tombate911
Paid Member
Steves Megane conversion build - She's finally running (VIDEO inside)
- Thread starter Stephenvenning
- Start date
Stephenvenning
Gold Member
Im back!
Sorry for the long update time, mainly due to not a great deal happening on the car really, just enjoying it mainly. However I have made some progress on some bits to try and hit the magical 400HP on a 20t hybrid turbo. The plan is to use that of a 200 cylinder head which has far superior ports to a 225 head and more resembles that of a 250 cylinder head. The plan will be have 3 angle valves seats cut again, oversized supertech valves and catcam cams as well as smooth out the chambers and de-shroud the valves seats to increase flow, the ports will also get a light blending like the the current head received.
Before Xmas I picked up a head and got to work, cleaned it down with hot soapy water (Had only done 500 miles so didnt need much cleaning). The clio injector are long series injectors, however siemens dont do large injectors with the long spout on the end, therefore I had to cut some injector reliefs in the top of the port. To achieve this I made up a fixture so I could bolt the head to a mill at a 35 degree angle. Then using a 16mm slot cutter I cut the recesses, all went well and are ready to be blended into the rest of the port. I also in the Xmas period began the long task of smoothing out the chambers and de-shrouding the valve seats, carbide burrs and 60 grit flap discs work very well for this. Only one port done so far but you get the idea. Once the head is complete ill need to make up a custom inlet manifold to suit the larger ports, this wont be for a while however.
On a side project Ive been trying to solve the synchro problem in the TL4 gearbox, Ive prototyped two rings which will be fitted to my gearbox in the summer to give it some abuse, also if anyone wants to try out some synchro rings I will be giving some away for testing purposes. Ive made some jigs which enable me to modify the rings on the lathe, this jigs minimise cutting tool chatter and improves accuracy.
Some easier but possibly more exciting mods have taken place in recent weeks too, first being the geniune Renaultsport front splitter, Ive always loved the look of these and give the car a much more aggressive front end. Was easy to fit, however havent had a chance to clean the car since so haven't got many pictures of it yet. The most exciting mod however possibly since the conversion is the addition of a CAE shifter, always loved the engineering in these and they look so cool. I opted for the non anodized version with gunmetal silver gear knob. I fitted it this weekend and its seriusly the best driving mod ive done, its so precise and feels awesome, no sop in it at all! I do however need to fit some sound deadening foam to the underside as the road and gearbox noise from it is a little too much for a road car.
So yeah, thats about it for the last few months, some big changes.
Sorry for the long update time, mainly due to not a great deal happening on the car really, just enjoying it mainly. However I have made some progress on some bits to try and hit the magical 400HP on a 20t hybrid turbo. The plan is to use that of a 200 cylinder head which has far superior ports to a 225 head and more resembles that of a 250 cylinder head. The plan will be have 3 angle valves seats cut again, oversized supertech valves and catcam cams as well as smooth out the chambers and de-shroud the valves seats to increase flow, the ports will also get a light blending like the the current head received.
Before Xmas I picked up a head and got to work, cleaned it down with hot soapy water (Had only done 500 miles so didnt need much cleaning). The clio injector are long series injectors, however siemens dont do large injectors with the long spout on the end, therefore I had to cut some injector reliefs in the top of the port. To achieve this I made up a fixture so I could bolt the head to a mill at a 35 degree angle. Then using a 16mm slot cutter I cut the recesses, all went well and are ready to be blended into the rest of the port. I also in the Xmas period began the long task of smoothing out the chambers and de-shrouding the valve seats, carbide burrs and 60 grit flap discs work very well for this. Only one port done so far but you get the idea. Once the head is complete ill need to make up a custom inlet manifold to suit the larger ports, this wont be for a while however.
On a side project Ive been trying to solve the synchro problem in the TL4 gearbox, Ive prototyped two rings which will be fitted to my gearbox in the summer to give it some abuse, also if anyone wants to try out some synchro rings I will be giving some away for testing purposes. Ive made some jigs which enable me to modify the rings on the lathe, this jigs minimise cutting tool chatter and improves accuracy.
Some easier but possibly more exciting mods have taken place in recent weeks too, first being the geniune Renaultsport front splitter, Ive always loved the look of these and give the car a much more aggressive front end. Was easy to fit, however havent had a chance to clean the car since so haven't got many pictures of it yet. The most exciting mod however possibly since the conversion is the addition of a CAE shifter, always loved the engineering in these and they look so cool. I opted for the non anodized version with gunmetal silver gear knob. I fitted it this weekend and its seriusly the best driving mod ive done, its so precise and feels awesome, no sop in it at all! I do however need to fit some sound deadening foam to the underside as the road and gearbox noise from it is a little too much for a road car.
So yeah, thats about it for the last few months, some big changes.
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Stephenvenning
Gold Member
tombate911
Paid Member
Fantastic work as usual! You know I've been following this with great detail over recent months on Facebook and Instagram. Keep them coming.
Yiannis197
Paid Member
Stephenvenning
Gold Member
Im back!
Thought I would update my post considering I still have the Clio and Im pretty bored in this lock down. Hopefully my thread may be a good read for some to pass the time :lol:
Ill try and start where I left off a few years back, anyway in March of 2019 the car was taken off the road to complete some needed jobs and to further refine some points about the car I wasn't happy with. Unfortunately due to personal reasons the car still is off the road, but this does mean I can undertake some more jobs on the car and provide more content.
I never liked how the coolant pipes sat on the megane conversions, they take up a lot of unwanted space as well as causing an issue when using a Clio gearbox like I am. Because the coolant pump normally bolts to the megane gearbox, when using the clio box it has nowhere to bolt too so it just kinda sits there, this can cause issues with jamming up on the gearbox linkage bracket which can lock you out of gears. This only happened a handful of times but it was clearly an issue that needed rectifying. My solution was too make all the coolant pipes out of stainless and try and tuck them in the recess between the gearbox and thermostat housing. In order to fit in the tight gaps I use a method called "Pie" cutting. This is where sections of pipe are cut into slices at a set angle, you can then piece them together to create some very complex shapes. I cut mine at 15 degrees, therefore 6 would make a 90 degree bend. It was very time consuming and there was a lot of welding involved but I'm very happy with the results. All the welds were back purged to prevent sugaring on the inside of the joint. I also made up a bracket to mount the coolant pump properly.
I think anyone who has changed the coolant on a 197/200 will tell you how much of a pain in the arse it is as there is no drain plug. Therefore when making all the coolant lines I also wanted to make a stainless manifold with a drain plug incorporated into it. This was made in much the same way as the piping. The manifold is mounted onto the bell housing bolts. Some bushings are used allow the manifold to move otherwise if it was hard mounted to the engine it would put a lot of strain on the radiator when the engine moves around when driving.
When changing the oil filter access is always very limited due to its close proximity to the radiator. Sometimes I just take the whole front of the car apart to be able to access the filter from the top by pulling the radiator forward, this is a pain though. Therefore I created a removable slam panel, this enables me to gain access to the oil filter from the top without having to take everything apart. Basically I made up some brackets which will be glued to the existing parts of the old slam panel, this then gives me a mounting point for the new slam panel. Its all been made out of 2mm mild steel sheet and TIG welded together. This will also enable me to mount the radiator and associated ducting more effectively than with the old plastic slam panel. Because the new slam panel is also thinner it gives me more room, therefore I don't need to space the radiator support downward in order to fit a megane radiator.
With everything mounted where I wanted it to be this enabled me to start work on the electrics. First up was the fact I have always wanted to mount the fuse box and ECU inside the cabin, to first create more room in the engine bay and also to protect the items from moisture. The fuse box and ECU are now mounted into the passenger footwell. The standard loom was then extended and adapted accordingly. I've also got rid of the standard power distribution box and I'm now using a aftermarket one which uses MIDI fuses, this is mounted under the carpet in the passenger footwell. The car has been powered up and all the functions work as they should.
I have now started work on making a brand new engine loom as I've been having intermittent problems with the OEM loom. I have always loved the look of a proper motorsport loom, so therefore why not make my own right? I started work by using rope to make a mock loom, this enables me to get a pattern for the loom and create a "loom board". In conjunction with an excel spreadsheet I was now ready to start mapping out the wires. Once all the wires were run to the their destinations on the board I put labels on all the wires. I was now able to start to lay up all the wires in a method called "concentric twisting", this is where wires are laid up in layers, each layer the wires twist in the opposite direction to the last layer, this in turn creates a very neat loom which is also very flexible. To get each layer complete you may have to add "filler" wires, I used around 20 0.5mm filler wires which will be used to incorporate various gauges and sensors into the engine loom. At this stage I have sleeved all the engine side of the loom and its ready for a test fit on the car in the next week. The sleeving I've used is Raychem DR-25 and is very flexible and resistant to the environmental factors, the breakouts have been sealed using a combination of Raychem boots and SCL. I still have to source a few more plugs and terminals, the ones in the fuse box have been the biggest pain to find but I am making progress.
Thought I would update my post considering I still have the Clio and Im pretty bored in this lock down. Hopefully my thread may be a good read for some to pass the time :lol:
Ill try and start where I left off a few years back, anyway in March of 2019 the car was taken off the road to complete some needed jobs and to further refine some points about the car I wasn't happy with. Unfortunately due to personal reasons the car still is off the road, but this does mean I can undertake some more jobs on the car and provide more content.
I never liked how the coolant pipes sat on the megane conversions, they take up a lot of unwanted space as well as causing an issue when using a Clio gearbox like I am. Because the coolant pump normally bolts to the megane gearbox, when using the clio box it has nowhere to bolt too so it just kinda sits there, this can cause issues with jamming up on the gearbox linkage bracket which can lock you out of gears. This only happened a handful of times but it was clearly an issue that needed rectifying. My solution was too make all the coolant pipes out of stainless and try and tuck them in the recess between the gearbox and thermostat housing. In order to fit in the tight gaps I use a method called "Pie" cutting. This is where sections of pipe are cut into slices at a set angle, you can then piece them together to create some very complex shapes. I cut mine at 15 degrees, therefore 6 would make a 90 degree bend. It was very time consuming and there was a lot of welding involved but I'm very happy with the results. All the welds were back purged to prevent sugaring on the inside of the joint. I also made up a bracket to mount the coolant pump properly.
I think anyone who has changed the coolant on a 197/200 will tell you how much of a pain in the arse it is as there is no drain plug. Therefore when making all the coolant lines I also wanted to make a stainless manifold with a drain plug incorporated into it. This was made in much the same way as the piping. The manifold is mounted onto the bell housing bolts. Some bushings are used allow the manifold to move otherwise if it was hard mounted to the engine it would put a lot of strain on the radiator when the engine moves around when driving.
When changing the oil filter access is always very limited due to its close proximity to the radiator. Sometimes I just take the whole front of the car apart to be able to access the filter from the top by pulling the radiator forward, this is a pain though. Therefore I created a removable slam panel, this enables me to gain access to the oil filter from the top without having to take everything apart. Basically I made up some brackets which will be glued to the existing parts of the old slam panel, this then gives me a mounting point for the new slam panel. Its all been made out of 2mm mild steel sheet and TIG welded together. This will also enable me to mount the radiator and associated ducting more effectively than with the old plastic slam panel. Because the new slam panel is also thinner it gives me more room, therefore I don't need to space the radiator support downward in order to fit a megane radiator.
With everything mounted where I wanted it to be this enabled me to start work on the electrics. First up was the fact I have always wanted to mount the fuse box and ECU inside the cabin, to first create more room in the engine bay and also to protect the items from moisture. The fuse box and ECU are now mounted into the passenger footwell. The standard loom was then extended and adapted accordingly. I've also got rid of the standard power distribution box and I'm now using a aftermarket one which uses MIDI fuses, this is mounted under the carpet in the passenger footwell. The car has been powered up and all the functions work as they should.
I have now started work on making a brand new engine loom as I've been having intermittent problems with the OEM loom. I have always loved the look of a proper motorsport loom, so therefore why not make my own right? I started work by using rope to make a mock loom, this enables me to get a pattern for the loom and create a "loom board". In conjunction with an excel spreadsheet I was now ready to start mapping out the wires. Once all the wires were run to the their destinations on the board I put labels on all the wires. I was now able to start to lay up all the wires in a method called "concentric twisting", this is where wires are laid up in layers, each layer the wires twist in the opposite direction to the last layer, this in turn creates a very neat loom which is also very flexible. To get each layer complete you may have to add "filler" wires, I used around 20 0.5mm filler wires which will be used to incorporate various gauges and sensors into the engine loom. At this stage I have sleeved all the engine side of the loom and its ready for a test fit on the car in the next week. The sleeving I've used is Raychem DR-25 and is very flexible and resistant to the environmental factors, the breakouts have been sealed using a combination of Raychem boots and SCL. I still have to source a few more plugs and terminals, the ones in the fuse box have been the biggest pain to find but I am making progress.
Stephenvenning
Gold Member
