Did the focus pass ok?
Did the focus pass ok?
MOT is tomorrow morning... shouldnt be an issue with it...Originally Posted by Matt@CodeRedMotorsports
OK, so the seats and subframes that were in the blue Clio aren't a direct fit in the white shell. The rails in the white shell have been ground out to make way for side mounts. This means the subframes on the seats i had modified to go in the blue shell won't work, cool in 2 ways as the shell has weight cut out of it and in changing the seat subframes i've managed to lose 7.8kgs of excess subframe material
7.8kgs of metal removed from seat subframes
All i'm left with are the squares of metal that bolt to the seat runners, cool, all i need done is L shaped stips of metal welded to the side of the seat frame runners. So off to the fabricators to have them done
Measurements in place for the fab guys
New style seat subframes back
Drilling holes for bolts
I also purchase 25mm spacers to go on up front.
Wheel off, nice shiney FK coilovers
Spacer fitted
Before
After
Negative camber
Today the seats, harnesses and OMP steering are fitted
New subframe attached to seat
looking good
Very nice mate. I'm liking that!
Lush
Thanks for the kind comments, its nice to see parts I've bought over the last 6 weeks that have been sitting in the store room finally going onto the car. I try to maintain a pace on it to keep it going, I was in the scrapyard first thing this morning buying more parts. I'd like it to be ready for National Day but won't pressure myself into overdoing it and cut corners
Saturday i popped down to the breakers for misc parts to finish off areas of the Clio.
Cigarette lighter-12V feed
Hazard switch
Mk2 dashtop from Clios 2002-2005
Plastic arches
A good old scub and AutoGlym bumper care and they look almost as good as new
Plastic arches and fresh Hammerite white
To fit the dash i ended up cutting in half so i can scribe each end of the dash round the rollcage, as the plastic part of the dash in the centre takes up most of the dash you only see a 3" cut line at the back so i'm not too worried. The plastic centre part ofthe dash will house the 12V feed and hazard switch so the holes will be blanked off in carbon fibre. I'm also looking at using a digital dash so the clock opening will also be blanked off. I also wanted the dash to hide most of the interior loom that runs from the steering column across to the fuse and relay box.
And a big thanks to R5Rich and my brother who came over to help lift out the 172 lump from the blue Clio today. Now it's out it will be degreased and cleaned, painted, all belts changed, matched inlets fitted, ready to go in the white Clio
The blue Clio looking very sorry for itself
White car looks lush, I love this project, shame to see my old blue shell in the state it is in, but I am sure the new owner will give it some TLC.
Good news on the lump being pulled lads, they fight you a bit don't they?
Dash looks good, how much carbon sheet do you think you need mate?
Blue clio is looking sad isn't she......
A tad tight between the alternator, gearbox end cover and the exhaust downpipe
Not too bad though, just making sure all the loom was disconnected, we did unfortunately have to snip the main red wire off the alternator as the nut was stuck fast and we didn't want to shear it off.
Carbon sheet, i'll have to measure the clock opening but at a guess i'd say a ft square but will measure and send you a txt
Yeah the blue Clio looks a little worse for wear, i'll start putting bits back on it this week to get it ready for rolling away. I actually think i have all the parts i need off it now
A few minor updates,
We're getting closer to to the finishing line, another 3 full working days could see it fire into life and hopefully the main parts done. It's the small details and jobs i'm working on in between my friend coming over to keep it going, i must have been to Renault 4-5 times within the last week ordering, nuts, bolts and gaskets to finish jobs off.
So, the weekend just gone. Nothing big but to me i wanted to do this. The centre section of the dash houses the digital display, as its missing and i hate having the void there i decided to head to the scrappers to buy 1 just to fill it. As the lower dash and everything is missing i had to superglue and gripfill the parts to the centre plastic section.
Centre section
Digital display in pieces
Display ready to be glued into place
Gripfill in place
Finished item
The void below the digital display which usually houses the centre vents will be blanked off with carbon fibre, this will house the 12V supply and the hazard switch.
More Renault parts, 10 litre Type D coolant
ABS sensor cable brackets
Dashtop fixing brackets
Sunday was cambelt day, along with bleeding the brakes and fitting the remainder of the ABS lines front to back
Locking tool
New belt
Genuine Renault only
Bleeding the brakes
172 alternator and brackets are off too and waiting for the Cup setup to arrive in the post
As i'm not running the heater matrix i've purchased the 180 degree pipe which will join the old matrix pipes together and the joiner.
So this week i'll try and sort fixing points for the lwer parts of the dash, the interior loom, relays and fuses will tuck away under the dashtop. I'll degrease the engine and gearbox too so thats ready to go back into the white Clio..... Getting there
coming together really nicely, no heaters tho, ive done that before and on a rainy day it was a very bad move, are you fitting any sort of demister?
I have an electric fan heater for the screen
Still ordering parts from Renault and still waiting for the Clio Cup AC delete alternator setup from the breakers i bought it from.
New TB gasket
The project has been consuming my mind pretty much non stop for over 2 months day in day out so this weekend and most of last week i've left it and not really looked at it. I bet i'm not the only 1 who's got a brain going 100mph with a list of parts to buy and thing to do
Also realisation setting in that National Day is a matter of 3 weekends away and the engine is still sitting behind the car and not in it
Next week i'll be remotivated, batteries charged and start ticking off the jobs needed doing. Hopefully engine and driveshafts in place by next weekend
Also realisation setting in that National Day is a matter of 3 weekends away and the engine is still sitting behind the car and not in itYou'll be having to wind up those coilovers when you do get the engine in otherwise it'll be rubbing it's chin on the floor!
AWESOME build tho Ricardo!! I look forward to seeing White Lightening
i bet this thing trounces most on track, inc me. i think you owe me a drive anywho
A project to do good ol' RTOC proud
Looking very smart fella. Fingers crossed you get everything done by national day.
Done a few more bits and pieces finishing the small odd jobs i've left. Also the 2 main jobs on the engine were the Clio Cup alernator setup and throttle body clean up. As i'm not using the air con system in the Clio i wanted to source the Clio 172 Cup alternator as that model also doesnt use AC. From what i've seen losing the complete AC system means losing 11kgs in weight and no sapping power.
Std 172 pulley setup
Cup lower bracket
Top bracket
New alternator bolts and dogbone mount bolt from Renault
Cup alternator setup, much more of a simple setup
New Renault cup aux belt and handbrake cables from Renault
Cut out some of the metal behind the drivers side headlight, this gives better access when changing the cambelt. Not that it should need changing for a while as it's just been done
Throttle body is also cleaned and put back on the inlet manifold with new gasket
Before
After
Bought bigger washers for the bolts that hold the seats to the shell and bought a harness eye plate
So, now the alternator and TB is on, the engine is now ready to go into the white shell this weekend. This means next week will see the complete cooling system going back in, power steering lines plumbed in etc. There's still a couple of bits to do on the dash even though it's in like switches and clocks but the seats and harnesses are in place and done. Other than that it's the looms, getting there
Dude, you thought about replacing that crank pulley? See how the damping rubber has perished/cracked on yours - When the Evo one goes like that, it usually ends up splitting completely, causing the outer ring to break away from the inner, and dropping the alt' belt off in the process.
and if your really unlucky the outer ring could slip inwards and shred the cambelt
Have you guys ever heard of a 172 actually doing this? I haven't.... I've seen a vibrational damper on a diesel do it but not a petrol Clio.
Matt
could it be the reason why the f series engines have a habit of shredding aux belts and in turn taking out the cam belt as that happens far too often?
glad to see the cam belt has finally been changed as i was waiting for a my cam belt has snapped thread, or have you just changed it again for peace of mind?
No, but I know several Evo's that have, and it's the harmonic damping rubber that's failed.
Not always, Its usually down to the aux belt not being installed in the correct orientation, and it mostly affects the K4 engines, they run a funny belt configuration that looks offset.
The easiest way to find out if its failing is to paint a line across the two pieces, if after a few miles the line won't line up then there is a problem, alot of 2.0 Mi16 peugeot vib. dampers do this and you can't align the cambelts properly.
i see, i haven't really looked too deep into these engines as i've never had a need too. just seen alot of people on cliosport having that issue and it seemed like a viable reason.
poor fitment would also explain it as most people don't seem willing to pay the price to have it done properly, good job ricardo has you at hand to make sure it's done right
True, but a line of paint won't help you when X miles down the road/track the pulley splits in half
Entirely upto Ricky, but if it were my engine & the pulley looked like that, and I was coughing up as much money as he has/is for this conversion overall, I'd be changing it, and certainly more so on a track-orientated car (ie, increased rpm variation/stress on that pulley).
Blimey, if you saw what goes on in the race car world, you would never accept a hot lap off lots of racers!!
Thats why we check it after a 'few miles'......
This pully has been on the car more than likely before the last cambelt change, and, looks original to me.....circa 100k miles, I'm sure it will last another cambelt change, epecially as its not driving air con, extra idlers and a massively over tight tensioner with a belt a mile long....
But, quite rightly said, its up to Ricardo, as its his project, but where would it end if every piece where replaced if it looked a bit suspect?....fixed brake lines have a bit of paint missing and slight corrosion on the unions....the master cylinder has been open to air for a month....
I'm sure if Rich where to replace every single part like that, we would not see the car hit the track for a very long time!
Matt@CRM.
Last edited by Matt@CodeRedMotorsports; 20-05-2011 at 21:16.
Don't mean to offend Rich either as I'm certainly not his spokesman!!
No need to get on the defensive Matt, I'm just telling it as I see it from my experience. I'm sure Ricky will do what he thinks is best.
No! No! Far from being defensive Mart, please don't take me the wrong way, If you have ever met me I'm almost horizontal..... I'm that laid back.
OK, engine in time, a marathon 12 hour shift yesterday starting at 9am. My bro pops over to help get the engine into the white Clio.
Now it's in it's time to first sort out the PAS pipes, now that there's a different alternator setup 1 of the pipes has to be bent to re route onto the original pipe
After thats done it's a case of refitting the coolant hoses, header tank, engine loom. Clipping in the clutch cable, throttle cable too. Now that the injector rail cover is gone and the 2 threaded bars that hold it have been cut off, there's plenty of room to re route the induction pipe from the airbox. The old setup ran to the passenger foglight, it will now run in front of the injectors and behind the top part of the grill. The next job is to drill holes in the black part of the grill for airflow. Handbrake cables were fitted and the gear linkage sorted too.
This is how it sits as of yesterday
Looking good Ric, shame its not going ND, but maybe a cheeky brands hatch evening session in Aug??
Looking good Ric, shame its not going ND, but maybe a cheeky brands hatch evening session in Aug??
Yeah sounds good to me, hopefully it'll be at Brands way before August
Me too......
Too right MattMe too......
I'l be having a nose at the Brands website in the next 2 weeks for dates
id try an join you if it wasnt so far away, such a shame its not going to nat day, you still coming bud?
Adey you're more than welcome to stay over. I won't be attending at all
Haven't really done much in the last 2-3 weeks, been sorting mechanical parts to try and finish it off and finally get it up and running which hopefully should be this Sunday.
Ordered a new exhaust to cat (or decat in my case) fitting kit, i have the old stuff but preferred to just fit new . It makes it easier fitting it all up, the KTR stealth will go on this Sunday too. IMO a 2 man job, i did try it at about 9pm the other night but it gave me the ump so i left it!
A couple of things i've been working on after work is a tow bar and drilling holes in the grill for air to get into the flexi pipe behind it
Tow bar, the setup is how i'd like it but i'm making another to give it more meat onthe round section. The inspiration is from seeing the touring cars and GT cars... Opinions are welcome, the revised and finished item will be painted red
Marked out from an offcut of RSJ from work!
Hacksaw and 4" grinder on it
Getting there
Loosely in place, the idea is there
Flexi pipe located behind the grill
Grill
Bonnet shut, subtle
Also ordered a new 90 degree 70mm ID silicone hose for the TB to airbox so hopefully that'll be here by the weekend, pick up a couple of jubilee clips for the heater matrix delete pipe. E Bay is cool that anything you can think of project wise there's a shop selling it, items like nuts, bolts, washers etc all delivered to the door within 48hrs
Ok, had some spare time so i thought i'd put the stock interior back into the Odyssey blue 172. It's no use to me and taking room up in the loft, looks strange now it's looking 'normal'
Took the Blaupunkt headunit out and refit the OE 1 back in place
So, today the 90 degree silicone hose arrives for the TB to airbox. Only ordered it yesterday and arrived this morning, great service.
After cutting to length at each end and digging out some jubilee clips from the store room this is how it's all set up, induction complete. The eagle eyed might recognise the airbox lid isn't actually from a V6
Next job was to jack up the front and get the wheels off to fit the driveshafts and the ABS brackets. As i'm using s****y new coilovers the bracket hole doesn't quite line up so i elongate them to fit the new M6 dome headed bolts i purchased as Renault parts couldn't find them on the system.
Also found these plastic driveshaft 'shrouds' fitted to a Clio 172 in the local breakers so i bought them, cleaned them and fitted them to mine.
While i was working on the passenger side i thought i'd relocate the horns in case i fancied rigging up some flexi brake ducting from the foglight ducts. I cut some of the metal off the bracket and re bolted back in place.
Before
After, much higher
Also, had a slight problem with the whole key fob situation. Basically to get the car started you need a key fob, UCH and ECU all off the same car. I have an ECU and UCH taken from a silver phase 1 Clio 172 that was broken BUT didn't have the keyfob. Luckily i text the chap i had the ECU off nearly 4 months ago and he still has the shell with the key! So i'll be getting the key tomorrow, then fingers crossed it should start this weekend once the phase 1 fuel rail is fitted instead of the later fuel rail which doesn't have the FPR in.
A momentus day on Sunday, i bought this shell 4th March 2011. So in only just over 3 months it's gone from a complete bare shell, to a Clio that fired up for the first time, ok bar fitting the earth cable in the right place. We ended up taking the UCH and ECU off my Odyssey blue Clio and fitted it in the white Clio, i also have the key fob for the blue Clio so i swapped blades in the fobs so everything now matches! We also swapped the fuel sender and the fuel line that runs from the sender to the fuel filter as the phase 1 Clio 172 runs a different setup opposed to the later phase 2. The phase 1 fuel return is now a vent pipe from the fuel tank.
We only ran for as long as the video as we hadn't put the Type D coolant in, it also started running a bit rough so we changed back to the original ICV and it idled spot on. PAS and gearbox fluid done, Type D coolant put in and engine ran until the fan kicked in while bleeding the air out the system. Also checked the voltage output on the 2nd hand 'Cup' alternator and that was a healthy 14V.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTQ6oPirXaY
Really pleased with how it went, fresh new cambelt kit and aux belt in place. We also fitted the complete exhaust system right from the manifold with the decat to the complete K Tec stealth system. It sounds really nice, there's still a few minor bits to attend to but the next big step (after setting up the front end geometry) is to get it on the rolling road to 1:Map it 2: See what power it is. We're thinking of taking it to a company called Tour de Force.
Matched inlets
Decat
K Tec stealth exhaust
R21 turbo airbox with 100mm diameter intake feed, they use the same airbox but the outlet pipe on the lid is different.
So Monday was spent fitting the front bumper and grill back on, first test fitting the front slam panel to get the bonnet catch working which was good as the bonnet was stuck down even after pulling the catch a few times! So for now i've left the catch off
and even considering going back to the white bonnet to use the quick release Aerocatches as i really dont want to cut holes in the carbon bonnet.
The next job to do is to sort the interior, the loom, UCH and fusebox needs tidying so i'm now thinking of buying the lower part of the dash. At least that way i'll use the passenger side of the dash to 'hide' everything
Another decision is whether to go for std 172 dash clocks for now, or if i can get Mk2 low spec Clio clocks to work. Later on i'd like to go digital dash but maybe for now just go for the easiest option to get it out there
The weather has shocking on Sunday, rained pretty much all day so the ol 3 metre square gazebo came out the loft along with the parasol
Was a bit wet wasn't it Rich?
Glad she is a runner now, and those Carbon sheets I gave you to play with for the dash parts, certainly look the bizz.
I think one more good day on it, and she is done ready for some
Matt@CRM
Non stop rain all day, typical the Monday was spot on sunny! Yep the carbon looks good cheers Matt
Spent the last couple of days sorting out the dash and the wiring, I also tried the clocks and they work as well. I have pics which I,ll put on later put having to relocate the 12v socket and the hazard switch. I've also put the headlight adjuster and dashlight dimmer in the drivers side dash vent
Basically ticking off the 'To Do' list and just about there now, so i turned my attention to the interior and the dash. I'm going to use OE clocks so i needed to find a way of holding them in the phase 2 dash and in front of the rollcage that runs behind the dash. Also, there's the 12V socket, hazard switch to fit along with the dash clock dimmer with headlight adjuster. My mate brought over some thin carbon fibre so i set to work.
Dash centre
Drivers air vent
Carbon fibre
Vent louvres removed and ready to take dash dimmer
As it looks in the vent, i wanted to cover in carbon to match the centre dash.
Now with carbon
Now for the dash centre which will house the 12V feed and hazard switch
I ended up gutting the passenger vent and blanking it off to match the drivers side
Also plugged the clocks in to make sure they worked before fitting them in
Waste pipe clips, threaded bar, nuts and washers to fix dash clocks
These will clip on the rollcage and pick up the clocks, holes are drilled in the clock body for the threaded bar to go through
I also tidied up the wiring a bit more, fixed the plastic undershield to the front bumper and subframe. I'm just about there now, mechanically it's all done. All that's left is a couple of wiring gremlins, set up the camber and suspension geometry, tax..... Then on the road
looking real good buddy, coming along sweet, will it be hitting the strip at pod?
on a side not and its abit late now, but your tentioner for the cambelt, was that the final position?
The plan is to tax it first thing in the morning 1st July then head up to Santa Pod, whether i'll run it up the strip is a different matter (not sure of the costs)
Tensioner, it has the torx bit in it so i assume it's a pic just before it was tensioned
really steaming ahead now ric...ti looking more like it, glad you kept the bonnet and as for fitting the clocks , thats pure pmt genius bud....hope you and it make it to the pod..its been a while coming and you deserve it....
Thought i'd do an update as the Clio has been on the road since July 1st and covered approx 600 relatively trouble free miles. So, the maiden run out in the first week of July which gives me the opportunity to finally take some pics of the Clio NOT on the driveway! I'm really impressed with the final look of the Clio and can't believe it's actually made it off the driveway on it's own steam after sitting there for 4 months.
2tree 006 by Ricard o1, on Flickr
2tree 005 by Ricard o1, on Flickr
WP_000564 by Ricard o1, on Flickr
2tree 007 by Ricard o1, on Flickr
WP_000570 by Ricard o1, on Flickr
Now running on Shell V power and finally putting on some miles it feels really responsive with all the ingredients working together. Lightweight, AC delete setup (172 Cup alternator) matched inlets, decat.
Driving to and from work for a week gives me this
WP_000657 by Ricard o1, on Flickr
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