Extra turbo

[Brigsy]

A few pics from on track. Its a shame i never got a few more sessions in as i like Mallory, its a quick circuit.







A few days after Mallory i dug my spare mac valve out to fit. Was originally on the trophy briefly..test it and works OK so wire it up.

New one on the left.



Fitted and static test that its working ok. Hook up laptop in prep for some datalogging in the future.

Wari software.



Quick test on the street and wastegate pressure is back to solid 12psi and a quick tickle of high boost it goes straight up to 21/22psi in the mid range. Need to take it out on an evening and do some datalogging in 4th gear and tweak if necessary.

Had a job for it today. I had located a spare rear beam off a breaker Extra van and needed to collect it, and it aint fitting in my blue clio or kangoo compact so this was the vehicle for the job.

Short trip to Doncaster.



Used as an actual van!



The extra van beams are quite hard to come by now as they are about extinct. Plan is to refurb the rear beam and upgrade the bushes to a bearing kit thats available and can fit it straight on. The current rear beam bushes on the van itself are well worn and sloppy due to age/mileage and well overdue replacement.

Im going to see if i can sniff out either a whiteline rear arb for clio 1 williams/16v or something similar and fab up brackets to suit.

Thanks for reading!!

 

[Renny 5]

As usual, been an absolute pleasure to see/drive with you hon. Always great to see the turbo Renault lot. Real same we don’t see more of each other tbh

 

[Brigsy]

Definitely need to try and get a few trackdays in next year once they are both back on the road!

 

[Turbell]

Spring coil in Sheffield can copy ARB , add/alter to spec, I had a couple done for people, were about a ton plus vat, powdered.
Few years back, only issue was end fitting, if they were crimped for a lock fixing , had to drill and split pin them, I think.

 

[Renny 5]

Definitely need to try and get a few trackdays in next year once they are both back on the road!

100%

 

[Brigsy]

Spring coil in Sheffield can copy ARB , add/alter to spec, I had a couple done for people, were about a ton plus vat, powdered.
Few years back, only issue was end fitting, if they were crimped for a lock fixing , had to drill and split pin them, I think.

Sounds awesome that, will definitely make enquiries once ive decided what spec, as ive currently Ive no idea what spec i require to be fair. Id like to increase turn in but not make it silly lively on the rear.

This is the one for clio1 which should be simple ish to replicate.

Renault 11 turbo grp a had one on top of the beam. Hardly any info on it apart from most of the drivers disconnected it apart from Ragnotti as he liked it lively.

Can just about see it here.


Other option could be stiffen up the rear beam adding some triangulation. Again its a bit out of my skill set.

 

[andybond]

what spec, as ive currently Ive no idea what spec i require to be fair. Id like to increase turn in but not make it silly lively on the rear.

Adjustability is key in my experience. What works in the dry doesn’t in the wet.

Also a controlled amount of weight is useful on circuits. I found changing one setting at a time worked better for me or I was swapping out the arb adjustments and then the damping and didn’t have a clue which was to go next .

 

[Brigsy]

Agreed adjustability is key. I could copy the pms style adjustable rear arb to have a level of adjustment or simply undo the droplinks for wet days.

 

[Turbell]

Bloke I dealt with was Ryan ( ace name .....) whether he's still around I dunno, but they were very helpful for my low low volume work, I had some springs made for GTA when I put adjustable platform GAZ on it, took my springs and tested rate ( which was way out of stated spec) explained how, why, what , working coils blah blah, then we had thicker A610 front ARBs made by them, Lee Crowston may stil deal with them, as i passed him on to them after i got shut of GTA

 

[Duncan Grier]

Spring coil in Sheffield can copy ARB , add/alter to spec, I had a couple done for people, were about a ton plus vat, powdered.

Nice one and if the cost is still in that region is a chunk cheaper than off the shelf Vx220/Elise/Exige ones. Also a double bonus as my 5 is 50mm wider than said Lotus setup and was going to have to fabricate something to address the gap with drop links

 

[Turbell]

They did anything springy, helper springs, ARBs , coils, lots of Ohlins stuff in their display cabinet.
Whether they're still as helpful on same one offs I couldn't say, and whether prices are still similar I'd guess at a rise.

 

[Renny 5]

I’m sure Danny and coops just fitted a Clio 172 rear arb to the rear axle with minimal modification

 

[Mattjoss5]

Weirdly The higher capacity Extra van , think it was 665 load rating ran a tube single torsion bar rear axle with bigger shocks . Cant recall if it handled any better tho it did take a fair bit of abuse before it snaped a rear shock lol .

 

[Brigsy]

I’m sure Danny and coops just fitted a Clio 172 rear arb to the rear axle with minimal modification

See if you can sniff out some info on it mate and if its any good, thats coops valver above i think he said it was for mk1 but forget now. Might be a good upgrade for both of ours

Weirdly The higher capacity Extra van , think it was 665 load rating ran a tube single torsion bar rear axle with bigger shocks . Cant recall if it handled any better tho it did take a fair bit of abuse before it snaped a rear shock lol .

Your bang on the money the higher payload did indeed have a larger torsion bar setup. Ive never seen one must be rocking horse shit to find these days!

 

[DaveL485]

Just on that coolant tank cap Brigsy, I had similar issues with sealing on this red 21 of mine, the aftermarket expansion tanks are shite and the caps are even worse and release the pressure valve at about 16psi instead of 23.6psi (OE light blue top cap). There was one on Mark Bowyers car and I tiger sealed the relief valve up because it just vented as soon as the car got to running temp. Total junk.

In the end on the red one I fitted a good used OE tank, and a Megane cap - the newer caps have an o-ring that seals on the inside of the neck, it works well you just need a decent quality bottle thats got a round neck to match the cap. Non-OE ones are not so great.

 

[Brigsy]

Just on that coolant tank cap Brigsy, I had similar issues with sealing on this red 21 of mine, the aftermarket expansion tanks are shite and the caps are even worse and release the pressure valve at about 16psi instead of 23.6psi (OE light blue top cap). There was one on Mark Bowyers car and I tiger sealed the relief valve up because it just vented as soon as the car got to running temp. Total junk.

In the end on the red one I fitted a good used OE tank, and a Megane cap - the newer caps have an o-ring that seals on the inside of the neck, it works well you just need a decent quality bottle thats got a round neck to match the cap. Non-OE ones are not so great.

You read my mind, clio/megane cap with internal o ring is the plan.

Sadly ive also had issues with the meg cap not sealing, o.e and aftermarket, but at least there is plenty available.

My header tank is oem renault, ill try and offer one up.

 

[Brigsy]

Updates.

Extra van woken up after winter layup.

Primed oil system, hit the switch and started up easy as usual.

Warmed engine up then oil and filter change, fresh Valvoline VR1 20/50 and purflux oil filter.

Now taxed and back on the road. Small list of planned jobs to do but nothing urgent.

First job was using it to move 70ltrs of old oil and a few bits

Van life.

 

[Brigsy]

Extra van has been daily driver over the weekend doing around 500 miles, with a 425mile journey to Birmingham on Sat.

The reason for the trip to Birmingham was to collect an oem renault fitted plastic rear van liner for the Extra van. I had seen one of these 10+ years ago in Bournemouth but was unable to collect as it wouldnt fit in the car i was in, and with it being approx 12 hour round journey didnt bother going back.

Since then i have kept my eye out for another and when i was offered this one it was a done deal, rare but cheap and closer than the last one. With the size of it i had to use the extra to collect as it was too big for any other car we own.

A few highlights from the trip.

No cruising or street racing. White van man nothing to see here.


M6 toll

Load liner collected and then onto Tamworth on the way back to collect a megane centre console with arm rest for the r26. I was desperately low on fuel at this point and no super unleaded in garages in the area. This runs like s**t on 95 octane from experience so was reluctant to put any in so had to go to a few garages.

Visited tesco, 2x esso, 2x shell garages and all super pumps were off. Eventually found a shell with vpower and got arse raped £1.56 a ltr.

Yellow light of doom/3ltrs remaining..does not last long in this.


Apart from that it was drama free and back early evening.

425 miles of bosch 044 whine and side exit exhaust.


Cleaned up the load liner yesterday. It dropped straight in with no hassle and did not need to remove anything. Looks quite decent and the patina fits in with the rest well.

Load liner fitted.


Needs a good clean.


Noted a noise on boost on return home. The inlet gasket was showing signs of leaking on cyl1 when smoke tested ages ago and looks to have developed when under pressure.

Signs of fuel vapour.


The issue circled.


Its not a massive job so no drama. Ive got a few inlet gaskets in stock so will sort next weekend.

Thanks for reading!!

 

[andybond]

Interesting you use 20/50 and not 10/60. Any reason for this? Curious rather than critical here!

 

[DaveL485]

Disposing of used oils is a pain in the arse, the local tip dont like me dumping 100 litres at a time!