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RenaultSport Clio 182 Trophy

Hi folks - hope you are all well :D Time for a bit of an update...

Back at the end of May / early June I took the car for a drive around my local forest area. Cwmcarn is only a few minutes away, and popular with MTB'ers, but also has a nice driving route for cars. I took a few pics.


20120520_forest01 by SharkyUK, on Flickr



20120520_forest02 by SharkyUK, on Flickr



20120520_forest03 by SharkyUK, on Flickr



20120520_forest04 by SharkyUK, on Flickr



20120520_forest05 by SharkyUK, on Flickr



20120520_forest06 by SharkyUK, on Flickr



20120520_forest07 by SharkyUK, on Flickr



20120520_forest08 by SharkyUK, on Flickr



20120520_forest09 by SharkyUK, on Flickr


Perfect place to relax and have a BBQ actually. When it's not raining. :D
 
Later on in June...

June 2012 - Small Update

I attended a BurpSpeed organised trackday at Llandow and Dan kindly took a few photographs of me in my Trophy. Here they are...

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It made a nice change to be caught on camera rather than the one taking the photos to be honest! :D
 
Rolling into September...

September 2012

It's all been a bit quiet on the Trophy-front over recent months. Bad weather coupled with an extremely busy time in work means that I haven't had as much opportunity to get out in the T as I would have hoped. However, the miles are still adding up and 100,000 miles isn't all that far away now.

Last Friday night (the night before the Forge Motorsport Action Day at Castle Combe) I decided to replace my coil pack with a new unit and to replace my HT leads with some decent red 8.5mm Magnecor items. Ever since 'the incident' a few months back (where the engine got flooded following a downpour of rain and my bonnet being open) I've had recurring misfire issues. The spark plugs looked fine, the HT leads looked ok and the coil pack appeared to be ok, too. However, as these (leads and coil pack) had never been changed on the car I thought it wouldn't hurt to order new bits and to replace them.

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As the ITB's were also filthy I decided to take those apart and to give them a bit of a clean, too. The filter itself (not pictured) was quite dirty and definitely benefited from a good clean. Sadly I had run out of the ITG dust-repelling filter spray so that's something I need to do shortly. The trumpets and back plate were also a bit dirty (although this was to be expected as I hadn't cleaned them for a couple of months).

Dirty trumpets...

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Dirty butterflies...

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Dirty backplate...

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As can be seen in the pic above, there was a little bit of oil / residue on and around the trumpets but nothing serious. This seems to be due to the minor leak that I still have from the cam seals. At this moment in time it's not worth the time / expense getting them re-done so the plan is to wait until the next cam belt change.

Here's the engine bay with the trumpets and backplate ready for cleaning and with the old coil pack and leads removed.

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An hour or two later and everything was back together and the ITB's were clean and gleaming. The only thing remaining was to fire up the ignition and to ensure that all was well. The first couple of attempts didn't go so well as the car turned over, popped a few times and then the engine died. Hmmm... Luckily it was an easy fix. A couple of the leads hadn't quite been fixed as firmly as needed so by simply undoing and refitting the connections, all was well when I next turned the engine over. Here's a pic showing the cleaned ITB's and the new leads and coil pack:

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With everything back together I took the T out for a quick drive to ensure all was well. I wasn't expecting much of a difference to be honest so I was pleasantly surprised when the idle appeared to be a lot smoother and the acceleration noticeably stronger! This was probably due to the fact that there were no points of hesitation due to misfiring and the T happily pulled itself along at a healthy rate of knots. Happy days!

As mentioned above, the miles are adding up and I'm looking forward to the next cambelt change. Sure, it's not cheap but it means I can look forward to getting a few more bits done and to getting these bad boys installed! They've been sat on my desk for a month or two now. Just sat there, taunting me. I'm normally quite a patient guy but I really would like to get these in asap...

A tidy set of Schricks...

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Mmmm, so photogenic! :D
 
Still in September...

September 2012 - Update

Despite flying through the MOT the other week the inspector did notice a slight leak from the rear dampers. It wasn't bad enough to fail the MOT but definitely needed to keep an eye on it. Unfortunately the week between then and now has seen me travelling some significant miles with work and sure enough the dampers have pretty much given up. Whilst steady driving was fine I certainly wouldn't like to have pushed on too hard so it was time to get in some new items (along with rear brake pads which also needed replacing).

I had already received the brake pads a few days prior (standard rear Renault OEM's) so they were good to go but I needed to source some Sachs rear dampers pretty quickly. The ride was noticeably degrading and I have a trackday coming up on Wednesday! After a brief look around I contacted Mick at Diamond Motors to see if he could help me source new rear Sachs. And that he did. Within a few days of ordering them I had a shiny new set arrive at 7am this morning (a time I never knew existed on a Saturday).

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All I need now is to get them fitted in time for Wednesday. Fingers crossed...

I'd like to say a big thanks to Mick at Diamond Motors (Long Eaton, Nottingham) for sorting out the Sachs. And at a good price, too. In fact, I can't thank Mick enough for the great service, communication and general chat we had on the phone. A top bloke and someone who I would happily recommend to sort out their Clio. Although I expect most on here own a Honda of some sort... :D

EDIT: AS for the trackday... it was another wet one. :(

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Cheers!
 
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Always a good read Andy. Shame some bu66er in a red car kept ruining those lovely landscape shots ;)

Looks good mate and I'm pleased your getting to drive it more after your recent run of luck with it
 
zeffania said:
Always a good read Andy. Shame some bu66er in a red car kept ruining those lovely landscape shots ;)

Looks good mate and I'm pleased your getting to drive it more after your recent run of luck with it
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:lol: Cheers, mate! Yeah - that damned pink car getting in the way of those scenic shots is annoying.

It's great to be able to just drive it at the moment and simply enjoy it. It needs a remap and sounds like a bag of spanners... but it it's running safe and the economy is actually the best it's been in a LONG time. I've got a fair few bits to go on over the winter (hopefully over the winter) and some pretty big plans for it. It's going to take a fair bit of saving but will hopefully be worth it. I am very tempted to source an extra engine though just in case... :D
 
Time for a little update rather than just lurking around the place...

So here we go, then. This is what I've got planned for the Trophy in 2013...

20121204_plan.jpg


The Plan:

To rebuild the engine with forged internals throughout whilst throwing in some fairly lairy cams and retaining the ITB's. In short, a forged, high-compression N/A engine build.

Estimated Completion Date:

Whenever it's ready. As most folks know the Trophy is a keeper so it doesn't matter how long it takes. I can't realistically put a completion date on it either as it's going to take a fair bit of saving for. However, some choice components *might* already have arrived or are coming very soon...

The Target Specification:

I guess this is the important bit really; i.e. what I'm aiming for in terms of specification. Firstly, I'm NOT chasing big power figures with this build as I don't want to go down that route (at least not with this car). Admittedly, for the same sort of cost, I could be driving around in a 350bhp+ forced induction Trophy but I think it's too much for what I want in this car and will totally ruin what it's about - i.e. the handling and the highly-strung N/A characteristics I enjoy. It's an extremely rewarding car to drive (when the chance to do so presents itself) and that is what I'm aiming to maintain. Driving pleasure / enjoyment whether I'm on the daily commute, a driving meet or on track.

Enough waffle. The aim is a high-compression N/A forged engine build circa 12.6:1 compression. Any more than that and you're really starting to get into the 'race car' realm (remembering this is to remain as my daily commuting weap- vehicle). It will go something like this (primary components):

- 2.0l 16v F4R engine rebuilt + re-bored to 83mm- Keeping the existing individual throttle bodies setup (KTR Jenvey-based direct-to-head)
- Wossner 83mm oversized forged pistons
- PEC forged conrods
- ARP conrod bolts
- New big end bearings and main bearings
- ACL Race Series "tanged" shells
- Supertech Inconel valves
- KTR uprated valve springs
- Schrick cams (a bit on the wild side)
- Uprated RS Megane injectors
- New oil pump, water pump
- Aircon delete (and belts, pulleys, etc.)

Obviously there will be other 'supporting' bits and pieces along the way but the main bulk is in the list above. As I said earlier there is no hurry, no set target date. I will be keeping this thread updated with progress made. I guess it all depends how impatient I become.
 
January 2013 - Monday 21st

So I got a call from Fred at BTM today explaining how he was checking a few things over on the car prior to taking out the engine in the near future. It would seem a few issues have been identified already. The first issue is something that should perhaps be a concern to others who are running a filter similar to the one shown below (this is a second-gen filter that comes supplied with the K-Tec DTH ITB kit). In a nutshell it is poor. Very, very poor. The truth be told it's not much of an improvement over the first (poor) design but this really takes the biscuit. I don't like bad-mouthing anyone (especially businesses that have been helpful in the past) but I think people should at least be aware of potential problems that can, in turn, lead to other problems. And problems that can end up costing a LOT of money to fix / put right.

So, here we have the filter as removed from my car a few hours ago. The important thing to note here is that this car and it's components has been looked after meticulously - including cleaning and spraying of the filter, etc. It's not degraded through lack of care, attention or abuse! You can clearly see that the foam has all but disintegrated away. This explains the large build up of black crap that I regularly see when cleaning the bodies.

shaggedfilter01.jpg


Here's what a decent filter should look like.

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And again, for comparison, here's my filter photographed from the opposite side.

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And again, a decent filter for comparison.

workingfilter02.jpg


I'm glad it's going and to be replaced by a decent item (in some shape or form).

With the filter removed they decided to run a routine compression test. I'd explained beforehand that the car was down on power and not running properly. It was when they tried to remove the spark plugs that the next issue became apparent. The plugs had been torqued up incorrectly! Speaking to Fred the plugs should be torqued to around 20NM and mine were... get this... 81NM! Ouch. That's almost enough torque to secure your wheels to your vehicle. Suffice to say, Fred had fun getting those out.

On to the compression test itself. It's not exactly healthy. I can't remember which cylinders produced which readings but suffice to say they ranged from 9-bar to just over 11-bar. Not good when really they should be 13+ bar. It will be interesting to see what state things are in when the engine comes out and it's pulled apart.

Incidentally, the need to fit a better filter does cause issues with DTH ITB kit. There is simply not enough room to fit one given the angle at which they are bolted together. I don't fancy having a cut taken out the bonnet so we're discussing a few options at the moment as to what to do next and where to go.

Thanks to BTM for the images and updates and more to come as and when I hear more...
 
January 2013 - Wednesday 23rd

Just a quick one... I've just had word through that another issue has been found that certainly wouldn't have helped the car's performance over the last year or so. If you hadn't already guessed, Fred has found that the cam timing is out. *sigh* Without wanting to sound overly dramatic it really has left me more than a bit annoyed; especially considering the money that has been spent trying to resolve my problems and the amount of time I was without the car whilst it was being done. There's no point in getting angry and stressed - far worse things happen at sea - but, for me personally, the list of people I'd trust my car with shrinks by the day. Oh well, you have to laugh, eh? Onwards and upwards!

I'll just pop up these pictures for now that I received from Fred earlier. I think the picture below also shows a great job of the fixes that were made to stop the leaks I had. Twice. Which never fixed any leaks.

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And just because the little marker spots line up on the housing and the pulleys... it doesn't mean the cam timing is correct.

Continuing the engine strip-down and a few more pics...

Somewhat, er, 'tired' and oily looking... The last one's a corker!

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^ That's a bit special.
 
dotty said:
Andy. That car sounds like a right nightmare.
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Stu, you're not wrong mate. At times the little sh!t has really tried my patience but I just can't get rid of it. Even with the problems it's had it is such a great car and the drive is exceptional. I'm still yet to drive anything better if I'm being brutally honest. I think it's just a case that it suits my driving style so well (as ghey as that sounds) - both on the road or the odd trackday.

Thankfully it is finally in the hands of Fred who knows his stuff. I just wish I'd known him earlier to be honest. He's also saved me over a grand on the rebuild cost already so I'm happy. The only problem is that I got a message from him yesterday and my build has been put on hold. His apprentice crushed Fred's hand between the engine and the chassis of a car they were working on and his hand is a bit of a mess. Squashed and broken hand by the looks of it. :(

But, I now know that it's being sorted properly and with practically a brand new (and upgraded) engine. From the evidence I've seen it would suggest that the engine has never been right in the 5+ years I've had it so it should come back a bit of a different animal. Despite all the problems and unhealthy state of the engine it wasn't exactly slow before so I have to admit I'm quite excited at the prospect of getting it back.
 
^ as said above lol. great build Sounds like one problem after another though! Friend of mine has same sort of set up running 199bhp only trouble with his on track is power steering fluid boiling lol..
 
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