April 2011 (Update)
And so the story continues... picking up on the woes of the last few weeks. Grab your comfy slippers and a cocoa as this might take a while! :smiley:
Following on from the problems detailed in my last big update, I took my Trophy back into TDF to have the problems fixed - i.e. the lack of compression and resulting low power output. Arriving early on a Wednesday morning I left the car in their capable hands and kindly got picked up by my uncle who lived nearby. Due to the increasing costs and distances travelling between South Wales and TDF I had decided to spend 3 days staying with my relatives as it worked out cheaper than hotel, hiring a car or making several train journeys. It was agreed that I'd pop back on the Friday evening and pick up the Trophy.
During the few days that the car was with TDF, it became apparent that things were a bit of a mess. Matt kept me updated on what was happening and what they had found and the bad news was that - basically - the head was in a heck of a state. I do believe Matt even mentioned "fubar'd" at one point! It was no wonder that the car was significantly down on power and that there were issues with the compression; valves were not seating correctly among other things. It wasn't going to be cheap to fix but the Trophy is a keeper and to have it back running as it should be was going to be worth the expense.
Even so, If I'm being completely honest, I was left feeling very, very disappointed that K-Tec hadn't highlighted the fact that my car was so low on power when I had the ITB conversion carried out. They kept me up to date with what was happening and how they needed to replace the auxiliary belt, etc. but there was not a single mention that my car was running low on power - i.e. pulling only in the 150's bhp. (Bear in mind this was pulling in the 150's and it was mildly modified with matched inlets, exhaust, PTFE gaskets, performance filter and an earlier K-Tec remap). My disappointment was deepened further when it became obvious that a pressure test had not been performed (despite the low reading) and work had gone ahead with the conversion regardless. If I had been aware of this issue I would not have gone ahead with the ITB's and opted to get the problems fixed first, and saved up for the ITB's at a later date. Sadly it was too late for that. When I picked up the car a week later I was presented with the dyno graphs... and perhaps I didn't manage to hide my disappointment as well as I thought? I was told that the K-Tec rollers ran "extremely conservatively" hence the low result. Having just spent a significant amount of money I expected my ITB'd Trophy to be running more than a few bhp above what a stock ClioSport 182 runs! It's a shame as I've not had issue with K-Tec in the past but this has really put me off and I won't be going back.
Getting back on track (no pun intended), Friday arrived and I spoke with Matt regarding the progress on the head and associated work. It sadly became apparent that there was no way it would be ready for me to drive home Friday evening. In fact, a couple or three extra days were needed to get things fixed properly, put back together and tested / calibrated. That left me with a small dilemma as I was now stuck in Cambridgeshire with no means of transport and I had to be back home that night as I had friends staying at my gaff in South Wales. On top of that, I also had to get back as the next day was Castle Combe's Spring Action Day and I was due to be there with my own Club, Rebel Motorsport Club. At that point a knight in shining armour descended and offered a solution to my dilemma (it was actually Matt but let's not ruin the illusion...) What can I say? Matt very generously offered me his stripped out 172 Cup for the weekend! I was extremely chuffed because otherwise I would have been completely up poop creek without a propulsion device. (Please forgive all my Matt 'brown-nosing' but he's been an absolute star throughout!)
I made it safely home late that Friday night (as did the 172 Cup!) and I was greeted by my good friends upon arrival. A few hours later and we were waking up and making our way to Castle Combe for the Spring Performance Car Action Day. Without a doubt I had to admire the loan 172 - it was sooooo smooth to drive; the smoothest Clio I've driven by far. Arriving at the venue I parked it up on our Club stand (no, I did NOT track it!) and you may well have seen it if you attended the event.
After a good day at Combe in scorchio sunshine I helped clear and pack up our Club stand and waited until everybody had said goodbye and safely left the venue. Once I was happy that all was well I got into Matt's 172 and began the journey home. And that's when things went wrong. Having just pulled out onto the A46 near the Cross Hands (I'm sure many folks know it) the car gave a judder out of the blue. I immediately pulled off onto a nearby sideroad and looked to pull into a gap at the road side. However, I didn't make it; the car gave a massive judder and came to an abrupt stop. The clutch seemed to work but it was apparently stuck in gear. Even with the gear shift in neutral it would not roll... As a result, it was a nightmare trying to singlehandedly push the car to the side of the road whilst fully depressing the clutch pedal. Good job it's a relatively light car and stripped out otherwise I fear the task would have been all the more difficult.
Naturally I felt absolutely sick, almost to the point of losing my Combe burgers on the grass verge. Matt had been kind enough to let me borrow his car and now here I was with his broken chariot. To make matters worse, I was unable to get in touch with Matt to tell him the news and to profusely offer my sincere apologies. Unable to reach Matt, I called my girlfriend to tell her I'd be late and then decided it would be a good idea to call the AA before my mobile phone completely ran out of battery. Luckily I only had to wait about an hour and a half and I was collected by a local recovery service (cheers Clive!) who ferried me and the 172 back to my pad in Wales. (Incidentally, Clive had just been dealing with the Tesla that had been at Combe and had ended up nestling on it's roof a short time after leaving the venue... oops...) The good news was that Clive also ran a recovery business in his own time and he kindly offered to ferry me and the car back to TDF a couple of days later on the Monday. A price was agreed and all I had to do was arrange the time off work and contact Matt to let him know what had happened. I finally contacted him Sunday evening and he was amazingly calm about it. I agreed to get the car recovered back to him the next day (Monday, with me tagging along for the ride) and to have my Trophy taken back on the same truck - might as well save the fuel seeing as I was paying for the recovery anyway!
Monday arrived and I was collected along with the 172...
We made good time and arrived at TDF in the early afternoon. My trophy was in the final stages of being put back together and was due on the dyno later in the evening. I hung around and watched a few different cars on the dyno and was grinning from ear-to-ear when the Trophy made it's way over from the workshop. It sounded a LOT different. It was actually sharper, harsher and more like ITB's should be. Within moments it was on the dyno and Matt began to do his stuff.
The good news is that the Trophy pulled as-near-as-dammit 200bhp on the dyno with a healthy mid-160's lbft. Much, much better. And the sound... I can't get over the difference in sound between the time it went in and what I was now hearing. Loved it! But... things then went a bit wrong again. (Have you noticed a recurring theme here? LOL!) Shortly after the above video was taken, Matt was performing a few mid-range tests to check out the mapping and calibration when oil began to leak onto the dyno. (BTM Fred was in attendance at this point and I must apologise for not saying hello properly as I never twigged who it was until afterwards... sorry mate!)
The guys rolled the Trophy out and took a look... A few minutes later... dagnabbit, the cam seals had failed. It was now getting late on Monday night, my Trophy was not going to be ready and I had to again get back to Wales for work the next day. It was lucky that the recovery driver had hung around all day so I jumped in with him and he gave me a lift home. Due to work and personal commitments it would be the following Sunday before I would be able to pick it up... I was still feeling pretty cut-up about Matt's broken car but he was still calm about; despite informing me that it looked like it was the diff that had gone pop. Fair enough, it was one of those things but I still felt bad.
Eventually, Sunday arrived (last Sunday) and my girlfriend very kindly offered to drive me over to TDF to collect the car. Well, I say "drive me over" but I actually drove over myself in her car. Any excuse to get behind the wheel of her Type-R; and what a cracking car it is, too. Mmm, that gear shift is sweet. And so refined compared to the Trophy. Anyways... Matt had been busy trackside at Silverstone with various cars so we agreed to turn up in the early evening to collect it. Upon arrival the Trophy was sat waiting for me, idling over with a nice little burble thing going on. Paula and I spent a bit of time chatting with Matt (including a few potential future upgrade options for the Trophy) before starting the long journey home - and this time with my Trophy. It had been a long time coming. And was it worth it the wait...?
...definitely! The drive back was "fun, entertaining and interesting" and the Trophy was pulling like a train compared to what I was used to. Smoother, significantly more powerful, harder-edged sound, improved throttle response, the odd pop and bang... beautiful. I had to take a few photos when I got back home. Ooh - clean and shiny!
At the time of writing (as seen in the pics above) I am still running the crappy and self-destroying K-Tec filter. It is making a hell of a mess and I'm reluctant to run the car too much until I get a replacement sorted. The good news is that Matt has ordered me an ITG solution and has machined me a custom backplate to fit against. No more disintegrating foam filter and no more filter impeding the trumpets when the foam bumpers get compressed under heavy load... I can't wait to get the new one on to be honest.
So - briefly - what was done?
- Cylinder head - and reconditioning of components
- Acid bath dip
- New valve guides
- All valve seats recut
- Head skim
- Cylinder head pressure test
- New pulleys, belts, tensioner and seals
- Replacement of coolant (Motul Inugel)
- Dyno runs (calibration / mapping)
- Replacement custom ITG filter (will be arriving soon)
- Custom machined backplate for filter (will be arriving soon)
Anything else?
- Recovery of Matt's 172 Cup :smiley:
I can't thank Matt and the guys at TDF enough. They were extremely busy and bent over backwards to try and get the Trophy back to me as soon as they could. Obviously this was delayed somewhat by the sequence of unfortunate events and the fact that the head was in a bad way - but I am grateful and appreciate their efforts and top-notch work. It's fair to say that they have a new fan. It's good to know that there are at least one or two reputable folks / companies out there who you can still trust with your pride and joy.
I think I'll leave it there for now - thanks for reading. :smiley:
