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Mk1 / Ph1 Mégane Cabriolet F4R-t conversion
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binge
Well-Known Member
I swear this car is a bad omen.
No immo fault yet!
But the JC5 128 gearbox I won on ebay arrived today. They've sent me a bloody JB1!
Yes, I won it cheap, but it doesn't make it fair to switch it for a £30 gearbox from a pov spec Clio!
I've taken it up with the seller. They've told me to return it for a refund. I live in Kent, they are in Birmingham.
It already cost me to go and collect it, It'll cost more than the fucking thing is worth to get it back to them.
Ebay want nothing to do with it, as it was cash on collection.
So that's a bit of a shitter. And the inklin of interest I had in finishing the car has well and truely gone!
Not the first time I've been messed around on a gearbox either. The first one I tried to buy from the F7R owners club, the seller didnt post it, and finally refunded me after 6 weeks.
I get the feeling im going to be stuck with the time bomb JB3 that sounds like it's about to explode.
No immo fault yet!
But the JC5 128 gearbox I won on ebay arrived today. They've sent me a bloody JB1!
Yes, I won it cheap, but it doesn't make it fair to switch it for a £30 gearbox from a pov spec Clio!
I've taken it up with the seller. They've told me to return it for a refund. I live in Kent, they are in Birmingham.
It already cost me to go and collect it, It'll cost more than the fucking thing is worth to get it back to them.
Ebay want nothing to do with it, as it was cash on collection.
So that's a bit of a shitter. And the inklin of interest I had in finishing the car has well and truely gone!
Not the first time I've been messed around on a gearbox either. The first one I tried to buy from the F7R owners club, the seller didnt post it, and finally refunded me after 6 weeks.
I get the feeling im going to be stuck with the time bomb JB3 that sounds like it's about to explode.
Last edited:
binge
Well-Known Member
Nothing to update really.
OSR window regulator packed up last week. So the window is wedged closed at the moment. Managed to source a good 2nd hand one from a Renault breaker. Cant buy them new from what I gather. Need to get my arse in gear and get it fitted.
Drove the car to Essex and back (From Maidstone, Kent) last week for a job. Cruised there and back just fine.
Still starting, still no immo issues. Still nursing the haggered JB3 box along. Brakes seem to have bedded in nicely now (1500 miles ish), and it stops very well indeed.
Bought myself a lathe yesterday, been tinkering with it in the garage. Gonna have a shot at machining up a delrin / polyethelene insert for my rear gearbox mount to stop the enigne moving around so much.
OSR window regulator packed up last week. So the window is wedged closed at the moment. Managed to source a good 2nd hand one from a Renault breaker. Cant buy them new from what I gather. Need to get my arse in gear and get it fitted.
Drove the car to Essex and back (From Maidstone, Kent) last week for a job. Cruised there and back just fine.
Still starting, still no immo issues. Still nursing the haggered JB3 box along. Brakes seem to have bedded in nicely now (1500 miles ish), and it stops very well indeed.
Bought myself a lathe yesterday, been tinkering with it in the garage. Gonna have a shot at machining up a delrin / polyethelene insert for my rear gearbox mount to stop the enigne moving around so much.
binge
Well-Known Member
Just flicking back through this thread and noticed a lot of the photos are now dead links. Quite frustrating as they are still hosted just fine on my facebook account.
Will spend an evening uploading them all to somewhere else and fixing the links when I have some spare time.
Other than using the Megane to collect and deliver customer cars, It's just sat it's sorry ass outside my house on the side of a busy road!
The good news is, I've now covered quite a lot of miles, and stop/starts on the ECU with the emulator and it seems to be doing well.
Firstly, I've bit the bullet and bought a box. It's a JB3 980 from a 1.5DCi Clio.
Not the JC5 I would have liked, but it was a good price, and once rebuilt, and fitted with a Renfort plate, I figure it should last ok. I know people with 300hp R5s on JB3 boxes and they are doing ok. And the ropey old JB3 that's currently in my Megane is still soldiering on with abuse even with the whines and rattles it makes.
The gear ratios on this box, with my tyre size, will do 152mph at 6k rpm. Which rings about correct in terms of comparing it to a 225 / 205GT. Never going to get it to the rev limiter in top gear, So I imagine it'll manage around 130/135mph in 5th. It currently does hit the rev limiter in 5th, and does 115mph via GPS (at 6k rpm) Screamer.
Thursday just gone, I used the Megane to drive to a job. It was wet, and I had a 330i driving on my arse end up the dual carriage way (I am your typical Sunday driver when I am not in a rush
)
As we crossed a roundabout, I thought I'd give it a toe full and blast him off a bit. Lost a bit of traction in third, and then again in 4th (the box that's in it is really short geared). Then I heard a bit of a bang, and the engine vibrations went through the roof!
So I nursed it gently to my destination, had a look under the bonnet, and the 6mm steel plate I'd made the main engine mount from had sheered in half! Doh!
So the engine was sitting on the subframe.
Had to get home that evening, so I sat the engine on a couple of sheets of MDF and took it gently.
Also noticed I've got a bit of a leaky sump gasket after taking the photo:
The engine and box will be coming out early next year anyway, for the flywheel refacing, new clutch and cover plate, obviously the JB3 gearbox once rebuilt, and belts doing. I may even pop the head off and change the gasket, clean the valves up etc. Will see how time allows.
I've also been working on an insert for the rear engine mount. I wanted something that fitted the OEM mount, but also something that would keep it sensible on cost, and engine vibrations kept to a minimum.
So. I machined a steel sleeve to fit one of the Powerflex universal bushes. And also machined an insert.
Put it all together, and we have a Purple series rear mount. Sould help with the engine movements.
Will spend an evening uploading them all to somewhere else and fixing the links when I have some spare time.
Other than using the Megane to collect and deliver customer cars, It's just sat it's sorry ass outside my house on the side of a busy road!
The good news is, I've now covered quite a lot of miles, and stop/starts on the ECU with the emulator and it seems to be doing well.
Firstly, I've bit the bullet and bought a box. It's a JB3 980 from a 1.5DCi Clio.
Not the JC5 I would have liked, but it was a good price, and once rebuilt, and fitted with a Renfort plate, I figure it should last ok. I know people with 300hp R5s on JB3 boxes and they are doing ok. And the ropey old JB3 that's currently in my Megane is still soldiering on with abuse even with the whines and rattles it makes.
The gear ratios on this box, with my tyre size, will do 152mph at 6k rpm. Which rings about correct in terms of comparing it to a 225 / 205GT. Never going to get it to the rev limiter in top gear, So I imagine it'll manage around 130/135mph in 5th. It currently does hit the rev limiter in 5th, and does 115mph via GPS (at 6k rpm) Screamer.
Thursday just gone, I used the Megane to drive to a job. It was wet, and I had a 330i driving on my arse end up the dual carriage way (I am your typical Sunday driver when I am not in a rush
)As we crossed a roundabout, I thought I'd give it a toe full and blast him off a bit. Lost a bit of traction in third, and then again in 4th (the box that's in it is really short geared). Then I heard a bit of a bang, and the engine vibrations went through the roof!
So I nursed it gently to my destination, had a look under the bonnet, and the 6mm steel plate I'd made the main engine mount from had sheered in half! Doh!
So the engine was sitting on the subframe.
Had to get home that evening, so I sat the engine on a couple of sheets of MDF and took it gently.
Also noticed I've got a bit of a leaky sump gasket after taking the photo:
The engine and box will be coming out early next year anyway, for the flywheel refacing, new clutch and cover plate, obviously the JB3 gearbox once rebuilt, and belts doing. I may even pop the head off and change the gasket, clean the valves up etc. Will see how time allows.
I've also been working on an insert for the rear engine mount. I wanted something that fitted the OEM mount, but also something that would keep it sensible on cost, and engine vibrations kept to a minimum.
So. I machined a steel sleeve to fit one of the Powerflex universal bushes. And also machined an insert.
Put it all together, and we have a Purple series rear mount. Sould help with the engine movements.
So I run a “hoover” for the images so that we don’t get dead images like you can see on page 2.
It looks like Facebook intercepted my Hoover at times and told it to bugger off.
I believe this has now been fixed so feel free to redo the facebook images and it should Hoover fine
sorry about that - it’s not happened for a long , long time.
Brigsy
Media Mogul. Instagram legend.
Good to hear the emulator is still working ok. I have one here for my current project if i cant work out another solution.
Jb3 should be ok at current power, if you want more id go for a nice smooth map and keep the torque as low as poss low down, as that's what hurts the drivetrain.
Wouldn't bother taking the head off if no issues, the headgaskets rarely go on these as mls steel.
Jb3 should be ok at current power, if you want more id go for a nice smooth map and keep the torque as low as poss low down, as that's what hurts the drivetrain.
Wouldn't bother taking the head off if no issues, the headgaskets rarely go on these as mls steel.
binge
Well-Known Member
Wicked. I don't really understand what you just said but I'll copy the links back in and see how it goes. Cheers.
binge
Well-Known Member
Tricky one with the emulator.
I've been keeping an eye out for another Laguna ECU to have emulated and just keep in the glovebox as a spare.
I've been told the Mégane 225 ECU is the same but then told it's different by others. So I'm not sure. But that's obviously the easier ECU to source as it's a much more common car.
Power wise, I'll be getting it mapped once it's all sorted but that's where the tuning will stop. Rob who originally emulated the ECU is a tuner who builds live / custom maps so I think I will just drop the car with him for a day and leave it there. At least it's with somebody familiar with the emulator that's on the ECU too.
250/260 is a number he said is easily achievable so that's as far as I'll take it. Although I'm also considering fitting 225 cams in it because that (afaik) is the only difference between Laguna and Mégane engines.
The Mégane makes an extra 20bhp from factory is but short of the Laguna on torque. I'm guessing that's done in the cams and the software on the ECU.
My Mégane loses all its pull at about 5.6/5.7k RPM, although with the diesel box fitted it might be nice to have the torque over the bhp.
binge
Well-Known Member
binge
Well-Known Member
I am not 100%, but I think the GT205 Laguna engine shares everything with the 225, apart from the cams (Possibly just the exh one), and the ECU.
But again, could be wrong there.
Urgh. I’ll move you into another group later on so you can.
I think it’s the 165 that has the 10T ?
binge
Well-Known Member
Think you're right there.
I asked on the Laguna OC and I got so many different answers. One guy was even telling me a 225 is VVT. Which I know its not.
And somebody else saying the Laguna has different (Weaker) internals.
Without going to Renault and running off a parts list with numbers for both engines, I'll never be 100% sure, but going on what I've been told by pretty knowlegable people, it's just the cam(s) and the ECU that are different.
I assume the difference in cams makes the two cars behave differently at different RPMs. The Megane is pretty mental mid-range, It drives fast when driven like a TD. But that could be down to the gearbox that's in it.
You can now. Let me know when finished
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