WOW what a good purchase, nice to see it went to a good home!
Small update.
Took the 250 out last week for a quick blast whilst weather was dry.
It feels absolutely planted on the back roads on stock cup suspension. Exhaust sounds great when on it too.
I actually feel like ive enjoyed driving this already as all its needed is fuel since buying and not had to lay a spanner on it. Almost unheard of for a megane rs.
Thanks for reading!
Update.
With the weather improving i have woke the 250 up. Was pretty uneventful, the garage is nice and dry so no rust on brakes or nothing. Stuck battery negative terminal back on and it fired up like it was running yesterday settling down to a normal idle. Short drive to the house and all seems fine so give it a wash to clean the dust off.
Looks loads bigger than mk2.
Done some mot pre checks and all good, nothing to note. Took for mot and passed with testers comments “very clean”. Taxed and road legal again.
Thanks for reading!!
I’m sure it’s been said times a plenty, but what a fleet. 
Its is that but everyones favourite pretty much across the board is the Extra van 
minter
Small update.
250 used a couple of weeks ago in the decent weather.
Had rs monitor on and noted charge temps not great with the forge intercooler, lingering around 30-40deg all the time, better than stock intercooler but roughly 10-20deg above ambient which is poor in my opinion. So plan is to change it for a better intercooler before it goes in for a map at Efi. Better charge temps = more power and less chance of timing pull.
Done a load of research on the 250 intercoolers ages ago when we owned the old 250, and Wagner was suggested as one of the better ones. Cools charge well and does not block the rad/cause cooling issues. This wont see a track so coolant temps prob not an issue on the street but dont want any issues on the occasional high speed drive.
Ordered the wagner and it arrived within a couple of days. No pics out of the box but it looks pukka.
Depending on weather next weekend might stick it on.
Thanks for reading!!
Updates.
One thing ive never been too keen on is the 19" steeve wheels on the 250’s. I dont hate them but dont love them, not keen on diamond cut wheels and the non symmetrical/directional look of them. They very much remind me of some late 90’s aftermarket wheels. The ones fitted are in great condition that was the only saving grace.
Had a look at wheel options for it. Didnt want any stance boi offset/17s etc, wanted offset same as oem or very near. Was looking for compomotive mo6 and was making enquiries on a new set, but only offering was 18" et40 which was way too agressive for stock suspension..i cant be arsed modifying it loads for a wheel swap. Did ask for a custom set but no joy.
Anyway back to looking and seen a set of mk3 Trophy R 19" turini’s up for sale. These ticked the box as correct offsets so no hassle fitting.
Made a few enquiries and next thing were picking them up.
Kangoo doing the business.
The wheels were off a low mileage mk3 trophy r which had been modified and the owner had sold the car. He undersold the wheels as needing a refurb so planned on getting them done but upon looking, 2 small storage marks on a couple of spokes which literally came off with one light pass of the d/a with cutting compound. The wheels look like they could have been bought new from ren and had the tyres removed
and stored and not used.
As collected.
Took it down my mates garage on Sat to get the nearly new ps4s swapped over and get them on.
Straight on with them being oem renault, no hassle.
Look so much better than the original steevs.
Also stuck rstuner on it yesterday to do some pre logging before fitting the wagner intercooler today.
RsTuner.
Was a bit shocked to see its pulling ign 2-3deg, for whatevever reason, i think it could be higher charge temps but unsure. Dont rate current map on it so itll be getting booked into Efi asap to get this resolved. Its a good job ive not really drove this hard, obvioulsly ecu is doing what it needs to but yeah, not great.
Fitted the Wagner intercooler on Sunday. Had this for ages but finally had some motivation.
Pre start checks.
Bumper off revealing old forge ic.
Forge stripped off and Wagner ready to fit. Its a thicc boy as the intercooler is L shaped and goes under the rad. Neat way to do it.
Fitted.
Oem air ducts scribed and refitted as were left off with the forge ic.
Wideboy.
Finished. Prefer the discreet black intercooler.
Hers and his.
Test drive.
Took it out for a test drive with Rstuner on to datalog and it works miles better than the forge.
RsTuner.
The forge was not totally s**t as it was miles better than oem, but it lingered around 30deg on boost occasionally going up to 40ish degrees so overall not great. The wagner in comparison is in the 30s when driving normally and instantly drops straight down to low 20s when on boost.
Another day another datalog.
[I]The info you want to see. 23deg iat on boost and no timing pull.
[/I]
Note no timing pull whatsoever today. I think it was pulling ign due to the higher charge temps yesterday. Boost pressure seems to be there or there abouts so could prob do some full 4th and 5th pulls it as is, but played safe and will get it booked into Efi for a map asap.
Need to change the oil and filter and its good to go.
Thanks for reading!!
Same here, not a fan of Steev#s at all. Much better on the new wheels.
It’s good to see the ECU protecting the car and also shows how important those little bits of plastic are!
Cos I’m more clockwork era, only dabbled with Canclip recently, what is RS tuner?
I’m not asking for a how to, more an overview…is it Renault specific? What can you do, this is more out of interest than I’m gonna buy it and start using it, would you see if an ECU has been mapped etc, and when? Would you see the changes that had been made, and to what?
Purely interest.
Not a fan of Steevs and not a fan of black wheels, but the Turini’s look way better then the Steevs!
Imagine how good they would look in a lighter color. 
Good to see the Wagner intercooler doing it’s thing!
RsTuner is a good bit of kit. I use it for datalogging the ecu live parameters, i believe most of the companies/tuners who deal with the renaults use it for datalogging when tuning.
Can clip can also datalog the ecu, but rstuner is much more polished/easier to use.
You can use rstuner to map the ecu, but it needs unlocking at £££. Better off taking it to Efi and paying the rate instead of attempting it. Also can get generic maps on it at a cost but again better off getting a custom one done on a dyno.
You can indeed see if the ecu has been mapped. Check out the programming history below, its been done several times in the past. Also can use it for seeing stored df codes on ecu’s, coding airbag ecu’s etc, but generally you need the right modues installed which cost extra (everything costs on this).
Great bit of kit regardless for health checking your setup.
Cheers mate! Agreed black does not show them off, not a massive fan of black either but they are super clean so will rock the look for a while.
The wagner is really good. Much better than anticipated. German quality 
Also booked in for mapping at Efi in 2 weeks. Interested to see what power it makes on current map. It goes ok but my arse dyno does not say 325hp. We will see!
Updates.
Steady drive down to EfiParts for mapping on Sat. Quick catch up with Chris and the meg was straight on the dyno.
[I]Strapped on and ready to go.
[/I]
As i said in earlier posts, this had been mapped years ago by another tuner. Ive said previously that it did not really feel that good..seemed to go ok ish but was skeptical of the 325hp printout on stock turbo.
Had a couple of runs to see power on the original map. Suprisingly it made 311/361 on 2nd run but not the 325hp it had on the printout, which was ambitious for stock tuned engine with a couple of bolt ons.
As you can see the torque comes in hard and fast for a stock engine, and a bit too much boost pressure with 24psi in the mid range. It was also pulling a couple of degrees ignition timing in the mid range so not great overall. Other issues noted were no boost requested low down for some reason, then all the boost ramping in with throttle closing to try and reign it back in on spool, and 25psi requested all the way until 6000rpm. With it not being possible to make 25psi on a stock 15t turbo at 6000rpm, this made the ecu wind up the duty/pid right up on the closed loop boost control. Ecu does not like this and can cause drivability issues.
With it making 311hp, it was unlikely that it would make any more peak hp, but for engine longivity the torque needed smoothing/reducing as 350ft/lb is about max for stock 250 conrods. Last thing we wanted was a rod to exit the block on this.
Chris got to work and started from fresh with a new basemap. After a load of runs fine tuning it to get everything as good as expected it finished up at 311hp/348ft/lb.
[I]Before lines in red, black lines for current map.
All the boost in the mid range originally.
One of many dyno pulls.
Its now safer, and much better response low down in the rpm range. It felt very hit and miss on the old map depending what rpm you hit the throttle. It feels the same each time you hit the throttle now and the exhaust note sounds totally different low down. Also launch control activated in 1st gear.
As usual great job from Chris. Drives much better overall.
Also whilst in the area popped by a local place for a quick pic. Im sure a few of you oldskoolers will recognise it from an early 2000’s sitcom.
The Archer.
Thanks for reading!!
awesome work by chris as always
Nice work by Chris! Very interesting how a different map with the same power output can make so much difference in the driving experience.
Definitely mate, mega difference as usual.
Agreed, drivability is so much better with same peak hp. Cold start is so much better too.