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Extra turbo

Progress a little slower than planned but got 5 mins spare at the weekend and fitted the new heater hoses on the van. Fushed the system out and refilled with fresh type d, powersleeve over the hoses see if that keeps the heat off also followed with a simple leak check wihb a foot pump and 15lbs of pressure..
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Yes mate will be at blyton. Its about there really only needs an oil change now and possibly add some more negative camber if i get time. I would have liked to fit my seat before but not enough time, and the issue of mounting the harness without a cage etc !
 
Its not the cheapest option but use the zirotec ceramic coating on the vx220 tfsi conversions and really does work well. Exhaust wrap was definitely a lesser product

Look on good

DG
 
I did think about ceramic coating but the cost is putting me off. I did have the downpipe heat wrapped years ago but it all fell off. Downpipe needs repairs aswell, another job on the list lol
 
The never ending list of jobs

Yes it's not the cheapest option but by far the best imo. Mid engine layout always has more heat issues to deal with so maybe not as critical in front engine

Not sure my 20% discount is still valid but sure my 10% lower volume one is if it helps

DG
 
Long time no update

Blyton done without too much hassle - Finished off the front tyres and boiled feck out of the brake fluid. Also the indicator stalk bust resulting in no dipped beam and the dash cowling fell off (now all fixed)

Footage from the old kill camera:D


Bald R888
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New Tyres - R888R - Wanted old style R888 to match the rears but unavailable now. Not used in anger yet seem ok though
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Fitted
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Cleaned up the engine bay for RetroRides Gathering (clean engine is a happy engine?)
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RRG16

Made it to the gathering and back and had an awesome day. It was not without issues though as a couple of days before the headlights started playing up. Main beam stopped working then dipped started flashing like a police car, could not get a replacement stalk at short notice so just winged it and went hoping that i would not need to drive at night! sidelights still worked in a fashion.

Next issue was i heard a knocking on and off the throttle on the journey down on the friday. I was staying just outside swindon at a friends house, pulled up in services and checked the mount and the rear rover v8 rubber mounting had semi collapsed, think the last trackday had finished it off. This needed replacing pronto or i could not go up the hill.

I done a quick search on google and rang a couple of places and they did not have any mounts in stock. I searched for a 4x4 specialist and found Ridgeway 4x4 landrover specialists in swindon. A quick call and he knew exactly what i needed although was unsure if any in stock! this was at 4:30pm and they were 50 mile away, so i decided to shoot down. the place shut at 5:30pm and sat nav said i would arrive at 5:20. So we set off and arrive at 5:28 after going over every speedbump in swindon and on reserve light for fuel!
I go in the shop just before the doors closed and they did not have any classic range rover v8 mounts in stock ! After a bit of looking around upstairs he found a series land rover mount that was identical so bought 3 of them for £11. Fitted in 15 min on the sat morning.

Pic of the offending mount. Does not look too bad in the pic but the amount of movement was causing the carb top to hit the bonnet and caused a nice new dent to match the previous one when the mount snapped.
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Pic of the van with @Kris M 's Ph1
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Only pics i took at the gathering as too busy chatting away to everybody
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In car vid from my 2nd run up the hill. Went for it and had a bit of understeer at the last corner, not used to foot hard down on cold tyres!

Time lapse from the journey home
 
After Shelsley Walsh was over i give the old boy a health check. Its been a while since i have done a comp test and i have noticed the engine does breathe a little when used hard (sod all really about 10-15mm of fluid in bottom of catch tank per trackday) so done a comp test and checked the valve clearances. The compression is still good approx 140lbs on each cylinder so no need to worry there. The rocker bar and rockers are looking worn - valve clearances are spot on but the engine sounds a little bit tappety so i will change this in the future. Ran the engine with rocker over off and loads of oil to the rocker bar/rockers etc so no issue there.20160830_113925.webp
Got myself an indicator stalk to fit - Headlamps back in action soon

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Oil change soon and fancy a trackday before the weather gets real bad. Croft or cadwell?? We will see.
 
Indicator stalk fitted and we have headlamps again :D

I have also booked up cadwell for 21st October so looking forward to that. In preparation i have had the downpipe repaired - in 2013 before Sanglier trip i ground out the exhaust on the path and cracked the flange on my Big Jim downpipe. As time was tight i left it and its been cracked/blowing ever since and the years have rolled by. I have recently noticed the crack has got bigger and the pipe was starting to split at the weld causing a soot patchon the passenger side inner wing so thought best get it sorted before i loose my exhaust at a trackday.

Sent it down to Matt Rowley at Fusion Fabrications and he has done a nice job of repairing it for me. The crack was ground/vee-d out - welded then the pipe welded to the flange and the flange faced. Top job and fast turnaround - get it on this weekend hopefully and have a non blowing exhaust for the first time in years !
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Took the van to Cadwell Park last Friday. Had a great day however not without issues !

Cleaned it up beforehand and packed - Travelling light as per usual. Note the £2.99 Screwfix van tidy makes a awesome helmet box (sod paying £50 for the omp effort)20161019_175603.webp 20161020_163154.webp 20161019_185323.webp
Arrived at Cadwell early Friday morning. The marshals/scrutineers were loving it ! They said they couldn't believe it when they seen Renault Extra on the list ha. Hot exhaust done 99db @4800 rpm so well under the 105 limit. I was expecting higher to be honest so not moaning at that. Note the evo next to me we will talk about that later :D
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Track was really wet on the morning so kept tyre pressures at normal road setup 28lb front/26lb rear cold pressures. Was really struggling to get heat into tyres and brakes as you can see below. Track dried up ok in the afternoon so dropped the pressures slightly but the R888R still felt a bit understeery on the front ? Pressures were not going up massively either so around 30lb hot. Not sold on them yet compared to the old R888, hopefully come to life now they are scrubbed in? i was not driving too aggressive though as no room for error at cadwell so was not letting it slide about too much. 20161021_123805.webp
 
A few pics on trackXSP_0160.webp XSP_0209.webp XSP_0331.webp XSP_0335.webp XSP_0459.webp XSP_0362.webp
Had a few good fast laps after lunch time when the track was dry. Red flag was out every 2 mins due to people running out of talent and kissing the armco though mostly Rwd stuff. I let a couple of people past to watch them spin off at the next corner, some poor drivers - i guess its true when they say Cadwell separates the men from the boys;)

Had the old kill cam set up on the rear so got some footage. Here is a vid of me chasing the white evo i was parked up to earlier on in the day. Not sure how much HP it had but i was right on it on the fast parts of the track and keeping with it on the corners. He was chucking out oil smoke and would not let me past until the marshalls black flagged him and got him in.



Here is a vid of a Porsche 964?? trying to keep the pace. Looked nice but was slow and the driver was pants. Trade it in pal and buy something else to take on track lol



Last run out at 4pm i was stuck behind the Porsche and he would not move over despite me being all over the back of it. I started driving aggressive and using loads of rpm to try and shoot past which ran into problems. Earlier on in the day i started having problems shifting into 2 & 4th gear and did not realise i had damaged the rear engine mount. Trying to bang it into gear totally ripped it in half resulting in the engine sitting on the subframe/steering rack and the exhaust downpipe melting the heater hoses. I managed to limp it off the circuit and noticed a load of steam from under the bonnet in typical Renault fashion. However people were coming over and telling me how entertaining it was watching me showing up the Porsche :D
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On that note i called it a day and decided to get it recovered home instead of bodging it up as i would need to bypass the heater hoses etc. Que 4 hours of sitting in this position
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Rang AA at 5pm - Tell them its f'ked and little van man comes at 6pm and has a look. Has same diagnosis yet loving it at the same time. He arranges a truck to come and recover me at 7:30pm. 9:30 and the truck rolls up

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Start talking to the truck driver and he's like nice intermediate tyres/nice noise testing sticker etc have you had fun out there, he instantly knows its a gt turbo conversion without opening the bonnet. Talking to him and he said 20 years ago he used to race a gtt coupe in the super coupe series stickered up Hellios motorsport with a greek fella called Chris (apparently he was not well liked lol). He does gravel/tarmac in a well prepared Subaru impreza ra now so this resulted in 5 hours of car talk and rolling in at 3am so not a bad journey home at all. First recovery home from a trackday in ten years so not moaning too much!
 
As the rear engine mount has failed every track day i have done its time for an upgrade to a vibratechnics mount on the rear. I have been advised that i can simply drill and bolt the rv8 rubber but im sick of it and want a fit and forget fix so going to pay the £85 and be done. i already have heater hoses in stock so its just a gallon of coolant and away we go.

I have a few upgrades planned for the 2017 season

1. LSD - Gripper has been sourced cheap
2. Slicks - Sourced
3. Fit my omp seat - just need to knock up a mount and buy a harness - need to look at getting the harness in right - do i get a harness bar made up or spreader plates on the floor - will the angle be right etc needs a bit of thought
4. Change the steering rack for something a bit quicker - the van rack is terrible the amount of turns lock to lock are shocking even compared to stock gtt. Stock gtt rack at a minimum but i have my eye on a clio dci rack that is 1.5 turns to full lock iirc - i would like to use this without power assist but we will need to see what it will be like as they are usually used in conjunction with electric column.
5. Suspension upgrades - Lower priority but possibly new shockers - stiffer torsion bars and maybe even stiffen up the top of the front turrets as they flex a lot with hard suspension. More camber when i have a diff maybe -2.5neg
6. Breather mods - Convert the sump return pipe to a breather with a 15mm id hose - similar to a cosworth oil seperator setup
7. Oil temp gauge - Fit this whilst sump is off - Should keep an eye on this really
 
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