Steves Megane conversion build - She's finally running (VIDEO inside)

Foxspeed, thats why I want to get it working. Not sure how the CAMS work when the VVT isn't in operation?

most likely be in the safe position ie minimum overlap...

fords ecoboost uses the vvt to help spool the turbo up to give good transient throttle response and when needed to lower emissions - quite clever what they can do with the vvt
 
Vvt does indeed help with midrange but it doesn't help with topend at all, the vvt on the megane is set to 0 at top end. You don't want more overlap there because of the tiny exhaust housing!
 
Vvt does indeed help with midrange but it doesn't help with topend at all, the vvt on the megane is set to 0 at top end. You don't want more overlap there because of the tiny exhaust housing!

RST told me the VVT was mild on 250 and wasn't worth the bother of getting it going.
 
UPDATE:

A lot had happened this weekend with the gearbox rebuild. First off I cleaned all the parts with solvent degreaser to make sure there was no debris on the gears, especially on the journals and oil holes on the shafts. I concentrated on the output shaft first. The gears were laid out on the previous drawing I had made when I took it apart. The gears could now be assembled, being very careful of the orientation of the gears. The replacement synchro rings were checked that they were gripping the gears correctly and the synchro teeth lined up without any "Point to point" contact. The rest of the gears need to be pressed onto the shaft, Ill do this tomorrow at work.

Next up was the input shaft. Like before they were cleaned and laid out on the drawing. They were assembled in the same manner, checking synchro's correctly, particularly on the 3rd and 4th synchro, Ive changed to the steel ones to see how they fair. If they fail after a while Ive got some ideas to re-design the synchros. The curclips on this shafts were a particular pain in the arse. They tended to ping off the pliers and I would spend the next 10 minutes trying to find it :lol:

The next job I achieved was bolting the pinion gear onto my quaife atb LSD, I'm unsure of the torque spec for this but have found other similar car gearboxes and they all seem to be around the 100N/m area. If anyone can clarify the correct torque setting that would be great.

The slave cylinder was also bolted into the bell housing and loctite used, you really dont want a bolt to work its way loose in this area.

Some pictures as usual.


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Thanks
 
What a great view..like when the gearbox is stripped down..would love to do the same with mine..bet I would find all sorts of debris there..good job as always
 
What a great view..like when the gearbox is stripped down..would love to do the same with mine..bet I would find all sorts of debris there..good job as always

It's too hard to strip one, but you need to take your time and have the right tools. Thanks mate :smile:
 
Output shaft completed, all the gears and bearing was pressed on at work. A trial fitting of the shifter mechanism and it all works fine :smile: I'll get more photos later.


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UPDATE:

I hope everyone had a great xmas. I spent mine largely rebuilding the gearbox :lol:

Anyway the gearbox is done. On Monday I pressed on the last remaining fixed gears onto the output shaft. Simply got a thick piece of aluminium tube and placed it over a gear and gently applied pressure until it was in place, this was repeated for every gear and the taper roller bearing at the top. The retaining curclip was then installed above the bearing. Now was the tricky bit and was to get all the shifter-fingers, shafts and diff/final drive gear, reverse idler and barrel shift mechanism all in place at the same time. I achieved this by loosely placing the diff, shafts and fingers into the case, while holding everything inline I wiggled the case and everything fell into place. The input shaft was then pulled out a little bit so I had enough clearance to install the reverse idler and its shifter finger. The last step was to install the shifter mechanism, easiest part of the install, just make sure that the spring is in the correct position otherwise the shifting action will be sloppy. Once all this was in the magnet was cleaned and intalled and a bead of silicon sealant applied to the case mating surface, the other half of the casing was placed on top of the mating half, you have to rotate the shifter bracket at the same time to engage it into the barrel mechanism. The bolts were intalled and torqued to 24 ft/ib, left for 24 hours to settle and then torqued again. All parts inside the gearbox were coated in zx1 to aid lubrication on first start up.

gearbox is now finished and it shifts lovely and smoothly :smiley:

Now with all the gearbox and engine done its time to remove my old engine, today i cleared out the rest of the garage and finally parked the clio in there :smile: the conversion starts now.....



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Thanks
 
UPDATE:

Little update today, got a lot done on the whole engine removal. Took the bumper,crash bar and lights off first, easy job, only takes 10 minutes. The next bit was a bit trickier, I had to drain the coolant and remove the radiator, as it always goes the coolant went everywhere and soaked the garage floor. i plan on installing a thicker radiator or another one in parallel to try and solve this cooling problem that plagues these conversions. With that out the way the inlet manifold was unbolted and the airbox was removed, just requires a short sharp pull and you should be able to remove it, the battery tray was then unbolted. This is as far as ive gotten today.

Tomorrow I plan on removing the drive shafts and suspension struts, I can tell its going to be an arse of a job.


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Thanks
 
I'm just going to fit the Megane radiator, as i'm using the original intercooler as is the rad would've needed to be moved over a bit anyway so could aswell fit the Megane radiator while i'm at it.

i also had to loose A/C because the downpipe hit a little pot, wonder if the pot isn't there on UK Clio's as i've seen 225 conversions retaining A/C, could you make me a pic when the engines out?

Also i unbolted the wishbones and pulled the uprights outwards so i could remove the shafts

going to do wiring and immobiliser tomorrow so hopefully be able to start it in the afternoon