ClioSport.net

Register a free account today to become a member!
Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Read more here.

My Clio with the engine in the wrong end



DaveL485

ClioSport Club Member
  21T, 9T, Meglio, V6
Cross posted from TR

https://turborenault.co.uk/threads/the-last-thing-i-needed-was-another-project-car.100276/

I couldnt afford it and I didnt have time for it. So. I bought it anyway... I've just picked it up after a marathon 2-day round trip (from Coventry to Aberdeen and back) from being painted and now it's at home to be reassembled after a fresh lick of iceberg silver.

I1.jpg


20180712_191721.jpg


Back home in the man cave (which has a build thread of its own here but i'm not cross posting sixteen pages lol)

20180713_212514.jpg


Back end interior back in

20180721_155225.jpg


Shiny new things make me happy

20180721_182711.jpg


10/10 shitting bricks refitting these sliding trims, one slip and theres a big fat scratch in my paint. Luckily went on without issues.

20180721_151533.jpg


Also have the front doors reassembled, with all electrics working.

Brand new windscreen seal just arrived from RPD as well as a bunch of fir trees for the arch liners and the bonnet mat plugs (why is there a bonnet heat mat thing when there's no engine there? :D), more reassembly to come this weekend, maybe with oil and plug service at some point.
 

DaveL485

ClioSport Club Member
  21T, 9T, Meglio, V6
Awesome!!
Just snooped on the link you gave, I love the Chromodora's!!!

Gratuitous wheel pics

20160422_140705.jpg
20160428_185658.jpg
20160428_185705.jpg


Awesome! Great attention to detail - off to read the garage thread now!

I sometimes read it back myself just because I can't believe I actually got away with building it. Waited 10 years to build, spent over 3 years building it.

Nice!! Is that a 21 Turbo it's sharing the garage with??

21 Turbo Quadra, 4wd, one of 146 made in RHD and one of the 20-ish surviving ones. Rescued it from a scrap yard 2 decades ago (where the f**k that time went I do not know) and recomissioned it. When I got it Internet wasn't a thing yet and phones didn't have cameras, the first pictures I have of it were taken on a disposible camera and developed :D We've been all over the UK and Europe in that time, 30k miles in 20 years. I'll likely be buried in it. I've just kicked off a full resto on the shell, it's being stripped and dipped as the rust has taken hold and I need to get it sorted. There's a Phase 1 9 Turbo in there too, under a pile of V6 under-body shields, arch liners, splitters etc.
 
  Monaco 172
21 Turbo Quadra, 4wd, one of 146 made in RHD and one of the 20-ish surviving ones. Rescued it from a scrap yard 2 decades ago (where the f**k that time went I do not know) and recomissioned it. When I got it Internet wasn't a thing yet and phones didn't have cameras, the first pictures I have of it were taken on a disposible camera and developed :D We've been all over the UK and Europe in that time, 30k miles in 20 years. I'll likely be buried in it. I've just kicked off a full resto on the shell, it's being stripped and dipped as the rust has taken hold and I need to get it sorted. There's a Phase 1 9 Turbo in there too, under a pile of V6 under-body shields, arch liners, splitters etc.

WE NEEEEED PICS OF THESE CARS!!
 

DaveL485

ClioSport Club Member
  21T, 9T, Meglio, V6
WE NEEEEED PICS OF THESE CARS!!
I'll do a thread on the 21 when I get around to it. I have a 197 cup too that I should post about!

Teaser, from 2.5km up in the Swiss Alps in 2016, one of my fave pics of the car. How it didnt melt down I will never know, the air was so thin I was well down on power and reduced cooling meant engine temps were much higher. The MAP sensor (it has a standalone ECU) was reading 80kpa static (so 20% lower atmospheric pressure than at home where it was calibrated). One of the other cars I was with was an Ultima Can Am and he reckoned he was 100hp down on his 550hp LS3.
 

Attachments

  • 13537543_10154258180755429_3087838737605276006_n.jpg
    13537543_10154258180755429_3087838737605276006_n.jpg
    113.6 KB · Views: 317

DaveL485

ClioSport Club Member
  21T, 9T, Meglio, V6
Yukky brake discs from standing around resolved with a good old flap-disc-ing

20180804_173544.jpg


Refitted inner arch liners and stuff and put the first proper wheel on as that corner was sorted (I think!)

20180804_170459.jpg


More tinkering tomorrow. Only got a few hours today as I picked up a free Nissan Micra (ewww) first thing and then got my chainsaw out for some tree murder.
 

mintno1

ClioSport Club Member
  Ph1 172 / Mk1 Valver
Looks great this, loved my Ph2 V6, but big soft spot for Ph1's, bet you can't wait to get it all back together and out on the road ?
 

DaveL485

ClioSport Club Member
  21T, 9T, Meglio, V6
Looks great this, loved my Ph2 V6, but big soft spot for Ph1's, bet you can't wait to get it all back together and out on the road ?
Trying to get it done for CSS at the end of the month. I want some use out of it this year before the winter closes in, i'll probably tackle the cambelt service while the weather sucks, its due on time soon. The clutch and water pump have been done though so might have a bash at doing it with the engine in... apparently it is possible. Apparently.
 

DaveL485

ClioSport Club Member
  21T, 9T, Meglio, V6
Carried on reassembling the front end today, lots of trims and stuff going back in. Put new rivnuts in to hold the big trim across the front too, with a bunch of new spire clips and stainless bolts and fir trees. Also bolted the seat runners back in too. More on the seats later... i'm a 6'6" adonis (ahem) so the OE seats would mean I have to dislocate my legs and hips to fit in the thing and suffer sore ankle/leg when driving for >1 hour anywhere.
Tried to sort the wiper linkage and stuff but there's a part missing from the linkage, scrappy visit required. Its a tiny circlip thing, no idea where its gone. If anyone has a scrap linkage I can nab a circlip from drop me a PM :)

01.jpg

02.jpg

03.jpg

04.jpg


Sadly the grille mesh I bought turned up rolled up and the post office retards had crushed it so it was kinked so that's got to go back now. Also bought new side repeaters and they came and the lenses weren't even glued on straight so they went back too. Shabby or what!

Tried fitting the new OE windscreen trim as well, holy s**t its tight, looks like the screen is going to have to come out to get it in. I can't get it more than half way across as it stands. Ive tried sliding it in, clipping it in, i've lubed it, pushed it, pulled it... its not happening. Maybe I should just sell one of the kids and have a whole new screen, because....because.... who needs to eat hot food anyway. Beans, straight out the can is where its at.

38524204_10155774809405415_6617572274079793152_n.jpg


Reasonable progress, not sure if I'll make Blyton in it but I'm going to try.

Oh, one more thing, after spending approximately 21.9% of my time trying to remember where things go despite meticulously bagging and labelling all the screws, bolts and fasteners, this one eludes me. Anyone know where this goes? It's on the outside, somewhere, but i'm fecked if I can figure out where :D

38404960_671675559837581_6707248493980811264_n.jpg
 

DaveL485

ClioSport Club Member
  21T, 9T, Meglio, V6
More checked off the jobs list.

Seats hoovered and fitted in. Yum. Sexy.

20180813_171046.jpg


20180813_171058.jpg



I went about refitting the undertrays and found that some of the old bolts had broken and previously bodged with a self tapper, so I whipped the bar off holding the broken fitting and drilled it out and put a rivnut in. The bar itself looks a bit aged so I might look to replace it with a stainless one, there's two of them though and the other one looks a swine to get out so i'll come back to it another day. I did the rivnut for that one in situ.

20180813_182006.jpg


20180813_181959.jpg


20180813_182621.jpg


Back in place with rivnuts fitted (2 broken studs in the end)

20180813_184053.jpg


Lovely :)



I had the engine undertray off to the the above mentione bar off, it seems the car is somewhat a geologist, what with the stone collection and all.

20180813_184222.jpg


20180814_123227.jpg


Finally won the battle with the windscreen trim, took two people and a lot of pratting about but finally in.

20180814_131413.jpg


With sides fitted also :D

20180814_134643.jpg
 

DaveL485

ClioSport Club Member
  21T, 9T, Meglio, V6
One fog light and trim fitted

20180814_183617.jpg


Went to fit the other fog and found that where the hooky clips go over the lip in the bumper, the fibreglass of the bumper had frayed a bit, and wouldnt hold the fog light at the top properly. It has a bolt in the bottom too, but still, wanted the light unit (brand new OE items) to be secure so I did some fibreglassy stuff, which worked out really well once trimmed down to fit the clippy bits. You can see where i've cut the original back and re-added material below. You can also see how fairly crude the OE bumper moulding was, its little more than a "Max Power" wide arch kit lol.

20180815_111847.jpg
20180815_111852.jpg



Bought some hexagon grille, bonded that in place - not sure its taken though so might need to redo it. The tiger seal doesnt seem to have gripped the grille.

20180814_192915.jpg


20180815_152225.jpg



So then it was time to refit the bumper, not much left to do now and I can maybe think about an MOT. The passenger side main beam bulb has karked it so need to grab one of those first thing tomorrow.

20180815_175818.jpg


20180815_175827.jpg



Not much left to do now, the thought of actually being able to drive it is tantalisingly close.
 
The seats look ace! I love them ? I was looking at your front bumper, wondering why it looked like that..then I realised the middle bar has been cut out. That's pretty cool!

Did you just buy the windscreen surrounds & put it on an already fitted screen ? How much were they / do you have a part number ? Mine doesn't sit flat one corner (it's had a screen, but I didn't know to replace those bits at the time) & it pisses me off loads!
 

DaveL485

ClioSport Club Member
  21T, 9T, Meglio, V6
The seats look ace! I love them ? I was looking at your front bumper, wondering why it looked like that..then I realised the middle bar has been cut out. That's pretty cool!

Did you just buy the windscreen surrounds & put it on an already fitted screen ? How much were they / do you have a part number ? Mine doesn't sit flat one corner (it's had a screen, but I didn't know to replace those bits at the time) & it pisses me off loads!

The seats look great but also serve a purpose of actually making it viable for me to drive. I'm 6'6" with a 36" inside leg, so the OE seats make the seating position untenable for more than short drives especially without cruise. The much thinner Pole Positions mounted right back against the bulkhead give me much needed legroom so I dont have to basically break my legs in half to fit in it :)
The windscreen trims went on a screen already fitted and I bought new genuine Renault from RPD...they were under £40 delivered IIRC.

https://www.renaultpartsdirect.co.uk/parts/renault-clio-range/clio-phase-2-windscreen-seal-kit/
 

DaveL485

ClioSport Club Member
  21T, 9T, Meglio, V6
MOT passed Saturday after changing a rear driveshaft boot :D the hub nut was tight as you like and I snapped my breaker bar!

20180818_103152.jpg


20180818_110429.jpg


Took the time while I was in there with a lift to remove and free off all four track rod arms and ends and adjusty bits. Last thing you want when doing Geo is a fight with dirty or stuck parts, also marked the left hand threads for future ref.

20180818_130618.jpg


20180816_141723.jpg


Geo being done today (Monday) hopefully!
 
Last edited:

DaveL485

ClioSport Club Member
  21T, 9T, Meglio, V6
The Clifford on the car loves to scoff the battery. At best I get 2 weeks before it drains it flat, common trait for em it seems as my 172 was the same. I have a trickle charger but the battery sits under the front luggage liner and removing that every time I wanna hook it up is a pain. The charger came with crocodile clips and ring terminals though so I fished the ring terminals out, chopped it up and extended the cables so I could route it all and fitted it to the car so I can plug the charger in easily. I need to mount the plug properly somewhere but at least connecting it is considerably easier now.

01.jpg
02.jpg
03.jpg
04.jpg
05.jpg

And I put this on, had it stashed for a while, shiny brand new. Will mostly be driving with gloves so I dont get it manky!
06.jpg
 

Djw John

Scotland - South
ClioSport Area Rep
Love it, very very nice.

You can get TRS steering wheel cover from demon tweeks to save you wearing gloves in summer!

Also, you've probably figured it out by now but that bit of black plastic up the top that you weren't sure where it goes? In the corner of the scuttle, it directs water from the screen towards the drain holes. Kinda.
 

DaveL485

ClioSport Club Member
  21T, 9T, Meglio, V6
Also, you've probably figured it out by now but that bit of black plastic up the top that you weren't sure where it goes? In the corner of the scuttle, it directs water from the screen towards the drain holes. Kinda.
Its still on my workbench, so next time I pull the scuttle apart ill check it out. Thanks!
 

DaveL485

ClioSport Club Member
  21T, 9T, Meglio, V6
Service time. No wonder these things cost a fortune at garages, access sucks balls.

Anyway, it was a nice day so I pulled it out of the garage to work on it in the sun, plugs, oil, oil filter, air filter, fuel filter, then I changed the wheels to my rough roll-around wheels and put camber bolts in all four corners ready for a proper geo setup. Whoever fitted the oil filter last needs a swift kick in the spuds too, FAR too tight and took many many swearwords to get it off.

20180929_133350.jpg


20180929_140556.jpg


20180929_140602.jpg


20180929_152847.jpg


20180929_153056.jpg


Set at max negative camber on the bolts just to see how far over it would go.

20180929_183436.jpg


Took it for a test drive afterwards and it seems to be a lot happier for the service.

I would have said the work done on a "normal" car would have taken me maybe 2 hours tops, this took me 5! Though, as well as the twatting around with the oil filter I tend to tippy toe around this thing very carefully so I dont end up damaging anything.
 

DaveL485

ClioSport Club Member
  21T, 9T, Meglio, V6
New thermostat Saturday morning. Fiddly bugger, not helped by me not taking the engine covers off save the bits that come out with the dzus clips.

Future warning for other owners, the back seal on the stat is integral to the setup and as the stat opens and shuts it slides in and out of that seal. You could not replace it with tiger seal or goop, and the stat needs to slide its body within that seal to work properly. It does not come with the stat itself and it's NLA at Renault (9616838180), grab yourself a spare now from Citroen (p/n 1340 42 available from Citroen dealers for £18) as it WILL need replacing at some point. I've ordered myself another one now I know it fits, to keep in my cubby hole of obsolete parts :)

20181102_101612.jpg
20181110_123410.jpg
View attachment 124193
20181110_124945.jpg
20181110_125559.jpg
20181110_125604.jpg
20181110_131257.jpg


Here is a video of how the stat opens and closes so you see what I mean - the shiny metal body slides in the seal.



Car now running at the right temperature, which is pleasing after the t**t about to get the housing in and out.
 

-Rob

ClioSport Club Member
Some clean legal plates and that's one stunning V6. Cromodoras and the Pole Positions finish it off for me, good work!
 

Coops Mk1

ClioSport Club Member
  Lots of Scrap...
Looks lovely, agree needs standard plates though, those things do nothing for it ;-)
 

andybond

ClioSport Club Member

DaveL485

ClioSport Club Member
  21T, 9T, Meglio, V6
Snapped by a mate at caffeine and machine this Saturday. Good bacon batch and coffee too :)

FB_IMG_1544280281944.jpg
 

DaveL485

ClioSport Club Member
  21T, 9T, Meglio, V6
Five cars, five totally different experiences... C63 AMG 507, 600hp tuned 996, Huracan Performante, and a Boxster (I do so enjoy asking him how the hairdressing course is going). I'm the poor boy of the group LOL.


20181208_123431 (Medium).jpg
 

DaveL485

ClioSport Club Member
  21T, 9T, Meglio, V6
Quite a while since I updated this, done about 2000 miles in the last year, jump in and turn the key and off we go.

Retro Rides this weekend just gone, they very kindly waived the pre-98 rule for the Vee and let me on the club stand and on the hill in the morning. It got loads of attention and I almost lost my voice rabbiting to people about it, so left with a real feelgood factor :)

20190818_090050.jpg


IMG_20190818_104436.jpg
 


Top