Clio GTT engine conversion info

Converting a Mk1 Clio to a 1.4 GT Turbo
contributed by James Greig

Introduction

This conversion is aimed at Clio owners that have a good knowledge of cars or have a decent mechanically minded friend. This article may miss some aspects of the conversion out and obviously each conversion is different depending on the person doing it. I have successfully carried out this conversion myself along with the help of a mate or two and this forum.

If you're a Clio owner just out to beat some guys in a nova then I really wouldn't recommend this conversion. This is only for those who are serious about their Clio and enjoy the GT Turbo engines. The GT Turbo engines are certainly not as reliable as the Clio engines that come with single-point and multi-point injection, but with looking after and TLC they can be.

If you don't fancy doing the conversion yourself then I strongly suggest checking out Torsion Tuning, you can find them in the contacts section on this site. From what i hear their work is outstanding and give a great service along with their extensive knowledge of this conversion.

The car I used was a Mark 1 Phase 1 1993 Renault Clio 1.4 RT. The engine I replaced her with is a Renault 5 1.4 GT Turbo engine (Phase 2/1988 C1J with water cooled turbo, Solex D16 Carb).

Pictures to accompany this article are available here.

What is needed?

A car to put the engine in might help. I haven't tried the conversion in a wider 16v Mark 1 clio but i should imagine the same applies.

1.4 GT Turbo engine
Renault 5 GT Turbo Radiator
Renault 5 GT Turbo Intercooler
Renault 5 GT Turbo crosspipe (exhaust)
Renault 5 GT Turbo or Standard 5 down pipe (exhaust)
Renix RE209 AEI (Coil & Vacuum module) Found on 5 GT Turbos
Renault 5 GT Turbo water pipes
An induction kit that will fit the GT Turbo ( i wasn't able to fit the standard filter in at time of writing this)
Renault Clio or 5 GT Turbo expansion (water) tank
Renault Clio and 5 GT Turbo Fuel pump relay with plug
Renault 5 GT Turbo engine mounts
Renault 5 GT Turbo Fuel Pressure Regulator
Either the Clio Clocks with a Clio gearbox OR GT Turbo gearbox, GT Turbo Clocks and GT Turbo electronic speedo cable

Making room

First you'll need to remove the current engine from the car, the easiest way is to support the engine from above and unbolt the engine mounts accordingly (driver's side top, gearbox passenger side and back center mount). Then lift the engine out from above. The entire wiring loom in the engine bay will need removing from the ecu to the brown and white plugs. Remove the radiator and water system.

Leave the throttle cable, brake servo vacuum pipe and clutch cable in place.

As for the ABS and the Power steering, it’s a good idea to dump both of these as there isn’t a lot of room in the bay for them. Also, if you’re going for a car with decent power you’ll probably do better without them anyway. However, my car came with neither so sadly I have no info on keeping them.

Gearbox and Driveshafts

This area is up to the owner, there has been much debate about this. Are clio RT shafts able to take the stress of the GT Turbo torque? Is the RT gearbox up to the job?
If you choose to use a Clio gearbox you will need to use clio driveshafts and the clio clocks.
If you use the GT Turbo gearbox you can use either GT Turbo shafts or clio shafts (providing you swap the inner CV's accordingly for bearing size), however you will need to use the 5 GT Turbo clocks as the 5 GT Turbo gearbox has an electronic speedo drive. Also when I used the GT Turbo gearbox I had to take part of the gear linkage off the Clio gearbox so that I could hook it all up.

If you’re using a Clio 16v then I suggest you keep the Clio 16v gearbox and driveshafts as they are more than up to the job.

Fitting the engine

Lucky for Clio owners the subframe in the Clio is similar to the GT Turbo as the holes for the 5 engines are already in the subframe (minus the gearbox mount). The GT Turbo engine has 3 engine mounts that can be used in the clio, these are the gearbox mount at the front of the gearbox, the front drivers side engine mount and the rear center mount.

If you use the Clio gearbox then you can use the Renault Clio gearbox engine mount. Downside of it is how much room that battery tray can take up. However, if you use the GT Turbo gearbox engine mount you'll need to drill a hole in the subframe for it. This can be a little bit tricky, i suggest that you keep the gearbox side held upwards and bolt the rear center and front left engine mount in tight first so that you can line it up correctly.

The radiator will need two new holes drilling into the subframe. I suggest drilling the first hole 1 inch away (1 inch closer to the centre) from the original hole. This will ensure that the water hoses will reach ok without stretching. The radiator will need the oil cooler pipes connecting up from above the oil filter.

I won't go into too much detail on the intercoolers as there are enough topics on front mounts on the forum, however, the standard intercooler should fit quite snug in the bay but will need strapping or tie wrapping to the front of the bay to hold it in place.

Wiring

Ok, this section is usually the worst part in this conversion, leaving most people stuck or driving about with their fuel pumps on manual switches.
First things first, take the original clio wiring loom and untape it, clear it of all taping and tie wraps. Then, cut off all the wires that goto the ecu (ensuring that they do actually goto the ecu). Then throw them away! The ecu isn't needed anymore either, so that can be shoved on ebay or something. Also, there's two relays on the loom, you can chuck them aside aswell.

Main Lives

I suggest that you keep the main live wires for the 'Starter' and 'Alternator' Separate. You should bolt the alternator earth directly to the engine and a new thick live wire for the alternator directly onto the starter. The starter should then be wired directly to the battery along with the interiors live wire. This will ensure a good charge and make it a little easier to work through electrical faults if they occur.

AEI

Now, with what you have left you should have a 3 pin plug that connects into the aei/coil, (3 pins are live/earth/rev counter pink). You will then need the TDC sensor (2 pin plug) that is found above the flywheel, this should be connected directly into the aei/coil. If you're engine has a pinking detector, i suggest that you connect it to the aei aswell. The pinking detector is a small silver cylinder found on the front of the engines head.

Starter

You will now need to connect up the starter motor ignition wire up (this is a thick white wire found on the brown plug). This connects on its own to a spade connection on the back of the starter.

Alternator

The two wire plug for the alternator should connect straight up to the GT Turbo alternator no problem as they are similar to the Clio. This is basically for the light on the dash.

Reverse Light

The reverse light sensor will need hooking up, its found on the passenger side of the gearbox down near the wheel hub.

Radiator

The radiator fan is a little tricky if you're using the GT Turbo radiator and fan as it's a more powerful fan to the Clio one and will need a relay in the wiring, I suggest you use one that was in the loom previously. As for the live and earth for the fan it is a good idea to bolt them straight to the alternator.

Fuel Pump

The fuel pump is usually the most complex area, if you can't be bothered with the electrics in this you can just connect the fuel pump up to a switch on the dash ensuring it's on ignition live and not battery live. Doing this has its advantages in that you know the fuel pump is going to work problem free and it can be used as an immobilizer. However, there's the chance of you leaving the switch on and draining the battery, or one day you could get stressed out with switching the pump on and off when you're trying to bump start the car.

If you want to do the fueling properly you will need a the Renault 5 GT Turbo fuel pump relay along with the plug that it plugs into. For this I used Ian Simpsons article on the Relay (picture). The following is a list of the wiring for the relay.

PIN 1: Live wire to fuel pump (This is the thick white wire on the white plug that goes to the fuel pump)
PIN 2: Earth (this can bolt straight to the body)
PIN 3: Rev Counter (This is the pink wire from the 3 pin plug on the AEI) Split the wire so that it connects to here, the AEI and into the car)
PIN 4: UNUSED
PIN 5: Ignition Live
PIN 6: Battery Live

With the fuel pump setup like this there is one major downside and that is when you come to start the car from hot. You may need to turn her over a fair amount of times to get her to fire. This is because when you hot start the car the rev counter signal can be a little lagged so the fuel pump doesn't come on immediately and the fuel in the carb has usually evaporated by this time.

Clocks/Gauges

If you're using the GT Turbo clocks you will need to swap the two wires for the Rear fogs and Rear window heater around as the back of the clocks.
The oil pressure gauge at the time of writing this I haven't been able to get working but I think that's the fault of my sensor.
As for the water temperature gauge there are two ways of wiring this up, I wired this up by leading two new wires from the back of the clocks to the water temp sensor. However, from speaking to other people this can be easier if you use the two water temp return wires that went from the ecu into the car to the back of the dials.

You will also need to connect up the vacuum pipe for the boost gauge and the electronic speedo cable.

Exhaust

The Renault 5 exhaust is about 3 inches too short for the clio so if you're not going to just fit a side exit then I suggest you read on.
You're going to need the 5 GT Turbo cross pipe, if you don't have one already then you can get one from a breaker, bolt this onto the elbow. You'll then need a standard Renault 5 down pipe, then you'll need to use the original Clio down pipe and cut the bracket off from it with a hacksaw. This will then need welding onto the 5 down pipe so that a normal Clio exhaust can be bolted straight up. If you're stuck for people that do welding, most exhaust and tyre garages have welding equipment so they're a good place to start.

The 5 down pipe is bolted to the cross pipe along with exhaust springs so there can be some play in the exhaust.

Fuel Lines

The fuel feed and return lines will need connecting up to the GT Turbo Fuel Pressure Regulator along with a vacuum pipe going to the carb elbow and a fuel feed line to the carb middle. The fuel pump on the Clio should be more than up to the job. To identify between the fuel feed and return line you should be able to blow into the return pipe without great cheek strain.