Meglio 200, the £700 car thats now 5k deep and still incomplete

So leading from my new member post, introducing the £700 bargain 64k mile clio 200 cup pack, i immediately started looking for a donor megane as coming from a 300bhp clio 172 turbo i needed that boost back in my life. Pictures of said clio turbo:
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Luckily after many days and hours of trolling facebook, gumtree and other sites i came across an Arctic Blue 225 Lux for £800 in my local area.
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I thought awesome ill buy this, break what i dont use and have a free engine conversion as i sell megane cats for big money in scrap. So bought the megane, drove it home and was happy. Next morning i started the megane and it misfired badly. Having had meganes in the past and knowing how much the pistons are like chocolate, i took it to my unit and compression tested it. 30psi, 120psi, 100psi, 50psi. Cracked ringlands for sure, so ive been sold a dud, but never mind i dismantled the car, made money and still kept the running gear as this engine is a good base for forging at a later date. So the megane hunt continues.

In the mean time i bought an r26 ecu and engine loom, and removed my 200 engine loom and sent them to Beaniesport to be converted to a meglio loom. Whilst doing so, he asked me if i was interested in buying a LSD for a 225 box for £350, so i couldnt resist that, since my brothers a transmission specialist ill get him to fit the LSD and give the box a once over.
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So while still hunting for a good donor megane, I found a set of recaro CS seats from a 197 for sale, with the inserts colour coded albi blue in very good condition, at a price of £800. Obviously these had to be purchased.
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Fitted the seats straight away, i love them :smiley: put the 200 interior in my 197 and put 197 rear seats in my 200 to match these recaros.
Next i fancied a cup spoiler, as i think they make the car look much more sporty. After trolling the internet, i took the plunge and bought one from Renault direct. But they were the cheapest around at £190 for a primed spoiler. Once it turned up i took it to a bodyshop and had it painted albi blue for the price of £120. It come back a week later and lets say if i ever need paint done again i will 1000% take it to this guy i used! The spoiler came back perfectly!
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This is when i come across a Black megane 225 for £700 about 90 miles from me, i thought ill take a chance on it as the car looked rough but had just had belts done, and id break the rest and get my money back. No pics of this megane but compression tested it and it was all good! So bonus for me, another free engine conversion after selling on the bits i didnt use.
I then put a deposit down on a R26R clutch and lightened flywheel off a guy breaking his megane, 6 weeks ago he still hasnt dismantled the car, so thinking about buying a brand new one, when a guy turns up to buy some megane parts off me and says hes selling a paddle clutch setup and lightened flywheel for a megane for £250. How convenient! So collecting that soon.

My loom has now returned from Beaniesport and looks factory. Im getting closer to having all the bits ready to convert my 200 now. I bought a 3" scorpion decat downpipe brand new from euro for £150 which i didnt think was bad. While having some money to burn still from breaking my liquid yellow, I came across a 20t hybrid turbo that had just been reconditioned by GP turbos for £400, so i purchased that :smiley:
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Now this prompted me to buy an intercooler and some bigger injectors, so 630cc injectors ordered brand new, and someone offered me an SC Autoworks intercooler and pipework, for £200. SO i bought that, when it come i was surprised how big the boost pipes were! theyre about 2.5" ID, absolutely massive!
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I considered buying megane 265 brakes in red, but thought ill give the standard brakes a chance first, so ordered some brand new wheels instead :smiley: new wheel day is always a good day!
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Had to get these on the car, so took the tyres off my old wheels, and got them fitted! Safe to say the car needs lowering and i need to remove the 25mm spacers as standard wheels are like ET63 and these wheels are ET35. At the same time i fitted some facelift rear lights for a more modern look.
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Ordered some H&R 30+40mm lowering springs to hopefully close the gap. Spacers are gonna be removed as the cars sat too wide.
Next purchase: Projector headlights, they come with a HID kit but these will be changed for nighteye LED bulbs.
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So thats as far as ive got, just waiting on the clutch coming and the engine swap can commence! All of the old running gear is for sale if anyone needs any parts. Will keep you updated on the build. £5000 spent on this £700 car now and it hasnt moved from the day i got it, ive never even heard it start haha.
 
Great intro. Following closely.
To reach 330bhp you may need to factor in sorting out the fuelling. Standard pump will be maxed out
 
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I’m surprised you haven’t gone coilovers tbh.. with how nice everything else is seems to almost silly ruin the ride with crashy springs! even if it’s a daily some b14s / Gaz gha would be a better alternative.. grantees the obvious cost difference
 
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Great intro. Following closely.
To reach 330bhp you may need to factor in sorting out the fuelling. Standard pump will be maxed out
I was told standard pump would handle this. I've still got a sytec from my old turbo clio I may be able to use. Its an external pump mind so it might not be good for this application
 
I’m surprised you haven’t gone coilovers tbh.. with how nice everything else is seems to almost silly ruin the ride with crashy springs! even if it’s a daily some b14s / Gaz gha would be a better alternative.. grantees the obvious cost difference
I thought I'd give the springs a go. I had gaz on my 172 and they were brilliant, coilovers are planned in the future though
 
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Good start to this! Will also be watching this.

I'd also recommend coilovers, I went from H&R springs to B14'S and it is much better! But fair enough for wanting to give them ago, they do sit really nice on H&R springs.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk
 
Good start to this! Will also be watching this.

I'd also recommend coilovers, I went from H&R springs to B14'S and it is much better! But fair enough for wanting to give them ago, they do sit really nice on H&R springs.

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Get some proper coilovers :wink:
 
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Get some proper coilovers :wink:
Throwing shots at me left, right and centre tonight mate [emoji23] I like the B14'S as I can still use them properly down a back road and they're smooth as you like on motorways. If it ever becomes a pure track toy then I will

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Mint intro! Part of me will always wish I megged my old UR 197, but I got my 250 back today after nearly 3 weeks away having a new screen and bonnet following an incident with some fencing whilst parked at work (stupid I know), it’s just an incredible car and worlds above my old Clio. Turbo life is excellent and as much as I miss the Ktec induction kit and Scorpion barking at me, turbo is so much nicer to drive.

Have to agree with comments about coilovers - don’t get me wrong I ran Eibachs and I loved it, but tracking it at Snetterton on Gaz Golds turned it into a different car altogether. LSD would have made mine about perfect and something I should have done when I had a refurbed box but hindsight and all that..

Keep the updates coming...new track toy I’m guessing?
 
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Mint intro! Part of me will always wish I megged my old UR 197, but I got my 250 back today after nearly 3 weeks away having a new screen and bonnet following an incident with some fencing whilst parked at work (stupid I know), it’s just an incredible car and worlds above my old Clio. Turbo life is excellent and as much as I miss the Ktec induction kit and Scorpion barking at me, turbo is so much nicer to drive.

Have to agree with comments about coilovers - don’t get me wrong I ran Eibachs and I loved it, but tracking it at Snetterton on Gaz Golds turned it into a different car altogether. LSD would have made mine about perfect and something I should have done when I had a refurbed box but hindsight and all that..

Keep the updates coming...new track toy I’m guessing?

Mainly a new daily again but I plan to take it on track, if I feel the springs aren't up to the job I will be going for coilovers. I'm waiting to find a deal on a CAE shifter or coolerworx or something as the standard 225 shifter is numb
 
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Mainly a new daily again but I plan to take it on track, if I feel the springs aren't up to the job I will be going for coilovers. I'm waiting to find a deal on a CAE shifter or coolerworx or something as the standard 225 shifter is numb
ZeroPointOne do shifters for them too, you'll need the Megane one obviously. I think they're a bit cheaper than CAE and can be customised, but they don't come with cables as far as i know.
 
ZeroPointOne do shifters for them too, you'll need the Megane one obviously. I think they're a bit cheaper than CAE and can be customised, but they don't come with cables as far as i know.

Yeah, I have the zero point one shifter for my Clio 225.

You do indeed need the megane version (fits exactly the same) and uses the standard megane cables.

Also a vote here for some coilovers. The bilstein kit has some advantages with the upside down setup, especially useful since your running and lsd and a lot of torque.
 
Yeah, I have the zero point one shifter for my Clio 225.

You do indeed need the megane version (fits exactly the same) and uses the standard megane cables.

Also a vote here for some coilovers. The bilstein kit has some advantages with the upside down setup, especially useful since your running and lsd and a lot of torque.
Any chance of a picture of the ZPO shifter fitted please John? I’m considering one myself but don’t want to remove to much of the centre console. PM me if you prefer
 
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Any chance of a picture of the ZPO shifter fitted please John? I’m considering one myself but don’t want to remove to much of the centre console. PM me if you prefer

Found some old pics...

You will lose your two cup holders. I need to redo my middle console.

On my original piece we chopped it out completely, left a big hole on the centre section, but I didn't like seeing the body.

Second one I wanted to cut around the shifter. Realised mid way that lhd/rhd have different fittings, my second is a rhd part. So I just cut this one roughly to help work out how to do it neater with a lhd item.



Sorry for thread hijack.
 
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I made a start, and got quite far so i need to update this. Got the Helix clutch, so i started building my engine up ready to swap over.
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Looks messy i know, no paint or cleaning as of yet. Too eager to get this in! Next i made a start on the car:
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Didnt take long to get the old engine out, straight after i fitted the heat shield from the megane onto the clio bulkhead. Luckily a mate told me to put a little heatshield over my fuel pipes aswell, didnt realise how close the downpipe would sit to them! Then as ive seen on another post on here, i modified the route of the air con line so it didnt foul on the downpipe. While i had a little time left that evening i fitted the megane gear shifter, then called it a night. PS i know my units a shithole, dont judge me haha!
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Next evening, the megane engine was lifted into place:
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Starting to look more like a car now! Next we modified the megane exhaust link pipe so it connects to the clio exhaust system, until its up and running fine then it goes away for a custom exhaust.
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Simply shortened the pipe in the middle, and welded the olive clamp thing back on, jobs a gooden!
Had a break from touching the engines for 10 mins so fitted my H&R lowering springs.
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Bought some brand new drop links and anti rotation links too which i never pictured. Struts were fitted to the car, then the subframe was refitted. Put new drilled brake disks on at the same time. Back to doing engine stuff now.
The loom Beaniesport supplied is a brilliant fit, its literally like a factory loom. All in place the same as the clio loom was, well worth getting. After all plugged up and coolant hoses fitted, refitted radiators and battery box etc and moved the clio coolant bottle behind the battery box, moved onto intercooler pipework. 2.5" pipework compared to standard is a big difference!
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Making very quick progress now! Drilled the crossmember to accomodate the intercooler, fitted the battery and gave the car its fluids, ready for first startup!
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Attempted to start the engine, but coolant fan came on instead, plugged in CLiP and tried to read codes. Would not connect to the ECU. Baffled i was, i went over wiring again and again. As i moved a plug in the UPC the dash lights flickered. SO held the plug one way and the engine fired up! It ticked over nicely, until revved high then it dropped into a misfire and was still boosting on idle. Weird i thought. CLiP brought up shit loads of fault codes, I checked wiring again and again along with vac lines. All correct. I changed out the UPC for a spare i had, that fixed the bad connection to ecu fault, yet the car still misfired when revved and dropped to idle. After turning the car off again i had a think, and i heard the throttle body going nuts. Changed that out for a spare i had, started up and boom, fixed car! Only issue after this was coolant temp sensor not working, so ordered one of those.

I went about fitting my new projector headlights, so first i installed Nighteye LED dipped beam bulbs, and good brand LED other bulbs. I had to drill the rivets on the bottom of the new headlights and the old ones, and swap over the bumper carriers as they are different. Removed the plastic crash absorber from the back of my bumper and refitted bumper, arch liners, undertray and wheels! Once off the ramp i also fitted my spoiler. I was so happy to see the car back in one piece :smiley:
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All looks pretty factory now! Next morning i drove the car down the road, my god the helix clutch is so so heavy even with clutch damper still fitted. Never mind im used to heavy clutches and i like the feel of them. First test drive didnt go well. Gear selectors fell apart just meters out of my unit, these ive had to hold together with tiewraps as a temporary measure until new cables turn up or i buy a CAE or something. Back out it goes! I really feel like it needs stiffer engine mounts or something because it was either wheelspinning on the wet road or the engine was rocking and banging on something. Oh it also overheated as i forgot to fit new coolant temp sensor lol. I got some good pictures of it though and a video of he chatter :smiley:
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Looks immense now and sounds the nuts. Ready to go for custom 3" exhaust and mapping now :smiley:
 
Awesome write up, iv'e just put the engine in mine and realised that there is quite a big gap in my meglio knowledge. Can you tell me what I do with the 2 vacuum/servo lines that sit in the middle on top of the engine please.ir-20240201_144720.jpg20240201_144726 xxxx.jpg