Maidens1979
Paid Member
GW 200 CUP (clubsport->racecar->v2)
- Thread starter LiamP
- Start date
LiamP
Paid Member
The obvious answer is oil pressure but then you would expect the big ends to suffer but they are always in much better condition. I have read that the crank tends to have an imbalance which causes it which makes more sense.
LiamP
Paid Member
Not yet, I have just stripped some parts, going to pull the head when I have the car back together.
LiamP
Paid Member
Took the afternoon off last Friday and got the engine in and running. I took the hit and replaced the clutch, I got to the point of putting the old one on before deciding, it just didn’t feel right when torqueing, as if the pressure plate had lost some of its ‘pressure’
I had the engine upside down for a week when replacing the bearings so the tappets had drained resulting in some very scary tappy noises for a few minutes!
Needed to clear a few errors from the ECU but everything settled down and seems ok with good oil pressure and no leaks or noises. I did a quick compression test and all 4 are bang on 160, to be excepted with the mileage.
16kg of ballast bolted to the passenger mounts.
Some front end modifications in progress…
Other than that nothing exciting to report, two weeks to go.
I had the engine upside down for a week when replacing the bearings so the tappets had drained resulting in some very scary tappy noises for a few minutes!
Needed to clear a few errors from the ECU but everything settled down and seems ok with good oil pressure and no leaks or noises. I did a quick compression test and all 4 are bang on 160, to be excepted with the mileage.
16kg of ballast bolted to the passenger mounts.
Some front end modifications in progress…
Other than that nothing exciting to report, two weeks to go.
burrellbloke
Paid Member
LiamP
Paid Member
Awesome! That has suddenly made me very nervous
LiamP
Paid Member
70 laps, 60 litres of fuel and zero issues (on the track).
I was starting to get nervous about not having tested the engine so booked a very last minute (night before) track day at Combe yesterday. Supposed to be racing here next month and the weather looked good so thought it would be worth the 2hr trip.
The car drove onto the trailer and off which is always a good sign, excuse the state of the front bumper, I have fibreglassed the inside but haven’t finished the filler so it looks terrible although maybe slightly better than the awful ‘speed holes’.
After the sighting laps I noticed that the idle is playing up, hard to explain but it’s as though the throttle body gets stuck at around 1.4k and won’t settle back down to 800. Stopping and starting the engine fixes it but once it revs over 2.5k it will do it again, I don’t have time to get it on a dyno so I think my only option is to try changing the throttle body as talking to Andy he doesn’t believe anything on the map would cause this. Either that or it could be the PCV valve as I found bits of engine inside when cleaning before putting the engine back in. Once on the track it doesn’t seem to impact anything, I am just concerned that it might get worse or whatever is causing it suddenly fails completely.
First session went well with only a clutch and brake bleed required to fix the box feeling a bit notchy and the brakes having a slight softness on initial bite. The ABS issues I have been facing since the rebuild have finally been fixed which was what probably causing air in the brake system.
The engine feels strong, obviously power delivery below 4k is all over the place as to be expected without a proper map but once up to where it belongs the car feels identical to how it was before the crash. No leaks and oil pressure is higher than my original engine at around 5 bar under load with temps staying where they should be. The clutch issue has gone, this is assuming it was the clutch/flywheel as obviously everything to the left of the gearbox has been changed but the engine pulls right up to the max speed I managed ~120mph, the first corner at Combe is just terrifying.
One thing I didn’t mention in the previous post is that I have moved to using a 1*2 damper, this was to prevent engine damage and reduce the speed of the alternator. Might be too early to say but the 20% reduction in alternator speed seems to have done the job as I didn’t have any ‘LOW BATTERY’ errors yesterday. I have kept the standard tensionor using the same belt length the racers use, which is a ‘VKMV 5PK1080’
After lunch it decided to hail, not ideal, I went out anyway as I thought it would be a good test for ‘wet weather’, the outcome is that Direzzas are shit, the roof scoop acts like a pressure washer and my T7 blower sometimes doesn’t work. Not ideal but good to find these things out now, the list of things to fix is starting to get very long.
Track dried quickly, stayed till 5, longest I have lasted on the track for a very long time, chassis just feels great, rotates on the brakes but very controllable, really enjoyed the day.
I was starting to get nervous about not having tested the engine so booked a very last minute (night before) track day at Combe yesterday. Supposed to be racing here next month and the weather looked good so thought it would be worth the 2hr trip.
The car drove onto the trailer and off which is always a good sign, excuse the state of the front bumper, I have fibreglassed the inside but haven’t finished the filler so it looks terrible although maybe slightly better than the awful ‘speed holes’.
After the sighting laps I noticed that the idle is playing up, hard to explain but it’s as though the throttle body gets stuck at around 1.4k and won’t settle back down to 800. Stopping and starting the engine fixes it but once it revs over 2.5k it will do it again, I don’t have time to get it on a dyno so I think my only option is to try changing the throttle body as talking to Andy he doesn’t believe anything on the map would cause this. Either that or it could be the PCV valve as I found bits of engine inside when cleaning before putting the engine back in. Once on the track it doesn’t seem to impact anything, I am just concerned that it might get worse or whatever is causing it suddenly fails completely.
First session went well with only a clutch and brake bleed required to fix the box feeling a bit notchy and the brakes having a slight softness on initial bite. The ABS issues I have been facing since the rebuild have finally been fixed which was what probably causing air in the brake system.
The engine feels strong, obviously power delivery below 4k is all over the place as to be expected without a proper map but once up to where it belongs the car feels identical to how it was before the crash. No leaks and oil pressure is higher than my original engine at around 5 bar under load with temps staying where they should be. The clutch issue has gone, this is assuming it was the clutch/flywheel as obviously everything to the left of the gearbox has been changed but the engine pulls right up to the max speed I managed ~120mph, the first corner at Combe is just terrifying.
One thing I didn’t mention in the previous post is that I have moved to using a 1*2 damper, this was to prevent engine damage and reduce the speed of the alternator. Might be too early to say but the 20% reduction in alternator speed seems to have done the job as I didn’t have any ‘LOW BATTERY’ errors yesterday. I have kept the standard tensionor using the same belt length the racers use, which is a ‘VKMV 5PK1080’
After lunch it decided to hail, not ideal, I went out anyway as I thought it would be a good test for ‘wet weather’, the outcome is that Direzzas are shit, the roof scoop acts like a pressure washer and my T7 blower sometimes doesn’t work. Not ideal but good to find these things out now, the list of things to fix is starting to get very long.
Track dried quickly, stayed till 5, longest I have lasted on the track for a very long time, chassis just feels great, rotates on the brakes but very controllable, really enjoyed the day.
LiamP
Paid Member
Hmm, it's weird as mine will do it when hot or cold but triggered by revving over ~2.5k, it's like the TB is stuck open slightly.
LiamP
Paid Member
Yeah, I got it from frogjam, not OE but the quality is good
Damped Crank Pulley | Renault F4R
An aftermarket damped crank pulley for Renault F4R engines. Acts as a harmonic damper to reduce torsional vibrations on the crankshaft. This quality item can be used as a direct replacement for the pulleys found on Clio 172 and Clio 182 models. In these models the factory fitted pulley can fail...
frogjammotorsport.co.uk
LiamP
Paid Member
I guess I was due to some luck after the past year!
R1: P2 Class (P8 overall)
R2: P1 Class (class fastest lap) (P5 overall)
R3: P2 Class (P9 overall)
Was a bit of a rush trying to get the final bits finished over the past few weeks, mostly small things but whilst doing a check on the frontend I noticed my offside tyre was completely dead on the inside. Quick call to NAD to see if he could fit me in and he very kindly moved some stuff around so I could get an alignment on the Thursday. In hindsight I knew that the toe was likely to be off due to the amount of times I had taken the hubs off to get the driveshafts out.
It was found to have almost a degree out on the offside which explains the wear.. This was also a good excuse to get it weighed now I had added the ballast and was as expected at 1066kg (dry)
Full oil change with the sump off to remove any lube from changing the bearings, all looked super clean.
Spent some time trying to isolate the idle issue, changed the following:
- Throttle body
- Lambda
- PCV
- MAP sensor
All of them made zero difference so it has to be something with the map or I have somehow got my TB in some sort of calibration mode as it behaves very oddly. There was no way I had time to get it on a dyno so the plan was to send it and hope it didn’t get worse or cause any sort of over heating on the start line..
I replaced the fan in the T7 blower with an equivalent unit from RS components, £50 as opposed to purchasing a new fan at £170, something that proved worthwhile when it came to the weekend!
There was then all the small things
- Battery terminal yellow tape
- Stickers
- Cage padding
- Nut and bolt check
- RainX
- Front bumper wrap
- Transponder location
- Petrol
- Roof tent pick up from a mate
Round 1 - Brands Hatch Indy
Turned up early Saturday morning in the pissing rain, had time to get the car sorted, collect transponder and dropped 4 alloys off with PolleySport for a set of 4 new AO52’s. I had PS4’s in reserve but the forecast was looking like things were going to be on the dry side of wet which by all accounts favours the AO52’s.
Sailed through scrutineering, no issues or concerns and got a pat on the back from the scrutineer for how the car was prepared which was satisfying.
By the time it was qualifying it had stopped raining and we were all expecting a damp track but from the first lap it was obvious it was going to be dry and times would be competitive. Having spent my entire track time experience taking things slow over a day I find it difficult to go out and try get a lap time in 15 minutes. Overall car felt good but struggled to get the car to rotate in the slow corners, it was as if the AO52’s had too much grip on the rear and it felt really pushy on corner entry.
Qualified P3 in class with a 56.299 which is about a second off where I wanted to be on a dry track, P2 was 56.0 and P1 with 55.3 which is very impressive considering the track conditions.
Race 1
Didn’t change anything for the race as I assumed the lack of frontend grip was due to the track. First attempt at a start was red flagged before we got to Paddock, nasty rear end crash after the P2 CRX stalled on the line (clutch failure)
Second attempt was another poor start (really struggle with standing start) and I think I was down 4/5 places before druids. I then got stuck behind a surprisingly fast Class C E36 which I eventually got past when he lost the rear into Paddock. Started chasing down the P1 civic after he had an off at Graham Hill, just didn’t have the pace to get close enough for a move and finished 3s behind in Class P2.
Race 2
Race 2 was held on the Sunday after it rained heavily from about 5pm the night before through to 10am, I didn't sleep much. Race 2 was at 11:15 and it had just stopped raining, everyone was walking up and down the paddock trying to work out what others were doing. My phone was telling me it was likely to start raining through the race but lightly, took the gamble and kept the AO52’s on as I knew the Civic was going to do the same as he was driving up and down the paddock to try and scrub in a new set.
Things felt good on the green flag lap with more grip than expected considering the conditions / puddles. Another poor start, wheel spun through 1st and then bogged down in 2nd, I was then greeted with a lot spray from the track at Paddock and starting shitting myself regarding the choice in the tyres.
At this point I was down to 14th and had a lot of cars in-between myself and the civic however I was finding that the tyres had switched on and the car had come alive with far more grip than I have ever experience in the wet. I then got lucky again when the Civic had an off at clearways with a Class A car and was coming back onto the track. We entered the finish straight 4 wide all touching wing mirrors, kept to the wet lines keeping off the rubber and was able to stick with the Civic as we cut though the Class C fast starters and a few Class A’s that where struggling in the conditions. Every lap there was someone going off or coming back on the track, it was mental, grass/gravel on the exit of most corners made thing very tricky.
The conditions were almost identical to a track day I did with Matt from Camber&Combustion in 2022 where we spent the whole day working on wet lines / grip etc and it was invaluable.
Spent about 5 laps behind as we traded positions mid corner as I tried to work out how to make a move stick, his toe/camber had taken a hit so was struggling with the car but he was able to make it up in the straights where I seemed to be lacking power. Finally got a move to stick taking it wide into clearways and just about having the grip to get the power down and stay in front before Paddock. Put the hammer down and did a few 1m2s laps to make a gap before hitting traffic which made things very tricky in the conditions. Kept the lead for a further 4 laps, the longest 4 laps of my life before finishing 3 tenths ahead on the line.
Was buzzing after this race as I was driving as hard as I could and really didn’t expect it with my fastest lap only 5 tenths off the Class A fastest and yes I am still wearing the cap.
Race 3
The track was now dry so the Civic had the advantage again based on qualifying and the geo now fixed, was pretty cool to be starting P5 and this close to the front as it’s not where I expected to be on Race 3!
Much better start this time and kept my position through the lap with only Steve Polley overtaking but he was a fast Class A that had struggled in the wet. I was then just racing myself unable to make up the time to get to the Civic, still a second off where I should be which obviously adds up over a race. In hindsight I wish I had upped the rear dampers to try and get it moving again but was too nervous to change much but considering how well it handled in the wet it’s obvious it wasn’t going to perform in the dry. Over the weekend I had no penalties, track limits or issues and another P2 finish, can’t complain!
Interestingly the last and only? time this shell raced was at Brands in the wet.
Round 2 at Combe in less than 4 weeks which is likely to be more competitive, the plan is to get a dyno session booked to sort this engine map out and work on how to give the front end some more grip with these tyres.
Last edited:
burrellbloke
Paid Member
The blurry spectators from Sunday are Ethan and Me.
It was cold and wet but well worth watching.
It was cold and wet but well worth watching.
EthanMenace
Paid Member
LiamP
Paid Member
Haha no way, forgot to mention you both, thanks for supporting!
Very likely to get that printed so you will be on my office wall soon
Very likely to get that printed so you will be on my office wall soon
That’s interesting, it really was an amazing car to drive in this race, I just need to replicate in the dry.
LiamP
Paid Member
Had lots of plans to fix/improve things as well as a track day to try and find some dry pace with these tyres but just didn’t get anywhere before running out of time.
Had a brief visit to Andy at ED to confirm power and see if the idle/TB issue could be diagnosed. Car made 199.5HP / 163FtLb which is what I expected based on engine miles etc. The bad news was that he couldn’t see any issues with the TB or idle control.
Assumption was that it was potentially a vacuum leak, purchased replacement gaskets and injector seals from autodoc, cleaned everything, zero difference.
Spoke to Alex at AW and he said that some just do this, some worse than others, I guess it’s something to live with, just annoying.
Got back from holiday on the Sunday late afternoon, had to rebuild the car then pack before leaving to Combe the next morning at 5am.
Castle Combe R4/5
Straight into qualifying at 9:50am, track was dry and car felt good, a few TypeR cars had joined for this round so I knew it was going to be competitive to get near the front. Managed a 1:19.3 on the last lap which put me P3 class, which was 3 tenths off P2 and 1.2s off P1, all things considered I was very happy with this.
Had a low battery warning, checked the voltage and it was down to 14v so switched the regulator and it went back up to 14.5v. I hate the electrics on this car.
Race 1
10 minutes before being called for assembly it started raining, weather report said it was going to continue for the next hour but the sun was still out and I didn’t seem to be impacting the times for the cars currently on the track. I could see in the paddock that the class pole was changing to some rain sports and started to get excited as I knew it was going to be the wrong call.
It had stopped by the time we got to assembly, managed a decent start and got into P2 on T1 when the BMW locked up and then struggled to get the power down. Stayed in P2 for the rest of the race and managed to put in some consistent lap times behind the P1 civic before a safety car and last lap sprint through back markers. It seems like I was losing a fair amount of time on the straights but it’s hard to tell.
P2, very happy with this as I felt it involved a bit of strategy and being consistent whilst still lacking dry pace. Weighed after the race at 1161kg (incl driver), this puts me about ~16kg over weight so looking at potentially removing another 8kg ballast for the next round.
Had some time between the next race so watched a fair amount of racing in between and happened to be at Camp when the unfortunate incident with the clios happened. Not entirety sure how it happened but one of the cars hit the pit barrier, drivers side door on. The car went from ~100MPH to zero in a split second and was truly terrifying, to be honest it really shook me up. Glad to hear that the driver is recovering in hospital as I assumed the worst and walked away. Hats off to the marshals and medical crew who arrived within seconds.
Race 2
No question that I had this in my mind leading up to and into the race, my head wasn’t in it with my only thoughts of just getting to the end of the race. Not entirely sure how to work on this, I guess more experience/confidence in the car and racing will help.
This resulted in a poor start and then a lift on the straight to prevent getting pinched before Avon Rise. The BMW (P1 class in Q) started in P20 went off like a rocket and was class P1 before we got to Quarry, not entirely sure how a 2.8ltr M54 in a compact is 175BHP/T but there you go.
This resulted in me being P6 before exiting T1, not ideal, after that I had a battle with an MG but I had no drive to keep him behind and just wanted to get to the end.
Currently top of Class B, I feel this is going to be tricky to maintain but we shall see with the next round at Snetterton on the 22nd June. Gives me time to fix/improve a few things but I think seat time is most important right now.
Had a brief visit to Andy at ED to confirm power and see if the idle/TB issue could be diagnosed. Car made 199.5HP / 163FtLb which is what I expected based on engine miles etc. The bad news was that he couldn’t see any issues with the TB or idle control.
Assumption was that it was potentially a vacuum leak, purchased replacement gaskets and injector seals from autodoc, cleaned everything, zero difference.
Spoke to Alex at AW and he said that some just do this, some worse than others, I guess it’s something to live with, just annoying.
Got back from holiday on the Sunday late afternoon, had to rebuild the car then pack before leaving to Combe the next morning at 5am.
Castle Combe R4/5
Straight into qualifying at 9:50am, track was dry and car felt good, a few TypeR cars had joined for this round so I knew it was going to be competitive to get near the front. Managed a 1:19.3 on the last lap which put me P3 class, which was 3 tenths off P2 and 1.2s off P1, all things considered I was very happy with this.
Had a low battery warning, checked the voltage and it was down to 14v so switched the regulator and it went back up to 14.5v. I hate the electrics on this car.
Race 1
10 minutes before being called for assembly it started raining, weather report said it was going to continue for the next hour but the sun was still out and I didn’t seem to be impacting the times for the cars currently on the track. I could see in the paddock that the class pole was changing to some rain sports and started to get excited as I knew it was going to be the wrong call.
It had stopped by the time we got to assembly, managed a decent start and got into P2 on T1 when the BMW locked up and then struggled to get the power down. Stayed in P2 for the rest of the race and managed to put in some consistent lap times behind the P1 civic before a safety car and last lap sprint through back markers. It seems like I was losing a fair amount of time on the straights but it’s hard to tell.
P2, very happy with this as I felt it involved a bit of strategy and being consistent whilst still lacking dry pace. Weighed after the race at 1161kg (incl driver), this puts me about ~16kg over weight so looking at potentially removing another 8kg ballast for the next round.
Had some time between the next race so watched a fair amount of racing in between and happened to be at Camp when the unfortunate incident with the clios happened. Not entirety sure how it happened but one of the cars hit the pit barrier, drivers side door on. The car went from ~100MPH to zero in a split second and was truly terrifying, to be honest it really shook me up. Glad to hear that the driver is recovering in hospital as I assumed the worst and walked away. Hats off to the marshals and medical crew who arrived within seconds.
Race 2
No question that I had this in my mind leading up to and into the race, my head wasn’t in it with my only thoughts of just getting to the end of the race. Not entirely sure how to work on this, I guess more experience/confidence in the car and racing will help.
This resulted in a poor start and then a lift on the straight to prevent getting pinched before Avon Rise. The BMW (P1 class in Q) started in P20 went off like a rocket and was class P1 before we got to Quarry, not entirely sure how a 2.8ltr M54 in a compact is 175BHP/T but there you go.
This resulted in me being P6 before exiting T1, not ideal, after that I had a battle with an MG but I had no drive to keep him behind and just wanted to get to the end.
Currently top of Class B, I feel this is going to be tricky to maintain but we shall see with the next round at Snetterton on the 22nd June. Gives me time to fix/improve a few things but I think seat time is most important right now.
LiamP
Paid Member
Got the car stripped down and did a full nut and bolt check, only bolt slightly out of spec was the bump steer kit nut that goes into the track rods. I torque it over spec at 30Nm but seems to loosen anyway, has now become part of ‘post track check’.
Looks like during Combe I lost a fire ext nozzle from the engine, replacement purchased at a painful price of £50, loctite used this time.
Another oil/filter change putting this engine at 3 changes since I purchased, everything looks clean with no visible contaminants.
When changing the filter I noticed that one of alternator brackets had snapped, this was the alternator that came with the engine after I swapped it searching for my idle issue. Luckily I have enough parts to rebuild a new one using the same regulator, obviously it’s going to give me a low battery warning.
I have added an Amazon special voltage screen so I can ignore the inevitable ’low battery’ when racing as I am always worried that the alternator has actually failed and may also then kill my battery like it did at Combe in 2022.
In the last race it felt like the brakes had lost some of the initial bite, I expected to be greeted with minimal material left but they actually have about 5mm.
Pulled them out and you can see that they are tapered, a quick google and it seems this is pretty standard across all calipers/pads on the leading edge and gives reduced bite. One way to reduce it is to flip the pads around between track days to try and even out the wear.
It’s about 1.8mm difference on the worst (nearside inside) but it seems enough to impact feel / confidence on the initial bite. Made the decision that these where too far gone to try and flip so have taken them off early for spares and put the EBC RPX on for bedding in / testing on a track day.
Checking the tyres and the outside edge of the front nearside is just starting to wear, even with 4 deg of camber! Going to switch it with the offside to even it out although it might be due to wearing on the bumper / arch (Paddock Hill compression) so that will get a further trim.
I am a big fan of these tyres in the wet but I don’t think I am really getting the most out of them in the dry. I think it might be my driving style as I need to be more aggressive to get more slip as everyone says they are faster than Dunlops, need seat time. However I am contemplating getting two more Dunlops to do some back to back tests and potentially leaving the AO52’s for wet/damp due to how soft they are but undecided at the moment.
I also always take a reading of the pressures once cold, this is an attempt to optimise hot temps for qualifying. With only 15 minutes there isn’t time to come in and bleed any air off so I need to get it perfect before.
Also purchased a very cheap duct from Amazon which fits perfectly at the front. The idea is to try and give the airbox some cold air although it might need some improvements, hoping to get some data on this soon.
I have Goodwood booked for the end of the month but I am going to try and get to Snetterton before then as I really need some seat time at that track due to potentially racing there in August as well in a different car…
Office has had an upgrade
Looks like during Combe I lost a fire ext nozzle from the engine, replacement purchased at a painful price of £50, loctite used this time.
Another oil/filter change putting this engine at 3 changes since I purchased, everything looks clean with no visible contaminants.
When changing the filter I noticed that one of alternator brackets had snapped, this was the alternator that came with the engine after I swapped it searching for my idle issue. Luckily I have enough parts to rebuild a new one using the same regulator, obviously it’s going to give me a low battery warning.
I have added an Amazon special voltage screen so I can ignore the inevitable ’low battery’ when racing as I am always worried that the alternator has actually failed and may also then kill my battery like it did at Combe in 2022.
In the last race it felt like the brakes had lost some of the initial bite, I expected to be greeted with minimal material left but they actually have about 5mm.
Pulled them out and you can see that they are tapered, a quick google and it seems this is pretty standard across all calipers/pads on the leading edge and gives reduced bite. One way to reduce it is to flip the pads around between track days to try and even out the wear.
It’s about 1.8mm difference on the worst (nearside inside) but it seems enough to impact feel / confidence on the initial bite. Made the decision that these where too far gone to try and flip so have taken them off early for spares and put the EBC RPX on for bedding in / testing on a track day.
Checking the tyres and the outside edge of the front nearside is just starting to wear, even with 4 deg of camber! Going to switch it with the offside to even it out although it might be due to wearing on the bumper / arch (Paddock Hill compression) so that will get a further trim.
I am a big fan of these tyres in the wet but I don’t think I am really getting the most out of them in the dry. I think it might be my driving style as I need to be more aggressive to get more slip as everyone says they are faster than Dunlops, need seat time. However I am contemplating getting two more Dunlops to do some back to back tests and potentially leaving the AO52’s for wet/damp due to how soft they are but undecided at the moment.
I also always take a reading of the pressures once cold, this is an attempt to optimise hot temps for qualifying. With only 15 minutes there isn’t time to come in and bleed any air off so I need to get it perfect before.
Also purchased a very cheap duct from Amazon which fits perfectly at the front. The idea is to try and give the airbox some cold air although it might need some improvements, hoping to get some data on this soon.
I have Goodwood booked for the end of the month but I am going to try and get to Snetterton before then as I really need some seat time at that track due to potentially racing there in August as well in a different car…
Office has had an upgrade
