Twingo Project Dini

[YamYamRob]

Since im going for a 133 kit ( i even have fog surrounds but prob wont use them) i wanted some 16" turinis, a month of looking and i found some on ebay and they were local to me! Bingo. And theyre original clio cup fitment as well. Will paint them the same as what i have now, blue and white.
Same guy also had a few other bits... next thing i know i have a meg engine and ndo in the boot.

 

[YamYamRob]

Another future upgrade will be 300mm discs and clio 197 brembo calipers. Found some calipers cheap enough, and got the mounting kit from pure motorsport. Will run std 133 calipers for a good while once all the suspension is on though.
I am thinking of painting the calipers blue, and instead of brembo badging on calipers have Gordini on them. Unsure yet and there's definitely no rush to sort them.
Brembo calipers are a lighter than std 133 calipers too.

 

[YamYamRob]

Another couple of purchases ive made recently are a green dot actuator and forge recirculation valve. I wasn't going to run any sort of dump valve, but im after reliability with this meg lump, so no harm in protecting the turbo a little.
Also after advice from the turborenault gurus ive invested in a bar and plate intercooler too.

 

[YamYamRob]

Engine is pretty much ready to drop in. I got stuck thinking about fuelling though. At 1st i wanted std meg pump, 172 ph1 fuel rail and a return. I know megs suffer with running lean on occasion so i got my hands on a 250 sender and fuel rail and was going to do a standard dead head set up.
But, i stumbled with some issues or other. So, back to original idea albeit a couple tweeks. Ive a dw65c pump to go in the gt sender, will run a return with sytec fuel pressure reg, and a dan st fuel rail. Still not sure if i should use the 250 injectors. They flow more than the 225 ones but not sure how good they are with the longer pintle.

 

[YamYamRob]

Needed some wheel bearings doing in the 133 hubs i had so deal done and Mark not only fitted the bearings for me but cleaned up the hubs too.

 

[YamYamRob]

Diffuser acquired, hard as nails to find oem part. Luckily a friend of mine knew i wanted one and helped me out. It will add eff all aero, but itll look half decent.
Maybe in the future i will chop it a little to make it more functional. But as with a lot of things its going on the back burner.

 

[YamYamRob]

So my danst fuel rail turned up yesterday. Not cheap but a very nice shiny thing to show off in my engine bay... why did i choose the dan st over cooksport or ktec you ask? Well itll fit the injectors with no modifications and i can choose whatever connectors i wanted on it.
So fuellling will look like this;
Dw65c fuel pump in gt sender unit
Sytec fpr
Dan st fuel rail
250 injectors.

 

[YamYamRob]

So where do i start. This meg swap has stopped. I no longer want to do it, its just too much hard work trying to get it all into a twingo GT....

 

[YamYamRob]

But i do want to put it all into a recently acquired RS133!

 

[YamYamRob]

So, saw a bargain gordini rs come up for sale with suspected gearbox failure for cheap, i couldnt pass it up, but my wife was due to give birth so i bought this blind. Seller was a great guy tbh, and sent me all pics and vids i asked for, booked transport with shipley and it was delivered to me 2 days before my baby boy was born. What a hectic weekend that was!

 

[YamYamRob]

After giving it a test drive, the gearbox itself felt fine, but had a huge vibration at all speeds above 10 mph coming through the car, after taking the wheels off for inspection i found the wheels weren't sitting on the hubs correctly. So quickly chucked on my "spars" clio cup turinis and went for another test drive. Car was perfect, zero vibration.
At this point i had to make a choice, tart the old girl up and sell for a tidy profit and buy a ph1 172 or, stick with the mingo build.
I decided that the 133 is pretty much a wider mk2 clio, and being a gordini may well be sought after in the future, so i will go ahead with the rs mingo swap

 

[YamYamRob]

Because of baby i didnt have, and still dont have much time spare to really progress, but progress is still being made.
Ive opted to bin the 133 ecu and engine loom, and bought stuff from a tce to swap over, figuring an ecu that comtrols boost is better than one that cant even with a dodgy mod. Possibly standalone ecu in the future, we'll see.
So engine came out, really easily if im honest, and that and its gearbox went up for sale.
Then i saw a bargain R26 gearbox, and i hot thinking "how can i make my project more expensive and complicated at the same time"
So i now have an r26 gearbox, r26r clutch and single mass flywheel sitting in my garage

 

[YamYamRob]

Engine out

 

[YamYamRob]

Photographing all i could as i strip the rs133 loom out so i dont forget which connectors go where.

Next step was thinking what do i need to do to get an ndo gearbox in. I knew the chassis needed modfing to fit, so after a lot of googling and speaking to a handful of people that had it done i knew i needed a good size chassis notch if i want it to fit nicely.

 

[YamYamRob]

While doing this, i thought id try something no one else had attempted yet. Ptting a wind dash in the twingo. It took me some time to acquire all the parts, and i wasnt 100% sure it would fit, but after a couple days swapping bits over,it fits well enough, most of the plugs and cables ate the same, albeit the clocks. And that stumped me. I bought an interior loom of a wind but, its a non climate control loom, and i really dont want to mess about changing my heaters as well. So for now, twingo dash is back in, but im on the look out for a wind interior loom with climate control that has all the plugs i need in the right places

 

[YamYamRob]

It looks the part. Something i will het to again

 

[YamYamRob]

If you're new to renaults and wondered why ive picked an r26 gearbox over the 5 speed i already had, it means it has a diff, is generally stronger, has 6 gears, and means i get to use a bigger clutch.
The r26r clutch ive got now should be good for 360-380lbft or torques.
My mingo will, hopefully, be more reliable and nicer to drive because of this

 

[Brigsy]

R26 box is absolutely the way to go for the lsd and reliability.

 

[YamYamRob]

So with engine out id thought id pull the engine loom out as im going to replace the loom and ecu uch with twingo gt items. Although currently rethinking this. So with all the bay stripped it was time to sort a chassis notch.
Not being able to weld i got a couple quotes and i wasnt happy, so i bought my own cheapy welder, and taught myself. After about an hours practice welding it was time to cut the notch. Found a few pics online of where to cut and found a guy thats done it twice with his second attempt being much smarter, i decided to replicate his attempt. Cant for the life of me remember his name.
So few measurements i cut a hole in chassis leg.

 

[YamYamRob]

Took my time with some card and made a few templates of what id like, then cut it out of 2mm steel. Not the easiest job for a novice welder, and probably took me longer than it should, but i ended up with something looking half decent. And with the oem chassis rail wall only being 1.5mm thick i hope ive not lost too much structural strength using 2mm replacement.