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The trials & tribulations of racing a Clio
- Thread starter robzracing
- Start date
robzracing
ClioSport Club Member
Was definitely a fun race! Not sure on the fueling issue yet. Possibly fuel vapourisation due to the heat, or possibly more crap in the system. I've got a Walboro uprated lift pump to fit in the tank which I'll do in the next couple of weeks in the run up to Donington on the 21st. Someone has also suggested checking the mesh filter on the fuel regulator which is worth a look. We'll see.
robzracing
ClioSport Club Member
More to come soon!
robzracing
ClioSport Club Member
No GoPros for the Brands Hatch race. They hate the heat! So I cobbled together the VBox footage. If you can stomach the poor quality the racing gets more interesting about 15 minutes in.
colesy
ClioSport Club Member
172 182 197 E61 530D
That’s a watch for when I get to work 😎
robzracing
ClioSport Club Member
Messing around with AI today. Don't look too closely!
robzracing
ClioSport Club Member
Preparations for Donington 2 hour race started this week starting with retrieving the car from its new storage space. A mate of mine has just had a storage unit built for his car collection so I had to ask if he might have room for one more! A Clio takes up very little space after all! And in return I offered to keep an eye on things for him while he's not around. (he spends time between London and Melbourne) He's started filling it already and there's more to come!
Once back at its more humble home I started with the easy stuff.
Not happy with the new wheel bearing which has a small amount of movement in it, the hub is off again to have another bearing pressed in. this time a better quality SNR one.
I also collected 2 wheels from the powder coaters one from the crash at the end of 2024 that will stay as a spare and the other a new one that replaced it at the end of 2024 but was only available in Bronze at the time so had had a rattle can finish until now.
Tyre will be fitted this week too.
After this I turned my attention to the fuel system yet again, starting with the filter which after stripping (yet again) proved to be clean as a whistle. So then it was on to the tank.
The symptoms at the end of the Brands race was fuel starvation, so the best result here would have been a near empty tank and we could chalk it down to human error. Alas, still plenty of fuel in the tank!
So, the lift pump came out again and that's where things started going to s**t.
All my own doing mind. I had a Walboro uprated pump sitting on the shelf so decided to swap this out with the existing one incase the pump was on its way out.
Unfortunately though it's not so easy to swap these pumps. the Walboro needs some adaption to the housing to fit and the flexi hose needs to be attached. But this did not come off the exisiting unit without a fight. In fact, it wouldn't come off at all without cutting it! And that left me wthout a hose. The Walboro comes with a small piece of rubber hose in the kit but it is no where near flexible enough. I had to can the whole idea and pulled all my spare pumps out to try and find a good one. It was getting messy.
None of the pumps are the same with one probably from a phase 1 with an integrated regulator and the other without a fuel return line but had been adapted. (this was the one in the car when i bought it back in 2013) So all I could do for now was try one of these.
After testing the pumps which seemed to work I reassembled everything and tried it. Nothing! I wanted to run the lift pump without the high pressure pump so i could empty the tank, but the one I put in didn't seem to have the strength to pump anything.
So in the true spirit of, "F***k it, I've only got a week and I really can't be doing with this" the parts cannon was wheeled out. New lift pump ordered and also some new flexible hose to try again with the Walboro. I have to wait for these to arrive before tackling it again.
So, with that headach shelved I moved on to some cosmetics.
the front bumper was looking a little tired and the rubber lip has been bothering me for a while, so recently I ordered some 50mm lawn edging which I've seen used before to replace the lip and also add a little more protection to the oil cooler which sits slightly lower than the bumper.
I had to tidy the chipped black strip first by wrapping it.
We'll see how long this lasts!
And finally, while I had the vinyl out, I added the valve markers back on the refurbished wheels.
more to come in the week as we prepare for a tricky weekend.
Once back at its more humble home I started with the easy stuff.
Not happy with the new wheel bearing which has a small amount of movement in it, the hub is off again to have another bearing pressed in. this time a better quality SNR one.
I also collected 2 wheels from the powder coaters one from the crash at the end of 2024 that will stay as a spare and the other a new one that replaced it at the end of 2024 but was only available in Bronze at the time so had had a rattle can finish until now.
Tyre will be fitted this week too.
After this I turned my attention to the fuel system yet again, starting with the filter which after stripping (yet again) proved to be clean as a whistle. So then it was on to the tank.
The symptoms at the end of the Brands race was fuel starvation, so the best result here would have been a near empty tank and we could chalk it down to human error. Alas, still plenty of fuel in the tank!
So, the lift pump came out again and that's where things started going to s**t.
All my own doing mind. I had a Walboro uprated pump sitting on the shelf so decided to swap this out with the existing one incase the pump was on its way out.
Unfortunately though it's not so easy to swap these pumps. the Walboro needs some adaption to the housing to fit and the flexi hose needs to be attached. But this did not come off the exisiting unit without a fight. In fact, it wouldn't come off at all without cutting it! And that left me wthout a hose. The Walboro comes with a small piece of rubber hose in the kit but it is no where near flexible enough. I had to can the whole idea and pulled all my spare pumps out to try and find a good one. It was getting messy.
None of the pumps are the same with one probably from a phase 1 with an integrated regulator and the other without a fuel return line but had been adapted. (this was the one in the car when i bought it back in 2013) So all I could do for now was try one of these.
After testing the pumps which seemed to work I reassembled everything and tried it. Nothing! I wanted to run the lift pump without the high pressure pump so i could empty the tank, but the one I put in didn't seem to have the strength to pump anything.
So in the true spirit of, "F***k it, I've only got a week and I really can't be doing with this" the parts cannon was wheeled out. New lift pump ordered and also some new flexible hose to try again with the Walboro. I have to wait for these to arrive before tackling it again.
So, with that headach shelved I moved on to some cosmetics.
the front bumper was looking a little tired and the rubber lip has been bothering me for a while, so recently I ordered some 50mm lawn edging which I've seen used before to replace the lip and also add a little more protection to the oil cooler which sits slightly lower than the bumper.
I had to tidy the chipped black strip first by wrapping it.
We'll see how long this lasts!
And finally, while I had the vinyl out, I added the valve markers back on the refurbished wheels.
more to come in the week as we prepare for a tricky weekend.
