Steves Megane conversion build - She's finally running (VIDEO inside)
- Thread starter Stephenvenning
- Start date
Stephenvenning
Gold Member
UPDATE:
Havent updated in a while, the reason for that is not much has happened modification wise.
Anyway last weekend I attended PFC expo and my car was displayed inside, some of you may have seen it. The week beforehand ment I had to get it clean. Spent the saturday before cleaning and correcting the car ready for the show, came out really well and swirl marks were pretty much removed. Also fitted some 20mm spacers which give it a better stance without being too crazy.
The show was pretty good and met up with some friends, good day out and the car got quite a bit of attention. Looks very shiny too.
This weekend was quite eventful, I took @Luke_197 to pick up his lovely 200 from being meg'd at two techs on saturday, great guys and they really know there stuff, so if you need a renault specialist down south give them a shout. What then followed was a great drive back with a few detours down some twisties, even though the weather was terrible. Car needs another clean now. Then had a passenger ride in Lukes 200 and man it sounds good and pulls like a train, considering taking my rear seats out now just for the increased exhaust noise and pops and bangs. Also now want a forge recirc like Lukes, you get a lovely turbo flutter when letting off which mine doesnt have.
Today I went round Lukes again and met up with @Yiannis197 , had a chat about clios and cars in general, cant wait for that drive out next year we were talking about!
Anyway now winter is drawing in its time to tidy up some little bits ready for summer like properly boxing in my fuel pump and making up a cold air feed, considering making up a headlight feed as I dont really like the bonnet vents. Also hop to actually get it mapped this year, buying a house has sort of put this on hold for the time being, but dont worry i wont be getting rid of the car, I love it too much and cant really think of a car which is as much fun.
Pictures as usual:
Thanks
Havent updated in a while, the reason for that is not much has happened modification wise.
Anyway last weekend I attended PFC expo and my car was displayed inside, some of you may have seen it. The week beforehand ment I had to get it clean. Spent the saturday before cleaning and correcting the car ready for the show, came out really well and swirl marks were pretty much removed. Also fitted some 20mm spacers which give it a better stance without being too crazy.
The show was pretty good and met up with some friends, good day out and the car got quite a bit of attention. Looks very shiny too.
This weekend was quite eventful, I took @Luke_197 to pick up his lovely 200 from being meg'd at two techs on saturday, great guys and they really know there stuff, so if you need a renault specialist down south give them a shout. What then followed was a great drive back with a few detours down some twisties, even though the weather was terrible. Car needs another clean now. Then had a passenger ride in Lukes 200 and man it sounds good and pulls like a train, considering taking my rear seats out now just for the increased exhaust noise and pops and bangs. Also now want a forge recirc like Lukes, you get a lovely turbo flutter when letting off which mine doesnt have.
Today I went round Lukes again and met up with @Yiannis197 , had a chat about clios and cars in general, cant wait for that drive out next year we were talking about!
Anyway now winter is drawing in its time to tidy up some little bits ready for summer like properly boxing in my fuel pump and making up a cold air feed, considering making up a headlight feed as I dont really like the bonnet vents. Also hop to actually get it mapped this year, buying a house has sort of put this on hold for the time being, but dont worry i wont be getting rid of the car, I love it too much and cant really think of a car which is as much fun.
Pictures as usual:
Thanks
Yiannis197
Paid Member
The above pics just don't do the car justice! As mentioned on Luke's thread that engine bay is something to have wet dreams about!
Top work there Stephen, utter respect mate for time, love and effort
Great meeting you guys, really enjoyed the talks as well. Bring on the blasts now!
Top work there Stephen, utter respect mate for time, love and effort
Great meeting you guys, really enjoyed the talks as well. Bring on the blasts now!
Stephenvenning
Gold Member
UPDATE:
These are becoming monthly updates now it seems, sorry about that :lol:
Anyway some bits have actually been done to the car recently, first of was boxing in the fuel pump to reduce the noise. Popped down to Wicks and picked up some MDF and then got some thick sound deadening foam from work to line it with. I firstly made up a box using wood screws and some battening, this was then lined with the foam and then covered in acoustic fabric from Halfords, its reduced the noise A LOT, you can still here it while in traffic but once you get moving I cant hear it at all.
Ive also in the last few weeks moved my filter into the gap where the battery used to be, it will be cooler in this location but ultimately my reason is it looks better tbh, cold air feeds make much little difference in a turbo charged car IMO. Got some aluminum bend tube and a coupler, as well as making up a custom bracket. The filter looks much better now and better use of the extra space created by moving the battery.
I also plan this week in tidying up the vacuum lines by ditching the fuel vapour recirc line and then making up new vacuum lines and tucking them, then Ill remake up the carbon sheet on the gearbox mount as it has broken in places.
I have been to a few good meets recently like goodwood piston heads meet and a few local ones, just trying to enjoy the car more now rather than always changing bits on it.
Pictures as usual:
These are becoming monthly updates now it seems, sorry about that :lol:
Anyway some bits have actually been done to the car recently, first of was boxing in the fuel pump to reduce the noise. Popped down to Wicks and picked up some MDF and then got some thick sound deadening foam from work to line it with. I firstly made up a box using wood screws and some battening, this was then lined with the foam and then covered in acoustic fabric from Halfords, its reduced the noise A LOT, you can still here it while in traffic but once you get moving I cant hear it at all.
Ive also in the last few weeks moved my filter into the gap where the battery used to be, it will be cooler in this location but ultimately my reason is it looks better tbh, cold air feeds make much little difference in a turbo charged car IMO. Got some aluminum bend tube and a coupler, as well as making up a custom bracket. The filter looks much better now and better use of the extra space created by moving the battery.
I also plan this week in tidying up the vacuum lines by ditching the fuel vapour recirc line and then making up new vacuum lines and tucking them, then Ill remake up the carbon sheet on the gearbox mount as it has broken in places.
I have been to a few good meets recently like goodwood piston heads meet and a few local ones, just trying to enjoy the car more now rather than always changing bits on it.
Pictures as usual:
Stephenvenning
Gold Member
UPDATE:
Ive always hated how messy and all over the place the Megane engine looks compared with the clio variant. The clio has nice vacuum line routing and an inlet which hides a lot of bits. The megane's vacuum lines on the right hand side go all over the place with poor routing, even in a stock megane they look pretty crap to be honest. Most people just fit an engine cover and be done with it but I hate modern engines that are covered in plastic covers so I decided to re-route these lines.
First one being was the carbon canister line which are also prone to breaking at the throttle body. I don't really need the carbon canister as emissions aren't really a priority as its decat anyway, therefore I just removed this line altogether and made up a aluminium plug for the throttle body. The next one was the line for the recirc valve, this was simply just re-routed down underneath the inlet manifold and along the coolant outlet housing.
Now because the fuel tank venting line was removed I still needed to find a place for this. Therefore I fitted a venting non return catch can as Ive always planned on fitting one anyway, the fuel vapour line just runs to this now along with the crankcase breather. Getting it fitted required some trial and error to keep it from fowling on the gear linkages, once the catchcan was where I wanted it, I set about making some fixings up on the lathe to mount the can to the coolant outlet housing, I also knocked up a plug for the inlet pipe where the existing breather was routed to. I then used a bit of 10mm stainless tube and flattened each end and drilled a 7mm hole in each end, this then creates a very strong bracket/fixing. Knocked one up for the catch can and to secure the inlet filter more securely.
Pictures as always:
Thanks
Ive always hated how messy and all over the place the Megane engine looks compared with the clio variant. The clio has nice vacuum line routing and an inlet which hides a lot of bits. The megane's vacuum lines on the right hand side go all over the place with poor routing, even in a stock megane they look pretty crap to be honest. Most people just fit an engine cover and be done with it but I hate modern engines that are covered in plastic covers so I decided to re-route these lines.
First one being was the carbon canister line which are also prone to breaking at the throttle body. I don't really need the carbon canister as emissions aren't really a priority as its decat anyway, therefore I just removed this line altogether and made up a aluminium plug for the throttle body. The next one was the line for the recirc valve, this was simply just re-routed down underneath the inlet manifold and along the coolant outlet housing.
Now because the fuel tank venting line was removed I still needed to find a place for this. Therefore I fitted a venting non return catch can as Ive always planned on fitting one anyway, the fuel vapour line just runs to this now along with the crankcase breather. Getting it fitted required some trial and error to keep it from fowling on the gear linkages, once the catchcan was where I wanted it, I set about making some fixings up on the lathe to mount the can to the coolant outlet housing, I also knocked up a plug for the inlet pipe where the existing breather was routed to. I then used a bit of 10mm stainless tube and flattened each end and drilled a 7mm hole in each end, this then creates a very strong bracket/fixing. Knocked one up for the catch can and to secure the inlet filter more securely.
Pictures as always:
Thanks
Now THAT is an Engine bay.
And i'd agree on the Meg lump looking dour as standard. You certainly proved that wrong with yours though. Epic effort and stunning work
And i'd agree on the Meg lump looking dour as standard. You certainly proved that wrong with yours though. Epic effort and stunning work
Stephenvenning
Gold Member
Stephenvenning
Gold Member
UPDATE:
Not much happening on the car really in the last few months, havent even cleaned it since beginning of January, also just bought a house so funds are a bit tighter these days especially with house prices down south. The plan is though to get the car finnally mapped in April for my birthday. Anyway Ive done a few cheap mods this last month.
First being some Streamline carbon style grilles, I really like the design of these grilles but they are too pricey, carbon deteriorates quite quickly and their lead times are ridiculous. Therefore I set about making my own grilles in the same style. I bought some standard Clio mk3 grilles on ebay for £20, then I used a dremel to cut out the grill/fin bit. Then using various grade sandpapers I sanded the edges flat, I then set about flatting textured plastic down using 800 grit. Then i just set about using the standard painting procedure to achieve a nice gloss metallic black. Left this to harden over a week and then applied g techniq c1 to them for protection. Fitted them last weekend and tbh from a distance you cant really tell they arent streamline ones, they fit better also due to keeping all the clips in place, so no glueing needed! They should improve cooling a little as well due to there being to grille blocking airflow. I may now make up some ducts to direct the air into the radiator.
Since my nightmare with my wiring loom the passenger side xenon has never worked even when I changed over the bulb. Finally got round to sorting it this weekend. First swapped over the headlights to check the bulb and ballast wasnt faulty, it was all okay. Therefore the problem was either the wire, fuse or relay as I want getting any 12V to the headlight plug. I managed find the fuses for the headlight and relay in the fusebox and these were all okay. This means it must have been the wire ad surprise surprise the wire had no continuity from the plug to the fusebox, in fact it was completely missing from the plug on the fusebox, very strange...
Anyway I ended up running a new wire between the fusebox and headlight, all working now! really baffles me why that happened, that part of the loom didnt need changing at all.
Thanks
Not much happening on the car really in the last few months, havent even cleaned it since beginning of January, also just bought a house so funds are a bit tighter these days especially with house prices down south. The plan is though to get the car finnally mapped in April for my birthday. Anyway Ive done a few cheap mods this last month.
First being some Streamline carbon style grilles, I really like the design of these grilles but they are too pricey, carbon deteriorates quite quickly and their lead times are ridiculous. Therefore I set about making my own grilles in the same style. I bought some standard Clio mk3 grilles on ebay for £20, then I used a dremel to cut out the grill/fin bit. Then using various grade sandpapers I sanded the edges flat, I then set about flatting textured plastic down using 800 grit. Then i just set about using the standard painting procedure to achieve a nice gloss metallic black. Left this to harden over a week and then applied g techniq c1 to them for protection. Fitted them last weekend and tbh from a distance you cant really tell they arent streamline ones, they fit better also due to keeping all the clips in place, so no glueing needed! They should improve cooling a little as well due to there being to grille blocking airflow. I may now make up some ducts to direct the air into the radiator.
Since my nightmare with my wiring loom the passenger side xenon has never worked even when I changed over the bulb. Finally got round to sorting it this weekend. First swapped over the headlights to check the bulb and ballast wasnt faulty, it was all okay. Therefore the problem was either the wire, fuse or relay as I want getting any 12V to the headlight plug. I managed find the fuses for the headlight and relay in the fusebox and these were all okay. This means it must have been the wire ad surprise surprise the wire had no continuity from the plug to the fusebox, in fact it was completely missing from the plug on the fusebox, very strange...
Anyway I ended up running a new wire between the fusebox and headlight, all working now! really baffles me why that happened, that part of the loom didnt need changing at all.
Thanks
Think you lost the record, I paid 316 from eBay minus the alternator!Right guys and girls i thought it was time to start a project thread as Ive had the car around a year now. Now has come the time when i need more power so its a megane conversion for me. Picked up the engine today and drained the oil (No bits of metal in it) now for a few months of stripping it and then hopefully forging it! I think i hold the record for cheapest ebay find
Heres a pic!
Stephenvenning
Gold Member
