to cook everything and got some decent airflow over it too. Turbo wedged down the back is not ideal at all

 

[frayz]

If you haven't already i can highly recommend getting blankets for both the turbocharger and the pair of gates, Zircotec coating, heat shielding and Nomex/Firesleeve covering fluid lines is pretty much the only way to do it properly. 99% of any turbocharged build is proper heat management, im sure with that done effectively you can make this very reliable for road or track.

I did loads of heat work under here and all of it was touchable, even the turbo blanket after a full on ALS equipped thrashing.

 

[Brigsy]

The manifold and downpipe are ceramic coated on this, done by camcoat a few years ago. Also has a titanium blanket on the turbo. Manifold still gets bloody hot to touch though and ive got a scar on my arm after reaching into the engine bay. Marked for life off this

I did have the exhaust manifold and downpipe wrapped in dei titanium wrap but had to remove it when i had the egt bosses modified underneath. Ive got quite a bit of firesleeve over the pipework and wiring thats in the high heat areas, and all the brake lines are relocated to the bulkhead area. I dare say it would be adequate for a bit of hard use if needs be.

 

[Brigsy]

I think the ultimate heat shieliding for the manifold and downpipe would be thermomet but its so expensive. About 1k to get it fitted to the manifold iirc.

 

[frayz]

I think the ultimate heat shieliding for the manifold and downpipe would be thermomet but its so expensive. About 1k to get it fitted to the manifold iirc.

I'd read about Camcoat but not seen their work personally. I had my up/downpipes built in inconel and had them coated by Zircotec, which at the time was pretty state of the art. Ive seen the Thermomet stuff and its beautiful, but as you say, bloody expensive. Your other trick to use is double shielding if you have the space. So 2 layers of Nimbus with a small airgap in the middle works amazingly well for covering firewalls/reservoirs etc.

Other than the brake fluid reservoir, is there any one thing under there thats getting absolutely nuked?

 

[Brigsy]

The brake res and starter were the main issues. However a single layer of nimbus heatshield has sorted both for road use.

Ive recently done training for Itc level 1 thermography and had 20k's worth of Flir camera available in my old job and it confirmed the nimbus works really well.

 

[frayz]

Ha, thats brilliant. Couldnt have come at a better time when youre trying to improve heat management. Pukka bit of kit

 

[Brigsy]

The Flir camera was a mega bit of kit, thats the only part of my old job that i miss.

The fella who was teaching the course was also a petrolhead so i based some of my practical on the Trophy. He told me that he had done some thermal imaging for race teams on rear differentials when they were having problems with premature wear. Fantastic bit of kit for diagnosing heat related issues.

 

[Brigsy]

So where were we.

I recall it was pissy wet March 2021. Interior is done so thats one job off the list. There's f**k loads to to do and im flirting around the engine. Start seeing what will bolt up and what will not.

Steve was planning on using Aem ign1a smart coils. They are a nice bit of kit and in tests they perform excellent. The downside is actually finding a nice position to mount them to the engine which will look decent and not foul anything.

He had mocked them up on a billet alloy bracket that bolted up to the fuel rail mounting points. I did not want to use this location, as the coil bracket was only mounted on some small bolts so would be risky due to weight of coils and vibration stressing the bolts, and they were very close to the bonnet, so if an engine mount failed then its all going to go pete tong rapidly if the coils touch the bonnet, snap the bolt or worse still the fuel rail mounting point, fuel rail comes off in the process and potentially almost 5bar of fuel pressure squirting out on a hot engine. Also did not like having to use short ht leads, as another thing to fail.

Aem ign1a & Bracket.

So with that idea shelved, i looked at coil on plug options as they package ok and no ht lead required. The eagle eyed will note that there is already meg coils fitted in the head and why not use them!? Main reason is they are crap and need spark plug gaps to be super tight on high boost, and the engine suffered the occasional misfire and plugs fouling in the past due to small spark plug gaps using these.

I was not precious at using the Renault parts bin on this engine, so sniffed round for the best alternative COP option, that would first of all perform good, secondly look good aesthetically and fit ok. These engines aren't pretty but lets make an effort to improve the look.

I looked at yaris, hayabusa and audi coils, they all looked somewhere near. I noted that a few high powered F4R were running audi r8 coils but not much other info, and they are a common upgrade on high powered jap turbo cars. I measured up the length of the stock meg coil and a standard length audi coil looked like it would fit OK so ordered a new set to mock up. Surprisingly cheap new, and had a chat to Chris @ Efi on his thoughts to see if they were a good option, he advised they can give a good spark for all the boost so that was decision made.

Test fitted and fits nice. Clips on the plug tight with a good click so no mounting bracket required.

Note gap around the COP to head. I did not want any s**t or moisture going down in the plug hole so looked at a few options, alloy inserts to fit in the head or 3d printed spacers. In the end i just simply found a rubber grommit that fits perfect in the head and around the coil to fix this.

Job jobbed. Later pic as the grommits took ages to arrive on slow boat from china as obscure size, for some random electrical fitting,

Next issue was the breather plate. The cylinder head is clio 197 and a 250 breather plate was fitted. Im not sure if the internal baffle channels matched perfectly but that was not my main concern. The main issue was the fact the plate was almost wedged under the external wastegate vent pipe, and breather hose was almost on the same pipe which was not ideal.

Can be seen fitted in this pic

Simple solution to this was to buy a Pure motorsport breather plate for 197 head with -10an fitting in the centre. Waited for what felt like ages for them to come back in stock.

Bonus of being able to use oem gasket instead of leaky sealant.

Fitted, nice elegant bolt on solution with plenty of clearance.

Coils and breather plate both fitted. Coils fit ok between breather plate, no fouling or mods required.

Might seem like easy work at the moment, but hours of googling on the coilpacks to find the right solution was time consuming s**t, especially as this was my first time id strayed off the oem parts route on the F4R. It was the start of hours of googling random parts to search and find the best solutions to make it all come together.

To be continued soon. Thanks for reading!!

 

[frayz]

The solution always looks so simple and straightforward. The route getting there is often far from straight however. Great job fella.
Instal looks clean. 🙂

 

[Yarp]

I can’t believe my eyes, that’s almost a good looking F4R at this point 😂. How have you managed that with one of the world’s ugliest engines!

 

[Brigsy]

Fuel the fire.

So next thing i looked at was the fuel system. Steve had previously mounted the fuel reg on the end of the cam cover, but had decided to move it to another location next to the top engine mount.

Rail with gauge and bosch sensor fitted for fuel pressure.

Reg next to top engine mount.

I mocked up the fuel lines in ptfe and was not keen on the route, as the pipe returning off the fuel rail to the regulator was straight across the front of the plenum, and as the ptfe is basically a solid hose you cant add length in this situation so the hose was tight. I was concerned that any movement on the engine would possibly flex the hose at the an fittings causing a leak over time.

With that idea shelved i looked at other options, which all seemed to go with best location being regulator mounted on the end of the cam cover.

Fuel lines made up to suit. Not 100% keen on the fuel rail inlet fittings so might change that for a better fitting soon.

Reg and home made bracket. Fuel pressure sensor is fitted straight into the fuel pressure reg spare port.

Fuel pressure gauge has gone the journey as not keen on running them permanently, as ive had one leak in the past. They are supposed to be fitted for initial setup and removed anyway.

Note new k&n airfilter to get rid of the knackered old one, black mtc silicone water hoses and dipstick fitted. Finding a dipstick tube and modifying to fit was a ballache on its own. The block previously ran a short dipstick like 172, which was a nightmare to check oil level with the nortech inlet. I eventually settled on a modified meg 250 dipstick after buying 5 different dipsticks and tubes which are a pain to find 2nd hand.

Next job was injector fitting. The engine was previously running pico style short injectors as the inlet was designed for them. Iirc the injectors that were supplied were 780cc injector dynamics, modified bosch ev14 short, supposidly flow matched.

Pic of Injector Dynamics injector.

I sent them off to Chris @ EfiParts for a clean and check over. The news was not good, all 4 injectors were stuck after storage, which is fairly common. Main issue was once coaxed back to life was flow rates not matched and 4% out iirc. This is almost acceptable but not the best and Chris advised me not to run them just incase, as closer flow matching is preferred, especially if running the fuelling close to the edge.

I also had power goals in mind so sitting down and doing the maths it looked like they would be 90%+ injector duty as tested around 720cc so started looking at alternative injectors. There is not a lot available between 600cc to 1000cc that are decent in the short ev14 size. Options are limited to similar modified ev14 that i already have, siemens deka 630 or 875cc options. I did not want to use siemens deka, fakes are rife, and the spray pattern is like a hosepipe, they work but again i want the best drivability for a street car.

Discussed options with Chris and he suggested Bosch Motorsport 980cc injectors. They are short ev14 style so drop in with no mods, with long pintle like megane 250 injectors. The spray pattern is nice, long pintle would in theory fire the fuel closer to the valve stem and Chris advised they are great to map as work like a good oem injector at low pulsewidths, which gives good drivability and economy and can supply all the fuel i would need on high boost with a bit of headroom.

Picked up a set of flowmatched 980cc from Speeding performance parts. Price was reasonable then got stiffed with import tax thanks to brexit !

Fitted.

Took a few weeks of searching on and off to find that solution. Nothing seemed to be moving fast at that point and progress was slow.

Completed another small job at that time to chip away. Aux belt fitted, this runs from memory a renault traffic alternator mount which utilises the oem megane auxillary tensioner. Shorter 6pk 1060mm long belt and idler pulley off a toyota avensis from memory as no hpas or a/c as both gone so axuillary only runs the alternator.

Would like to change the idler for an alloy pulley at some point so if anybody can suggest a 65mm 6pk pulley to suit let me know.

More to come soon!!

 

[Brigsy]

Its April 2021, things are moving but its all slow. Weather is starting to pick up, ive got the Megane r26 Kangoo Compact running and road legal, the pressure is off slightly as shaking it down and finishing small jobs before its mapping date in May. Start chipping away at smaller jobs on the Trophy so progress is still happening.

With the fuel system built up and ignition parts in place the next logical step to start up and driving would be sorting the engine wiring harness out. However i was not prepared for the wiring physically (and probably mentally) at that point as it was a large job to do and was putting it off to be fair. So decided to concentrate on the other things that i could do easily and fairly fast to continue progress, as progress was slow at best and other areas needed attention.

The eagle eyed will have noticed no front calipers were fitted in previous pics. Infact no brakes at all apart from handbrake. Steve had been running a jamsport wilwood kit.

The wilwood calipers looked to be in decent nick but dust seals were perished. Decided to give them a full overhaul as the seal kits are cheap enough. I needed to check them over as a new set of Reyland rotors and bells were supplied with the car and did not want any sticky pistons causing issues.

This turned out to be a nice easy job. Simply applied a bit of air pressure to pop the pistons out which were free thankfully, quick clean up, soak new seals in brake fluid and use brake fluid as lube. Me and the mrs done a caliper each as she was keen to do a few small jobs to it to help speed progress up. It was a nice simple hour job on a Sunday evening.

Stripped, fully cleaned and rebuilt.

Before fitting the brakes the hubs needed to be changed. The car was still running the original 60mm hubs which were absolutely fine albeit just loosely fitted for transport to get it rolling. Steve had bought a Northloopcup roll correction kit off the group buy many years ago for a performance upgrade and not fitted it. The hubs had new genuine bearings pressed in all them years ago but needed a little clean and paint up to fit in with the rest of the setup. Also fitted new abs sensors as had no chance of removing the originals from the hubs as seized in place. Give them a good clean up, hydrate 80, flash over with zinc primer and a coat of chassis black.

The roll correction parts are an excellent bit of kit and i was certainly looking forward to seeing how good these would be on the road at this point.

More to come soon. Thanks for reading!!

 

[Brigsy]

Suspension and stoppers.

Its still April 2021 and next job on the list was to fit the Northloopcup roll correction kit. This was a simple plug and play job so was a nice easy couple of hours work.

Hubs fitted.

Offered up the custom reyland rotor and bells to the Jamsport wilwood kit. Hit a snag initially as the caliper was fouling the disc but was due to the fact i had the adaptor brackets on arse first so flipped them over and equal clearance on both sides of the disc.

Checked clearances all round just incase. Disc looks tight to the lower rose joint in the pic but in reality there is ample clearance.

Mocked up. Can remember looking at it and thinking suspension/brake p**n

Popped wheel on to check clearances, again all good, no spacers required.

Dropped on the deck for furthur checks. Note knacker tight ndo gearbox.

I then removed the discs to save any surface rust as knew deep down it would be several months until it was moving under its own steam. I also wanted to make sure the calipers were right and not causing any issues, binding etc to save potential damage to the new discs. Fitted the original jamsport discs which are modified toyota avensis iirc, Also had 2x sets of pads for the wilwoods - ferodo ds2500 & ds3000, fitted the 3000s.

Bled the brakes up next. I was expecting a fight bleeding the drained abs block so opted for cheap dot4 fluid. Brakes bled up straight away with a wicked pedal and didnt even need to cycle the abs block. That was a good thing luckily as no engine bay wiring fitted at that point.

Whilst there i bled the clutch up. Its a clio v6 pedal box, Steve always had issues with the clutch and had changed the clutch master cylinder for a different one instead of the oem v6 clutch master. I believe its mk3 clio master cylinder currently fitted, which is almost plug and play.

Clio v6 pedals, quite a nice mod over stock 182.

Had pressure bleeder hooked up and was really struggling to get a good clutch pedal. Anybody who has had the experience of bleeding a megane 2 rs clutch from fresh will know that they can be a right b*****d to bleed especially when the slave is not pre filled. As i was struggling, i got Shez to get in the car to pump the clutch. Pedal pressure started to come up and boom the f**king clutch pipe pops out of the master cylinder as not fitted correctly, pissing brake fluid all over her feet and the carpet. Thankfully brake fuid is water soluble so it was a case of massive clean up and wet vac the carpet/mats with no damage done.

Said pipe and master cylinder in situ.

With much swearing i removed the clutch master and pipe. Sounds easy i hear you say, i can confirm its a right b*****d of a job. Removed drivers seat, laid on my back almost working blind to remove the circlip holding the master cylinder to the pedal. Considered removing the dash at one point but struggled on and managed to get it out.

Once on the bench it was clear the metal feed pipe fitting that goes to the slave cylinder was not going fully home in the master cylinder so the pipe retaining clip would not fully locate in the groove on the metal pipe.

I carefully fettled the plastic master cylinder for clearance until the pipe went fully home and give the pipe a good tug and it proved itself to be secure and would not pop out. Refitted and kept my fingers crossed that no leaks, clutch bled up with what felt like a reasonable pedal but 25mm or so of dead spot before anything happened. Helix 6 paddle clutch felt awful as expected, but would need the car running to actually see if any good.

More to come. Thanks for reading!!

 

[Brigsy]

Bit of an interim update inbetween the project thread.

First wash since its been coated with gtechniq before csf. It was not really mucky, more dusty with a few bugs on the front and brake dust all over the front wheels. I didnt even need to contact wash the bodywork, BH snowfoam and rinse was all that was necessary and it came up great. Blow dry, wheels needed a bit of work but easily cleaned with BH autowheel/agitation with wheel brush.

Interior still pretty clean just needs a little hoover

I have also correctly wired up the Epas ecu. The epas had the usual box of tricks with potentiometer which was to put it bluntly, s**t.

The steering was too heavy at slow manouvres and too light at speed making the car feel nervous which did not inspire confidence on faster b roads. Even the mrs said it felt like the steering was way too light at speed and needed constant movement on motorways etc.

I was forever adjusting the potentiometer when driving, but it either felt like no assistance at all or way too much, compared to my other clio dci's with epas as standard fit which feel acceptable. Also felt like the epas was cutting out on idle and not working.

I pulled out the s**t box of tricks and wired the epas ecu up properly. I done a bit of research beforehand and @incy-spider had some great info about wiring it up correctly on this post

EPAS fault help

Hi there guys and gals ive just converted my clio 172 cup over to epas and ive came across a couple of issues but not sure what to do next as i cant find anyone that has the same issue. the first problem is that when moving the car in the garage at full assistance the system doesnt fully work...

cliosport.net

Basically the issues with the potentiometer and box, is that it fiddles the vss and rpm inputs on the ecu to allow different amounts of assistance. The setup is flawed as vss only goes down to 14kmh so you never get the true light steering required for low speed manouvers on idle as it assumes you are still moving, so combined with lairy 6 paddle clutch, gripper plated lsd, low speed driving was a bit of a chore, and with this being a road car i wanted more refinement. Also the ecu adjusts itself so there is no need to even have the adjustability, let the ecu adjust according to vss and rpm, i.e. fully integrate it to the vehicle systems.

I wired the Epas ecu vss up to the oem stereo vss speed wire. Crimp and dual wall heatshrink for a proper reliable connection.

I then added the rpm feed from the Ecumaster Black ecu. This was easy, my oem dash is wired up to the canbus feed from the ecumaster, so i had a spare rpm/tacho output free. So added a wire to the ecu plug and into the white loom plug in fusebox, using the cruise control wiring in car to join to the ecu as it is not used.

I then wired up the diagnostic line from the epas ecu to the obd for a quick test. I used ren0link to get in the ecu parameters with minimum fuss.

I found that initially the rpm was half what the dash was saying so simply increased the multiplier on the ecumaster tacho settings to 2 and the rpm then read correct to the dash.

Note can to usb stream running in the background as was doing some canbus sniffing using ecumaster usb to can module.

Tested and working great, vss and rpm both working fine.

- YouTube

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The epas works great now. Low speed assistance is good, steering super light and does not randomly cut in and out like previous. As soon as speed is up, the steering gives a weighted feel so half decent feedback. Its not as good as the oem Hpas, but more than acceptable, just feels like the dci or any modern car, no more nervous feeling at speed due to excessively light steering.

Will give it a good test on the Trophy weekender coming up this weekend.

Thanks for reading!!

 

[Brigsy]

Trophy weekender 2022 update.

I had fancied doing the Trophy weekender for years after seeing all the pics from previous years. The problem is i did not actually have a trophy to do it in until recently, so the goal was always to take number 54 to the welsh mountains. Steve had always planned to do the tour but various things had stopped it happening over the years.

Checked fluid levels and filled up with tesco 99 on Friday, had a leisurely drive down to @Moggy_rs on Friday evening. Travelled light with no tools as no room to carry anything with the fuel system and battery in the boot! Trophy was looking super clean before the journey but as per sods law, the heavens opened and it was lashing down most of the way.

Arrived in wales and noted that we had only used approx 1/4 a tank of fuel in 180 miles, the fuel economy for 980cc injectors is really good on the EfiParts map.

Morning views

Set off to the meeting point in Llangollen on the sat morning. Raining obviously and the R888R semi slicks were proving to be quite useless in these conditions, running wastegate boost pressure of 8psi - 2 & 3rd gear was pretty useless and no grip at all so was hoping for it to dry out.

Trophys arrive and a quick catch up with everybody.

Set off and followed @Tim. for the first few miles, driving part of the evo triangle. Its a shame its ruined by the average speed cameras but nice roads regardless. We had broke away from the rest of the group so arrived at the first stop early.

Shortly followed by the rest of the group.

Done the rest of the evo triangle then sadly we got split up from the group. Moggy was our tour guide in the R knowing the roads well and set the pace, Leisurely as this was a sightseer, yet spirited in places when the conditions were right. With changing conditions we actually got a dry spell and the roads were quiet in places so could enjoy the awesome roads without any risk or drama.

Not sure on the roads but we had a good clear run on some great roads when away from the villages and had a Yaris Gr and a megane 275 tag on the back of us for a few miles.

Stopped to stretch legs and check the views out for a few minutes.

Stopped for dinner with great views.

Managed to rejoin the group by chance spotting everybody parked up.

Went off on the afternoon run enjoying more roads. Super tight in places!!

 

[Brigsy]

Awesome views.

Had a great time and really enjoyed it noting almost 270miles and 3/4 of a tank of fuel used on the Sat. Ticked over 45k on the way back to Moggys.

This was largely a shakedown for the trophy as ive not really used it in anger too much so was hoping there would not be any little issues, but had nothing luckily. Good job as no phone reception in the mountains and no tools!!

Can report it all works good. Engine wise, i had the ecu data on display on my phone using tunerview and the coolant temps were mid 80s with oil temps low to mid 90s so that was bang on.

The handling felt excellent. The bilstein b14, roll correction kit and gripper diff feel awesome, turn in is positive and sharp. Ride is good and not crash bang like some coilover setups so a good compromise for b road driving. Steering felt great with the correctly wired up epas giving decent weight and feedback.

I mostly kept it in 4th gear on the more spirited parts using the turbo mid range torque only changing into lower gears for tighter bends which made driving quite easy. The wilwood 4 pot front calipers with ds1:11 pads and reyland disc combo worked excellent as expected no fade, scrubbing off speed easily.

Only downside to it is the Helix 6 paddle clutch nearly wearing my knee out, but i have plans to sort that very soon.

Returned home over 600 miles done on the Sunday afternoon. Massive thanks again to Moggy for the hospitality and being our host fo the weekend, proper enjoyed it.

Thanks for reading!!

 

[Brigsy]

Back to the project post.

Last post was around April 2021 and the suspension and brakes were completed, so at a guess this was late April / early May.

Next job on the list was to sort some minor paintwork to the front jacking points. The sill lip had been jacked up incorrectly cracking the paint in the past.

I stripped off all the panels up front and the sideskirts. No hidden nasties under the sideskirts all good and no rust.

Sill lip dollied straight, cleaned back to bare metal. Used Bilt Hamber deox gel to make sure any sign of slight corrosion was gone.

I then applied BH Hydrate 80 over the bare metal, followed by BH epoxy mastic in black. I went over the bare primered area on the end of the sill for extra protection as all hidden behind the wing.

I then went over the epoxy mastic with some buzzweld chassis black the full length of the sill lip for more protection as the original paint is very thin, and so it looked uniform and all the same colour. I was considering doing this capscium red but its not seen from the top so black is ok.

I then give it a liberal coating of BH dynax uc all over the sill lip inside and out, done the jacking points, inner arches, behind arch liners etc for long term protection. Nice matt finish to it once cured.

Whilst looking at rust protection i decided to take the rear doorcards off and check the inner sills and inner rear arches as a known rust spot now the clios are getting older. This has been garaged for 90% of its life so was not too worried but always worth doing.

Passenger side looking mint

BH dynax ub to protect it.

Drivers side again great condition

Liberal application of BH dynax ub

Took roughly a week to do all of this but should see the car last a long time.

I knew deep down that the wiring needed to be done next as i had done all the quick wins so needed to get prepared for the task ahead.

More to come. Thanks for reading!!

 

[Brigsy]

Lets start filling in some more blanks.

April - November 2021.

Not a lot happened in this period to be fair! Wiring was needed and i was still putting it off. Was also doing a load of work to the Kangoo.

November/December 2021.

Promised the mrs that id get it fired up before the new year. Started bolting more parts on and making custom boost hoses, fitted all the coolant hoses. They mostly fitted but needed cutting and carefully routing to avoid any chafing and heat.

Boost hoses mocked up. Old ones did not fit/was not happy with fitment. Its knacker tight and every mm counts. Note X marked for AIT sensor placement. Used murrayconstant tension clamps opposed to normal jubilees, all pipes swaged as i definitely was not removing bumper to be refixing popped off hoses.

Intercooler mocked up. Custom design, 70mm thick bar and plate garrett core rated to 500hp.

Heater hoses were a pig to route to stop any chafing. Simple jobs like this were taking me hours to get right, i had to spend the time so it could be nice and reliable.

Ordered some fresh standard plates to replace the pressed ones that were fitted. Had to get a pic with the plate off, looking clean.

I started reckoning up a sensor list and what plugs id need.

Had the old plugs for reference. Problem was is i didnt want loads of joints so was looking for new plugs or at least new pins. Spent hours looking for new ones so below pics to identify, might help somebody in the future.

Delphi sicma 2pin for megane crank sensor

Delphi sicma 3 pin for early 197 cam sensor.

Looked at the white connector of doom in the engine bay fusebox. Can remember thinking f**k that at the time!!

The question is did i make the start up deadline? Did i shite.

Thanks for reading and more to come!!

 

[Brigsy]

Sorry for the lack of updates, will do some more over xmas and get this up to speed.

With the current variations of temp in the garage condensation had accumulated on the cam cover. The xcp rust blocker has kept it well protected, wiped all the bare alloy down and give it another coating to keep it right.

Roll on spring so can get it back out.

 

[Brigsy]

Sorry for the lack of updates on the build as not got round to it yet, but promise i will soon.

April 2023 update

Not touched the trophy since September last year. Ive been cranking the engine over occasionally by hand just incase instead of starting it up, as not keen on starting engines up without using them as the egts never get high enough without driving, and oil never gets properly up to temp.

Anyway topped up battery a few weeks ago and connected it and it fired straight up no dramas. I was going to take it for a shot round the block but checked mot and had just expired then it started pissing down so left it at that.

Went down my local garage yesterday to book it in for mot and they had a load of spots today so booked it in.

Was looking rather barn find so give it a snowfoam and rinse.

GTechniq coating still doing the business.

Beadage.

Quick blow dry, no contact at all.

No issues under the bonnet. Done the usual leak checks after a small layup, all good.

Interior could do with a little spruce up but ran out of time on my 'dinner hour' when working from home.

Anyway battery back on, fired straight up. Took the long way round for mot to warm it up fully. Passed no dramas mot tester always says its the cleanest clio 2 hes ever seen.

Stuck some fresh tesco 99 in on the way back as it was almost on reserve. Everything was good on the ecumaster live data on display and i had an epic 1999 essential mix by Scott Bond playing on the alpine. Seemed rude not to enjoy it a little longer, so went the long way back home via a nice few miles of dual carriageway to stretch its legs a little.

Kept boost pressure on wastegate 8psi/276hp as i wanted to monitor afr and other essentials, and it felt absolutely rapid as ive not driven anything fast for ages. The engine revs willingly and with the 197 vvt giving full scope of advance the turbo is all in around 3800 rpm, and it smoothly puts the power down.

The car drives so tight and feels absolutely planted. The gripper diff is agressive and just lays the power in exiting roundabouts.

i sometimes get asked why i have all these cars sat about 90% of the time and not on the road over winter. The answer is always the same, even if i use them once a year it absolutely relights the flame. It brought a massive grin to my face on a dull day and im absolutely dying from the worst man flu so made a shitty day good.

Anyway at that point teams was ringing off the hook on my workphone so had to cut the fun a little short and get back to work before they missed me

So now mot is done, the work can commence, as per every other old renault it has a small list of jobs, or improvements to be done very soon.

Thanks for reading!!

 

[NickReilly063]

Looking awesome Jon as usual - keep the updates coming and I’ll look forward to seeing it again in the flesh.

 

[NickReilly063]

I had mine out for a polish last weekend too - just waiting for the weather to change -

There having a Pistonheads morning at the Motorist early April if you fancy it and the weather is ok - give them some stick about coming second in the poll for best hot hatch of the last 25yrs.