Clio Trophy number 54 aka T.Turbo

[Brigsy]

Updates.

Had a few hours on it over the week. Progress pretty slow but moving.

N/s roll correction spherical bearing replaced due to a little bit of play.



Intercooler given a quick coat of vht. The intercooler is genuine garrett bar and plate core rated to 500hp. Works surprisingly well.



Back in one piece. Fresh millers 10/50 and coolant filled with type d.


No spilling here. The sealey filler is awesome.


Aqua blasted parts cleaned and protected with Acf50 and the rest has had a wipe down.





Still a couple of jobs to do before fire up, mainly refit passenger side driveshaft, fill with gear oil, refit the Roll correction lower bearing etc.

Also noted the N/S lower wishbone front powerflex purple bush outer casing was slightly bent as its the crap old type with the thin casing (torque - it breaks stuff!?). Haswell said he had issues with these in the the past and he had the casings spot welded and i noted this one one has broke loose from the wishbone. There is no play or nothing but needs attending to.

Luckily i have a mint set of reinforced/powdercoated 182 cup wishbones in stock with powerflex black bushes fitted so i can swap the full arms over and its done.

A few more pics that might be of interest.

The older purple powerflex bushes and damaged casing/spot welds broken.




New lower arms with newer style Powerflex black bushes that have a shoulder to stop movement/washers to keep them tight.



NDO gearbox in situ, knacker tight. The gap between subframe brace is not very big, engine and box more or less solid mounted on vibratechnics mounts and solid dogbone.



Ac delete on traffic alternator mount for subframe clearance. I planned on changing this for a clio mk3 rs cup racer ac delete but it barely fitted so has to stay as is. Current setup seems OK.


Hot side boost pipe to throttle body. Tight but does not touch rad. Its bumper and boost hose off to change oil filter.



Air temp sensor is a right carry on to access.


The joys of a megane engine and box rammed in the engine bay.

 

[Brigsy]

Sat update.

Started with changing the lower wishbones. Whipped them off and the powerflex bushes were in a lot worse condition than expected.

This beauty was not visible until removed as hidden behind the reinforcing plate on the subframe.



Pretty bad, the thin outer casing on the early powerflex not fit for purpose. Im suprised it did not pull all over on the road but suprisingly little play considering. Stuck the new arms on with the new style powerflex black bushes with thick outer casing, and the washers that keep them tight.

Problem solved.



With this done i cleaned the heavy brake dust off the wilwood calipers and reyland discs. Everything has had a lick of Acf50 for future protection.

Wilwood, ds1.11 and reyland 2 piece discs.



Next job was filling gear box up with fresh Elf NFX. First time ive used nfx and it doesnt smell of piss like nfj? Anyway with that done i got the laptop out and connected to the ecu to attempt fire up.

Ecumaster.



I unclipped the coil plugs and injector plugs, cranking the engine over until oil pressure registered on the gauge to prime the oil system. The pressure came up fast and the engine was cranking strong with the new optima redtop. Checked for any oil system leaks and fuel leaks, all good. Laptop was showing rpm and all other sensors were reading ok, it looked like it was good to go.

Reconnected injectors and coils and cranked it over. Did not attempt to fire. 2nd attempt cranked no fire. Ecu was priming the fuel pump, I then looked at the laptop and it had disconnected and would not reconnect. This was a bit of an oh s**t moment as i feared the software had gone corrupt on the ecu for some unknown reason. Had a quick look in the fusebox and reseated the ecu fuse/injection relay, reseated fuel pressure sensor plug, disconnected laptop. Give it another crank and fires straight up with no issues, laptop connects to ecu. Tested clutch, gears, all working fine. Clutch making the typical twin plate noise when depressed. Ran up to temp fully, thermostat opened and coolant levels settled.

I have an onboard data logger and had a look through the logs on the non starts. I believe it was one of two things. 1 - a power issue on the injection relay as it was not seated fully when fusebox lid was removed, no rpm registered due to volts going too low when cranking. 2- fuel system had been drained with fuel lines off and fuel pressure did look a bit low initially as stuck at 1.63bar but this could be default readings due to bad connection on plug to sensor. I removed and reseated the plug for the fuel pressure sensor as id removed it when taking the fpr off.

Bit of a mystery but its started every time since. Seems to run absolutely normal, considering the fuel is from July 2023 according to receipt in the glove box.

With that done next job was to build an extender loom for the knock sensor for mapping purposes. This has 2x knock sensors fitted, one for the ecu and another on the next hole along the block for the mapper to use with det cans. Unfortunately with the nortech plenum it is ridiculously hard to access either knock sensor unless bumper is removed, so to make life easier i made this extender loom that can stay fitted.

Knock sensor loom.



Knock sensor location, hard to access.



Tucks away under fuel rail, ready for fast connection of det cans.


With that done i refitted the bumper, arch liners and wheels on.

Almost done.


Geo looks a bit on the piss due to dci rack change and the rack needs the column re centering so equal lock to lock both sides as it is now slightly off.

Will sort.the last bits today, torque hub nuts and wheel bolts and then its test drive. Prob get a can of fresh fuel first as its now on reserve.

Thanks for reading!!

 

[Leigh5t]

This thing is unreal! Some top quality work gone in to it

 

[Adey]

Sweet, ready for some abuse. Much else planned for the future?

 

[Brigsy]

Sweet, ready for some abuse. Much else planned for the future?

Get Chris to send the boost to the moon at some point this year. 2bar should see some decent power

 

[Adey]

moon tune ftw

 

[Brigsy]

Finished off last few jobs on the Trophy last weekend and test driven a few laps of the block.

All went well, new clutch is quite snappy but a decent improvement over the old helix/less of a knee breaker. Gear change is improved too much better than last setup, shift feels quite positive compared to the old vague feel. The steering is also much better with the dci rack compared with the old looped 182 rack that had a deadspot due to the torsion bar.

Give it a clean up to get the dust and crap off.

Bh autofoam.




Muck dripping off.




Contact wash, rinsed with filtered water and blow dried.







3 years since gtechniq ceramic coating and it still beads up class. Took 30 mins to do its super easy to clean.

 

[Brigsy]

Mot passed.



12 miles last year, embarassing


Done a few miles on way to mot station to rinse the old fuel. Stuck some fresh fuel in and took the long way back home giving it a couple of decent pulls. I can officially say the high rpm gearchange problem it had is fully resolved and you can bang it up a gear at 7500+rpm no problem.

Absolutely stoked that the gearchange issues have gone and new clutch feels great.

As its been off the road for ages i played sensible and kept it on wastegate pressure 8psi 276hp/240ft/lb. Just feels like a fast linear low boost conversion at that.

Checking out datalogs on return home ive managed to replicate its fuelling pulsation issues and its a bit lean up top so no more sends. Ill look at fitting the fuel damper and possibly the aem 400lph pump i have in stock. Then book into efi for mapping.

 

[Brigsy]

Taxed on the 1st of the month. F me the tax is expensive on these compared to megane!

Weather outstanding today so took it out. First stop was to my mates garage for alignment as was a mile out due to new steering rack.

On geo lift

Set toe to usual ten mins of toe out overall. Camber still set at -2.5. Steering feels great now with dci rack, no play or nothing. Turn in is mega especially with the gripper lsd.

Steering wheel straight again. Meta view pic.


44 miles done this year. Almost 3x last years mileage.

Overall its running great but as usual bit of snagging to do.

Front tunnel exhaust heat shield is rattling on the exhaust a bit.

Adjust throttle map. The ttv twin plate clutch is snappy, and throttle is super responsive so its hard to pull away without whiplash.

Great to get it back out.

Thanks for reading!!

 

[Turbell]

What an amazing Clio, standard it'd be a stunner, but with mods, it's unbelievable, and so well sorted, constant improvements.

 

[MartijnTrophy]

Looking great! Now time to enjoy it, fix the little things and get some miles in!

 

[Brigsy]

What an amazing Clio, standard it'd be a stunner, but with mods, it's unbelievable, and so well sorted, constant improvements.

Cheers mate! I do enjoy developing this and improving bits, sometimes the journey of fixing issues is as good as driving it. Last 5 years on this has increased my knowledge 10x on wiring, modern canbus and standalone ecu software. Its been great for that alone and any oem ecu in comparison, seems a breeze.

Looking great! Now time to enjoy it, fix the little things and get some miles in!

Cheers mate! Its great to have it legal and back on the road.

 

[Brigsy]

Updates.

Spare couple of hours yesterday so made a start on the snag list. Yesterdays job was adjust tunnel heatshield, cutting it down at the front and wrap downpipe to stop resonation on overrun. The long and short of it, is the exhaust is a 3" system (custom made by btm/Yozza back in the day) which runs over the top of the subframe and it runs too close to the oem heatshielding causing rattling when engine is turned off etc. Ive adjusted it several times over the years but it always moves to its happy rattly place. I cant really bin it off as the heatshield protects the gear cables and plastic meg gear selector which are also tightly fitted in the tunnel.

In prep for this i bought some new style 3" heat wrap which is a flexible weaved sleeve that slips over the exhaust, basically a continuous 1mtr length of expandable exhaust wrap. With access being horrendous with 3" exhaust going over the top of the subframe this seemed like a good option, undo vband clamp and slide it on, clip in place and enjoy the finished job.

In reality it was 2 hours of this



Thats 2 hours of my life i wont get back doing that. Pull wrap along pipe 6mm or so, it goes tight, move next bit and so forth. Jubilee clips both ends to keep in place. Itching off heat wrap. Cut 100mm off the engine bay end of the tunnel heatshield and its all good now.

Only got one pic of it. Exhaust looks tiny in this pic for some reason but i assure you its an access nightmare. Access is no go from top, and hard from underneath, really need to drop subframe to get in.



Also cured an exhaust blow from the vband clamp using a trick slip in gasket that goes between the join. Vbands are great for conveinence but can be a pain in the arse to seal. The self locating vbands are fine but this has the old style ones that you have to line up and then get clamp on which is a 3 handed job. Slightly out of line and prob not helped with slight warping from welding initially, you get the putt, putt on idle. It was not bad but could hear it.

75mm stainless vband gasket.



The gaskets are great, slip in and tighten up. Ive fitted them both top and bottom, i suspect both flanges have a slight warp which was making the issue worse. No blowing now and sounds much better.

With that done i took it for another blast out. Not sure if i have just got used to the twin plate clutch or its bedded in a bit but can pull away better without whiplashing me or the mrs. Hill starts are still interesting though!

A few pics from out and about.






Fluid checks after use, all good.



85 miles done this year up to now. Overall its running well and id say its pretty much ready to go back to Efi for a high boost map.

Currently discussing which ecu software update i should install. My Ecumaster Black is on old 2.138 firmware approx 4 year old and its come a long way since then with v3. Its not a straightforward update and go as some tables need recalibrating so ill prob get somebody to remote in to set this up if needs be.

Thanks for reading!!

 

[andybond]

In reality it was 2 hours of this

Thats a nope from me!

 

[Brigsy]

Thats a nope from me!

I think this job would have been awful on a lift nevermind on your back, with wind blowing fibres all over me

 

[DaveL485]

I didnt know you could get vband gaskets like that, @paule78 needs one on the downpipe of his 21!

 

[Brigsy]

I didnt know you could get vband gaskets like that, @paule78 needs one on the downpipe of his 21!

Got mine off ebay.

Pardon our interruption...

 

[Brigsy]

Updates.

With snagging done after clutch swap, i have started looking at the fuel system issues.

To recap - had this tuned June 2022 and had issues with the fuel system going lean due to fuel pulsation/resonance around 6500rpm for a split second on wastegate pressure, lean enough to misfire. Chris done loads of runs and was noted that even though it got better with higher boost pressure, it was not right and the ve fuel map was not looking like it should do with a large peak in that area. We ran out of time so had to take it away with 350hp and a safe ish map being careful at higher rpm.

I done a load of research on the matter including watching injector dynamics webinars and there appears to be a lot of suggestions why it happens and how to rectify.

The issue appears to be related to this - fuel system is ptfe braided pipe with no give and large injectors causing an injector hammer effect, causing untuneable areas of the fuel map. (Quite common on some oem by all accounts).

I actually found the issue hard to replicate on the street with old clutch and fly and afr was mostly ok but it seems more prominent on new lighter fly setup for whatever reason as found on a quick datalog.

4x solutions below that apparently will work towards making it right.

1. Fuel pulse damper. Oem run them i.e. subaru and the like for similar issues. This might work but might not.

2. Fit larger fuel pump. Ive read that sticking a larger pump on can sort this out by essentially overpumping it. Just got to be careful of fuel heating causing other issues with the tune.

3. Fit a section of rubber hose in the fuel system to effectively damp the pulses.

4. Fuel regulator reference pipe length. The length and location can make a difference but reluctant to start drilling my Nortech inlet to test this theory.

With this in mind i bought a radium pulse damper, but was advised might not do what i want.

I have also got a Aem 400lph pump to replace the bosch 044 which is 300lph iirc.

 

[Brigsy]

Decided to fit the aem 400lph pump as had it stock and easy enough to change.

Aem 400lph straight swap for 044.



Ran both pumps to refill the swirl pot as had to drain it into a container. Noted the aem pump sounded much quieter than the old bosch 044.

Started it up and ran up to temp, noted the injectors did not sound as noisy with engine running in the garage, they used to sound horriffic before with bonnet open like a worn lifter. It appeared to idle slightly smoother than usual even though its really good considering the cam choices are pretty wild. I checked fuel pressure out of interest on tunerview via bluetooth and no real increase as expected.

Checked the datalogs against an old one, ive been looking at the delta fuel pressure which is the raw, unfiltered data that shows every peak and trough instead of smoothed data. With the 044 pump, fuel pressure looked a bit choppy but not bad, and noted fuel pressure dropped a little in places but again not crazy.

Idle data with 044 pump, choppy.


The data with the aem pump on is another story..fuel pressure looks rock solid on the raw data.

Idle data with aem400lph.


This might or could be the solution to the issues. I know idle data is not much to go by, but with the quieter injectors and smoother data, i assume the fuel system is much happier with less "injector hammer" in the fuel rail.

 

[Brigsy]

Been looking into tyres too as current r888r are in great nick visually but 9 years old. My mate got a set of Nankang CRS in stock in 205/50/15 for me.

Had them fitted on Sunday. The profile is slightly wider than the old 205 r888r but fits without issue on et43 speedlines.

Nankang crs look sexy





Sidewall feels stiffer and turn in even more precise. There is less tyre noise than the old r888r too.

I also give it a couple of quick pulls (in mexico obvs) and the fuelling is richer on boost by around half a point and its not going horribly lean anymore at the top. Fuel pressure is not wondering all over the place but unsure if the issue is fixed enough to tune, as thinking about it as its been a few years, Chris was concerned about the peak needed in the ve map around 6500, not sure if its due to inlet design etc though. I have a couple of ideas on what i can do to furthur confirm if its fuel system related or not.



Thanks for reading!!