Clio 188 ph1 438's
Well as I’ve had the clio for a couple of years now I thought its about time I did a project thread as I’ve enjoyed reading everyone elses.
First a bit of car history, my first car (and best) was a Fiat Uno with a 1L engine that gave me my independence.
My mate and I always modified our cars from day one and the Uno was no exception so on went the lowering springs and drilled the air box, and it actually did handle quite well for a shed.
Then moved on to a 205 GTI 1.6, induction kit, Janspeed back box, but was deadly around corners so got shut pretty soon after.
Cavalier SRI (the round shape) with the 2L 16v red top engine, decat, induction kit, lowered, uprated disc and pads, superchip, 190bhp at the fly, pretty nippy.
(2003 I was 23) I then got a company van to drive round in so decided I needed a weekend car, so went down to Bristol and purchased a Toyota Celica GT4, really loved this. Induction kit, decat, 3” custom straight through exhaust, GReddy Turbo controller, 296Bhp did a steady 12.5 seconds on the ¼ mile –
I then got wed in 2005 so the GT4 had to go to pay for the honeymoon etc.
Then came the Mondeo ST TDCI which I decat’d, lowered, foam filter, remap to 188bhp and a lot of talks but can’t remember –
I then had an Astra DTI 2L (100Bhp) that I chipped for my runs back and forth to London, then had another company van, and then got another Astra but a 2005 one which I lowered, chipped (190+bhp) decat’d, uprated brakes and took on a couple of track days down at Blyton where it showed up a few cars –
That got put on the back of a low loader and karted off for parts by someone (nicked) so decided I wouldn't buy any more expensive cars especially when the insurance wouldn't pay market value for it.
This then brings me to the Clio Ph1 172 that I purchased from a member but as I was in a rush I didn't have time to look around at others and when I got this home I found it was a bit of a dog mechanically –
I didn’t like the way it felt at anything above 50mph, there was vibrations coming from the front wheels, so got them re-balanced but this didn’t make much difference, so had the wheels off and found all but one to be buckled, this meant a new set of alloys, so managed to pick some up cheap with the idea of getting some better ones later on but they’re still on it to this day –
I then bought a load of suspension parts, new shocks all round, new wishbones and some camber bolts so as to get it tracked up right. Whilst replacing all that lot I found it had some Eibach Prolines sitting on the old shocks which I of course re-used.
I then decided I wanted to take her on the track so got some DS2500 pads and EBC disks (which are crap by the way) some more alloys with some Fedral 595R’s (got them cheap) and went off to Blyton again for a test –
It performed okay but wasn’t very happy with the turn in and got quite a bit of understeer then lift of oversteer (which wasn’t too bad) but there was work to do.
I then bought a Ktec stealth supersport which was way too loud so eventually found a centre section with a silencer in it and now sounds great. This led to another issue with the rear exhaust hanger, so replaced that with a solid rubber but this then led to a lot of knocking under the car where the manifold seemed to be fouling the underneath so I fitted some powerflex bushes to my dog bone that helped, whilst I was at it I also replaced the anti roll bar bushes. I then got some vibratech engine mounts, which I fitted at the same time as the aircon deletion kit –
In progress! Managed to get it back together, but the bloody thing wouldn’t start, didn’t have power going to the fuel pump, eventually found the big red isolation button which I reset and all was well again.
Me dad and I then decided on going to Cadwell for a blast so I added about 2.5 deg of camber to the front and fitted some 1 deg shims to the back, I got hold of some 25mm spacers for the front and 12mm for the back, this combination made the car handle much better and we had a great time –
[video]https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=3892270079440[/video]
try to ignore the commentary if you watch that.
we also went to a low noise Croft day which was good fun but there weren’t the nice cars to have a play with like at Cadwell, probably because of the noise restrictions.
We get really bad snow over these parts (Barnsley) so I decided on some old wheels with some snow tyres someone was selling on the forum, they worked out really well and probably saved me a couple of time from getting stuck.
I also found a decent engine for sale so promptly bagged that before Christmas for my plans next year.
That then leads me to this year (2013), with the new engine in the garage –
I set to and dismantled it from the subframe etc that it was delivered on and removed the cam cover so as to fit my new camshafts, some CatCam 438’s which I’d read so much about on the forum –
So popped them in and then resealed it and cleaned the block and cover so as to pop a bit of high temp paint on it and tidy it up a bit –
Then decided whilst I was replacing the sump gasket I might as well put some ARP Conrod bolt in there to make it a bit more reliable –
The shells looked okay too –
Looking a bit better now –
Timed it all back up with the new belt but while the inlets were off I decided to have a go at a bit of porting on the inlet manifolds -
Left not done, right finished (lower inlet)
Finished –
Top inlet manifold was done the same and painted ready to go back on –
Which is still waiting to go back on.
Then came D-day, got the engine bay stripped back, engine on the lift (me dad giving me a hand) –
Out it came and in went the 182 exhaust manifold I’d got from the forum –
New engine in –
Then just had to find were everything went again, a couple of hiccups with the wrong route taken for some fluid pipes meant it been drained again, the hardest part was getting it all lined up with the engine mounts and then with the gear linkage arm, which I found had been bent up, probably during transport. So managed to bend that back into place and this is how it is at the moment –
I found some old pipe work from the induction kit that I had on the astra so made myself a ktec style intake. While the engine was out I also fitted some solid top mounts from cooksport –
Which although making it a bit more noisy and knocky up front the turn in with the extra caster is a lot better and should make a good improvement when I’m next at Cadwell on the 6[SUP]th[/SUP] July all been well.
So the cars going in for its MOT this Saturday and then hopefully I’ll drop it straight round to Paul at RS tuning in Leeds (fingers crossed) for mapping.
I've then to take the bloody engine out again as the gearbox isn't as expected and the synchro seems to have gone on 3rd and 4th so not too happy about that.
First a bit of car history, my first car (and best) was a Fiat Uno with a 1L engine that gave me my independence.
My mate and I always modified our cars from day one and the Uno was no exception so on went the lowering springs and drilled the air box, and it actually did handle quite well for a shed.
Then moved on to a 205 GTI 1.6, induction kit, Janspeed back box, but was deadly around corners so got shut pretty soon after.
Cavalier SRI (the round shape) with the 2L 16v red top engine, decat, induction kit, lowered, uprated disc and pads, superchip, 190bhp at the fly, pretty nippy.
(2003 I was 23) I then got a company van to drive round in so decided I needed a weekend car, so went down to Bristol and purchased a Toyota Celica GT4, really loved this. Induction kit, decat, 3” custom straight through exhaust, GReddy Turbo controller, 296Bhp did a steady 12.5 seconds on the ¼ mile –
I then got wed in 2005 so the GT4 had to go to pay for the honeymoon etc.
Then came the Mondeo ST TDCI which I decat’d, lowered, foam filter, remap to 188bhp and a lot of talks but can’t remember –
I then had an Astra DTI 2L (100Bhp) that I chipped for my runs back and forth to London, then had another company van, and then got another Astra but a 2005 one which I lowered, chipped (190+bhp) decat’d, uprated brakes and took on a couple of track days down at Blyton where it showed up a few cars –
That got put on the back of a low loader and karted off for parts by someone (nicked) so decided I wouldn't buy any more expensive cars especially when the insurance wouldn't pay market value for it.
This then brings me to the Clio Ph1 172 that I purchased from a member but as I was in a rush I didn't have time to look around at others and when I got this home I found it was a bit of a dog mechanically –
I didn’t like the way it felt at anything above 50mph, there was vibrations coming from the front wheels, so got them re-balanced but this didn’t make much difference, so had the wheels off and found all but one to be buckled, this meant a new set of alloys, so managed to pick some up cheap with the idea of getting some better ones later on but they’re still on it to this day –
I then bought a load of suspension parts, new shocks all round, new wishbones and some camber bolts so as to get it tracked up right. Whilst replacing all that lot I found it had some Eibach Prolines sitting on the old shocks which I of course re-used.
I then decided I wanted to take her on the track so got some DS2500 pads and EBC disks (which are crap by the way) some more alloys with some Fedral 595R’s (got them cheap) and went off to Blyton again for a test –
It performed okay but wasn’t very happy with the turn in and got quite a bit of understeer then lift of oversteer (which wasn’t too bad) but there was work to do.
I then bought a Ktec stealth supersport which was way too loud so eventually found a centre section with a silencer in it and now sounds great. This led to another issue with the rear exhaust hanger, so replaced that with a solid rubber but this then led to a lot of knocking under the car where the manifold seemed to be fouling the underneath so I fitted some powerflex bushes to my dog bone that helped, whilst I was at it I also replaced the anti roll bar bushes. I then got some vibratech engine mounts, which I fitted at the same time as the aircon deletion kit –
In progress! Managed to get it back together, but the bloody thing wouldn’t start, didn’t have power going to the fuel pump, eventually found the big red isolation button which I reset and all was well again.
Me dad and I then decided on going to Cadwell for a blast so I added about 2.5 deg of camber to the front and fitted some 1 deg shims to the back, I got hold of some 25mm spacers for the front and 12mm for the back, this combination made the car handle much better and we had a great time –
[video]https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=3892270079440[/video]
try to ignore the commentary if you watch that.
we also went to a low noise Croft day which was good fun but there weren’t the nice cars to have a play with like at Cadwell, probably because of the noise restrictions.
We get really bad snow over these parts (Barnsley) so I decided on some old wheels with some snow tyres someone was selling on the forum, they worked out really well and probably saved me a couple of time from getting stuck.
I also found a decent engine for sale so promptly bagged that before Christmas for my plans next year.
That then leads me to this year (2013), with the new engine in the garage –
I set to and dismantled it from the subframe etc that it was delivered on and removed the cam cover so as to fit my new camshafts, some CatCam 438’s which I’d read so much about on the forum –
So popped them in and then resealed it and cleaned the block and cover so as to pop a bit of high temp paint on it and tidy it up a bit –
Then decided whilst I was replacing the sump gasket I might as well put some ARP Conrod bolt in there to make it a bit more reliable –
The shells looked okay too –
Looking a bit better now –
Timed it all back up with the new belt but while the inlets were off I decided to have a go at a bit of porting on the inlet manifolds -
Left not done, right finished (lower inlet)
Finished –
Top inlet manifold was done the same and painted ready to go back on –
Which is still waiting to go back on.
Then came D-day, got the engine bay stripped back, engine on the lift (me dad giving me a hand) –
Out it came and in went the 182 exhaust manifold I’d got from the forum –
New engine in –
Then just had to find were everything went again, a couple of hiccups with the wrong route taken for some fluid pipes meant it been drained again, the hardest part was getting it all lined up with the engine mounts and then with the gear linkage arm, which I found had been bent up, probably during transport. So managed to bend that back into place and this is how it is at the moment –
I found some old pipe work from the induction kit that I had on the astra so made myself a ktec style intake. While the engine was out I also fitted some solid top mounts from cooksport –
Which although making it a bit more noisy and knocky up front the turn in with the extra caster is a lot better and should make a good improvement when I’m next at Cadwell on the 6[SUP]th[/SUP] July all been well.
So the cars going in for its MOT this Saturday and then hopefully I’ll drop it straight round to Paul at RS tuning in Leeds (fingers crossed) for mapping.
I've then to take the bloody engine out again as the gearbox isn't as expected and the synchro seems to have gone on 3rd and 4th so not too happy about that.
Last edited:
, I can't edit my first post now to change the links so here they all are in my account - 
