There is more to life with TurboRenault.co.uk

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!

Kangoo Compact (aka Racevan3)

Mid week update

Have been using the Kangoo quite a bit to see if any little niggles developed. Have done 90 miles up to now without issue, short runs, motorway, b roads the lot. Runs really well even though it needs mapping to suit the new engine spec.

Fitted a new ply base to replace the knackered old one, and new ply on the rear doors
20210411_185606.jpg


De rusted a small scab on the roof where paint must have been chipped off in the past. Applied Bilt Hamber deox c, cleaned up great. No finished pics but covered in hydrate 80, zinc primer then touched up with glacier white.

20210411_150000.jpg


Pic from blasting about
20210412_195941.jpg


Wheels were covered in brake dust and rust flakes from initial braking cleaning the rust off the discs from standing. No problem for Bilt Hamber autowheel though, spray on, let it dwell and blast off.
20210413_195409.jpg


No after pics as ran out of light.

Might do the manifold gasket this weekend and new stat/coolant flush, will see what the weather is like.

Thanks for reading!
 
Weekend updates

Changed exhaust manifold gasket as could hear it blowing when running. Have been dreading this as it looked tight and imagined the engine would need to come off the mounts and be a bit of a carry on.

However the kangoo scuttle fully unbolts so got that off, and that makes loads of room compared to megane, allowing the turbo to come straight up and off.

45 mins later its stripped
20210417_125628.jpg


Found the issue straight away, wrong exhaust manifold gasket fitted. Also found a k nut had snapped in half that was holding the turbo to the manifold, bizarre.

Megane gasket on the right, assume the one on the left is 172?
20210417_125707.jpg


Piss poor fit, barely covers the edge of the manifold.
20210417_134355.jpg

20210417_125720.jpg


Megane one fits much better.
20210417_134337.jpg


Whilst apart fitted a nimbus heatshield. Should have done this before fitting engine, as abs block was exposed. Will hopefully reflect a fait bit of heat.
20210417_134204.jpg


Fitted it all back together and then flushed the coolant out as it had gone a bit rusty from sediment in the block. Took a fair bit of flushing/backflushing to get the water to run clear. Fitted a genuine Renault thermostat whilst apart as noticed stat was weak and was not getting up to temp fully and lingering around 75/78deg on a run.

Fresh type d
20210417_183044.jpg


Temp gauge goes up to 2nd mark and sits rock solid now. Oil temps better when cruising too, 80deg instead of low 70s.
20210417_202205.jpg


Next job was intercooler upgrade. I had previously got the tube and fin intercooler dirt cheap off a mate to mock it up. However it did not look great when driving - i noticed charge temps would shoot up 5deg or so higher than ambient temp straight away on low boost.

Tube and fin as fitted below, looks a bit shady cant imagine it being great on high boost.
20210417_175302.jpg



As planning on running a fair bit of boost, i upgraded to a chinese bar and plate intercooler. Bar and plate always cools the charge really well compared to tube and fin. I run the same bar and plate intercooler on my Extra van, and 28lbs of boost the charge temps are always great, just above ambient.

Fitted straight on as basically the same, no mods required.
20210417_183055.jpg


On road test had torque hooked up to the obd, and noted the charge temps did not move above ambient on a quick boost up to 18psi, so noticeable improvement, should work good when mapped.

Thanks for reading!!
 
Updates

Have been using the Kangoo a fair bit over the last few days to see if any issues would arise. Done over 300 miles in total and nothing up to now touch wood. Even tested the cooling system in mcds drive through as got stuck in it for ages the other night, rad fan cuts in at 99deg and cools it down nicely to 92deg.

A few bags of shopping and the back is full
20210421_191450.jpg


Had the toe set. I guessed it when fitting the megane rs tie rods and only passenger side was out by 3 mins or so. Set quite neutral for now.

20210423_172048.jpg


Less castor than a megane as they are usually around 5 from memory, so might be a future job to add some with fancy top mounts.

Had a good run out on Fri night and went all over, mostly B road blasting.
20210423_201103.jpg


Had the OG out of the garage on Sat so took a pic.
20210424_164313.jpg


Cut some fresh plywood sides for the rear today, looks clean in the back now.
20210425_182412.jpg


Done a small mod to the reverse lights. Only has a single reverse light on the drivers side originally, but has the space for the bulb on passenger side and wired up but no hole in the light. Simply fitted a bulb to the holder, drilled a hole with a cone drill and we have a matching reverse light.
20210425_201945.jpg


Give the comps some tlc too. They had heavy fallout/tar and some discolouring from track use by previous owner. Got most of it off and a mild cut by hand/wax, look decent enough.
20210425_200706.jpg

20210425_200701.jpg



Mpg recorded on the cluster is 22mpg which is prob about right. Bit thirsty on this map but not the worst.

Thanks for reading!!
 
Good to know the temp thing as mines pretty much the same and I was concerned it was too high. Good work as always 👏
 
Updates

A few more jobs done

Bonnet gaps were on the piss as one of the bonnet rubber stops was missing. Dear from renault new considering what it is, so ordered on ebay from Germany, arrived in 3 days at less than half the price and oem part number on it.

Fitted, catch adjusted and loads better
20210503_193245.jpg

20210503_193224.jpg

Next job was lowering on the rear. The height and ride on the back on stock shockers/H&R kangoo springs was pretty piss poor, and did not do the handling any favours.

Ive been sniffing around for rear springs and had 4x sets in stock, Clio 197 o.e, Clio 197 H&R, Clio mk4 200 cup and modus.

One of the lads on the kangoo/kubistar group on facebook has ran the modus springs for a few years and his sits good. The pigtails fit properly, its not silly low, its quite firm which suprised me.

As the springs are quite a bit shorter than original Kangoo had to use shorter shocks, Clio mk1 16v Gaz rears fit with minor mods, had to fit a spacer on the lower mounting point.
20210502_133442.jpg

20210502_133435.jpg

Spacer as fitted, its all torqued up solid. Ideally a custom set of shocks would be best but i reckon Gaz would supply similar with a larger insert in the polybush.

Less droop when jacked up
20210502_133419.jpg

Sits quite decent now settled, low but not too low on the rear. Shocks are 4x clicks from fully soft to keep some comfort on the road. Handling improved instantly.
20210503_193047.jpg

20210503_193044.jpg

I also have the option of fitting the clio 197 oem rear as they are 25mm of so shorter than Modus, but are a little loose in the spring cups when jacked up, which is about the same as most lowered 172's so may be an option in the future. Will see, its a lot less offensive on the eyes now.

Will soon be the countdown for mapping, will get the new fuel pump and 5bar reg installed this weekend coming. Planned on doing it over Bank hol but its pissed down almost every day.

Thanks for reading!!
 
Yes looks loads better now, proper thuggish look about it..

Still think it would look ace with a bit of sign-writing/stickering on it and a coloured stripe along the side 🤔
  • PMT Services
  • PMT Racing Team
  • Briggs Trackday Solutions
😁
 
Cheers all, happy with the rideheight for now, low enough and hopefully heading in the right direction for good handling.

Not really interested in made up livery as most look tacky from what ive seen done, Clean and discreet for private use is the way forward. Ive flirted with motorway maintenance chevrons on the back doors for a laugh especially on trackdays but will prob not bother and leave it as is, maybe a limited to 70mph sticker😉

Small update

Had my eye on a late clio 200 cluster to replace the 197 cluster that i had fitted. The 197 dials did not offend me too much but not too keen on the silver insert.

197 cluster as fitted, not the worst.

20210417_202205.jpg


Replaced with 200 cluster. I believe white rev counter was on the last year of production for the 200 as most were yellow.
20210506_225924.jpg


Plugged clip in and reprogrammed most of the stuff out. For some reason changing from keyless settings to normal key would not work right leaving the cluster lit up until uch shut down.

Took negative terminal off to try and force it into programming mode and save settings, give up eventually and fired up my other laptop with Ren0link on.

Changed the "type clef" and saved, job done in 30 secs. Can force most settings to save, but one slip and you might be in the s**t if your not careful :LOL:
20210506_205742.jpg

20210506_205024.jpg


Note rev counter needle low on the pic above, looked fine on pics so can only assume its slipped in the post. Checked against obd data when running and it was 300 rpm out.

Cluster out again and popped the needle off with a fork, reset and checked on obd data which reads ok, job done
20210507_153647.jpg


Took this opportunity to use some light compound on the lense to remove some scratches, came out nice. Renewed the trim around the binnacle which was previously silicone hose.
20210507_162519.jpg



Thanks for reading !!
 
Back
Top