F4rt Twingo GT

Bit of an ongoing project but I built this this year. I pulled the original 1149cc engine out to fit a new clutch and big turbo but ended up replacing it with a f4rt engine mated to a 5 speed gearbox. Car was 1000kg at its last weigh in and produces 280bhp and 300lbft. Mapped by EFI parts on the original GT ecu. It runs the full widetrack 133 suspension and brakes along with bigger 300mm front discs. I have a fully documented thread over at https://turborenault.co.uk/threads/adeys-twingo-gt-f4rt-frankenstein-build.115135/
I've actually only just found this forum whilst browsing for info on bigger turbos. I've just picked up a 19t to fit in replacement of the stock turbo. I would like to hit 300bhp for bragging rights after that ill be looking for some stronger internals as I'm well aware I will be pushing my luck.

It goes quite well when it gets traction though that's sometimes an issue



Hope you like it and ill update here as things progress even further

 

Hi there, its tight in places but not as much as you would think. The bay on a Twingo 2 is nigh on identical to the Clio 2 which houses an f4r from factory. The windscreen does extend over the top of the engine and the front is higher giving it the look of being smaller on space when it really isn't. Also the GT being turbo from factory has extra heat shielding in the bay. I have added more to the bulkhead area though, along with sleeving the brake lines behind the shielding, I also swapped out to the master cylinder to a Peugeot item to move the brake lines further away from the down pipe and wrapped the downpipe. My main concern was heat soaking the brake components more than overall heat in the bay.

 

The last update for 2021! I've had the car back just over a year now (I've sold it twice previously) and its gone through a huge amount of changes even though visually you wouldn't know it. Its basically a completely different car. Quite the project when you look back at it but its been really fun to build, it has saved my sanity during Covid and given me something to focus on. Anyway on the last day of the year I managed to sneak in a cheeky turbo swap using the 19T hybrid I purchased a few weeks back. I've got a lot going on next week and am in for an operation on my guts, after that mobility and having the ability to work on the car will be very limited so I decided to do this now and get it booked in with EFI when they open back up. There's a possibility even driving is going to be off the cards for 6 weeks. I've decided to just "send it" for now and aim for the magical 300bhp. The turbo should actually be good for a chunk more so will be ok on the next engine if I build one. I still have the fuel rail to fit when my fuel hoses turn up but that should be an easy job to do. The swap itself was very easy, @Brigsy pointed me in the direction of doing a cold side swap which was a really good shout as not only does it make the job easier my "new" rear housing was badly cracked so a win there. No need to go through the process too in depth, undo some bits, remove the chra clamp to the rear housing and wiggle out the core and front housing, replace it all with the new bigger 19T compressor and chra, prime it all then fire it up, jobs a good un. I also modified the heat shield/water feed, I don't use this on my car but it form part of a nice heat shield on the right of the engine. All back in, awaiting the Cooksport fuel rail to be fitted then off to EFI hopefully at the end of Jan/start of Feb.

Thanks for reading and Happy new year to you all

 

thank you

 

Managed to finish off the fuel side of things. The Cooksport fuel rail is a nice bit of kit though the injector clips are a pain to fit to it, I ended up fitting them from the underside (in case anyone else looks here and has an issue) Re plumbed the fuel lines with some 8mm high pressure e10 compliant hose. Nothing fancy but functional The fuel setup should now be good for over 300bhp without the end cylinder running lean Oh and I took a delivery of a set of Megane 250rs pistons and rods which I may use in the future

 

Not really had much time to do anything or much to do on this really. Replaced the oil cap as mine has been broken forever, found the correct part numbered item on ebay so got that. I was gifted a stack of bits that included a decent sized air filter which looks tidy, it's from a mk7 golf but was easily made to fit the twingo. Looks a little neater in there now vs my dirty s2000 item. I have a green dot actuator on the way and hopefully a new exhaust which all being well I will get before mapping which is booked for the 2nd. The exhaust is a 2.5inch system which will replace my home made 2.5 mid section and 2.25 back box. Won't make much difference I don't think as its only really increasing the bore of the last foot and a half of my current setup. Plan is to get Scoff to try and get as close to 300bhp as it will do but without it letting go.... Big ask so keep your fingers crossed for me

 

Pretty much this lol, I ended up selling my other car in the end so this stayed

 

Long old day, but not as long as they used to be for me. Anyway I set off in the morning ready to a nice gentle drive up to see Chris at EFI Parts. All was going well until I was making some choo choo noises joining the m5, suddenly I had no boost at all A look in the mirror saw no smoke and there were no nasty noises so I drove on to the next services to investigate. Nothing major, a quick look around saw the actuator arm had jumped off the flapper, It was way to hot to sort there so I decided to do the next 100miles with no boost. It wasn't too bad, like driving a bigger engine Twingo still so I was able to cruise nicely all be it with a lot less acceleration and a lot more drone from the exhaust. With the gasses bypassing the turbo it got very loud, I think my ears are still ringing now.....

Arrived at EFI parts a little early, had a chat with Chris whilst the engine cooled off and then fixed the actuator back on, we also added a bit of wire to make sure it didn't happen again whilst mapping. Chris started doing his magic as usual and the car started making big numbers straight off the bat. The turbo seems to be pretty decent and at one point the car was making north of 310bhp just after 5500rpm! Anyway with it being a totally stock engine we reigned it back in to make the targeted 300/300 (299.4lbft 302bhp on the final graph) which in some instances is a big push for these engines.

WOW its a totally different beast again! the drive home was brisk lol. Its faster yes but nicer to drive also, the delivery of this setup pulls right to the redline with ease where as with the original turbo would punch and deliver a little harder to start with but start to die off above 5k and you would feel you were stretching things if trying to pass 6k. This now just flows and pulls so nicely. Would be mad to see how it would go with yet more torque and HP. This car has bags under the curve now and weighing so little its now effectively 300bhp per ton. That puts it up there with a lot of nice machinery. I WILL have to get some proper videos done

 

The usual waffle about the car, a trip to EFI parts and the results. Small issue with the actuator on the way meaning I drove 100+ miles with no boost, It became an NA f4r.... it was slow lol. The next video should be a lot better (y)

 

It's great fun especially now I feel you can rev it more. Need to find excuses to get out and use it more. Need to get hold a few cars for a comparison I think

 

In with excuses, it was wet and would wheel spin in 3rd. This is the only pull I got but its all in 4th, I'm normally in 3rd till 95leptons. I think on a dry day in 3rd it would of been closer. The car is a dtc e92 m3 with decats and mapped. Not too shabby for a twingo I don't think



Not too bad a time with the wheels chirping in 3rd. Hopefully I can shave a touch more off it

 

it would of done it if I could of started in 3rd but it was wheel spinning like mad. I tend to only time 60-100 130+ is well into licence loosing territory to try repeatedly and somewhat safely tbh

 

So its been pretty much a year since I first had the car out on the road, all has been going amazingly to be fair and I was going to make a video to show it. The daily had been beat on for a very long time. It had had a bigger turbo slapped on and delivered some very good performance for the relatively small outlay. A few days ago I decided to give it some beating whilst timing on the dragy, on the way home afterwards it sounded a little "off" at idle, once home I popped the bonnet and found it breathing quite heavily from the rocker. Removing the lead from number 4 made little difference to the running of it and when starting it spins slightly quick. Im 95% that its cracked a ringland. Hopefully the damage was caught early and soon enough to not have wrecked the bore. So the plan is too pull everything and give it a refresh with 250 rods and pistons, a thicker headgasket, some bigger injectors (when mapping) and all being well some modified 172 cams.

Today was a nice enough day so I made a start on removing everything. Been a bit of a graft and took longer than it would normally but its nearly ready to come out. Just need to dig out the engine crane and get it strapped up an out tomorrow. Once its in the garage ill get it stripped and inspect the damage, send me hugs and prayers to the cars gods that the block is salvageable

 

Latest YouTube update is going live





I will update the thread soon too with pics (y)

 

So it's been pretty much 2 months since cracking a ringland and taking the car off the road. I've been pretty crappy with the updates, I keep forgetting to record anything or take pics as I've been popping out and doing bits when I've found the time or energy in-between work and life. Anyway the engine seems to be working so far, it hasn't exploded in its first 10miles It's all in the bay and running just about, idle is abit crap but it cruises along smooth enough that i can bosh the miles on and bed the rings in. I think I'll give it a few hundred miles then drop the oil for some fully synthetic. Thanks to @Brigsy for the heads up on the miller's running in oil which came in at the same price of some no name stuff. It seems to be holding all its fluids fine and isn't breathing heavy at all so I'm expecting it to be a good one with decent comp. Fingers crossed it all goes well and holds together ready for mapping in June. So far it's been up and down the local roads with some load on to help push the rings out but not many revs. I'll slowly increase everything over the next few days and pray. Managed to give it a rinse down too, doesn't scrub up too bad.

Engine thrown back together with
Meg 250 rods and pistons
172 camshafts
1.9mm cometic mls headgasket
it'll be mapped up with meg 250 map sensors and possibly the 250 injectors.
320bhp here we come (crosses fingers and toes)

 

not sure what the turbo will give yet tbh so who knows. anything over 300 in it will bat shit crazy though

 

Im looking to shift power higher in the rev range rather than have a massive slug of torque. I run a 215mm clutch and 5 speed box in this and want to keep it in one piece as much as possible. Also it kind of future proofs it for when it gets a bigger turbo again (at which point ill probably be doing an NDO swap)

 

if i get up there ill be ecstatic! as long as it doesn't explode

 

Right, a little recap for those at the back.

Engine is back in and running, built up in true pikey fashion. Meg 250RS rods and pistons, Cometic 1.9mm MLS head gasket. Modified 172 cams, 19T hybrid and 250RS injectors (got some new 250 map sensors to go in at the time of mapping too) Slapped in a new CG Motorsport race clutch to replace the dual friction one that was in there (no issues with the old one just wanted to make sure it could hold some more power). Ran in on millers running in oil and now on some more millers CFS. By the time its gets to Chris on Wednesday it will be up around 750 miles since putting it back together, fingers crossed if it was going to go wrong it would have by now I'm tempted to ask for the torque to be kept relatively low if possible and just hold it for as long as possible, this is banking on the cams actually helping push the power higher in the rev range. Its been a pig to drive in traffic as it currently cuts out when pulling up, so putting the miles on has been fun, luckily I live about 4 miles from a quiet motorway which I've been up and down a fair few times now so I'm looking forward to being able just to drive it normally again I've cleaned up the bay a little also, relocated the brake/clutch reservoir to inside the car under the dash and used the freed up space to fit a breather catch tank rather than my normal pipe to somewhere handy. A new lambda was thrown in as the one in there was seemingly causing some issues where it would pin the ecu fully rich or lean. There was also a problem using the cooksport rail with the 250rs injectors, the retaining clips don't fit it, and the injector itself is slightly narrower than the r26 item meaning it could fully plunge into the inlet manifold and come out of the rail. I did actually call cooksport who claimed that they never had the same issue even without the clips, said they would call me back but never did... there was someone else on facebook with the same issue running the same style of injector. Anyway to cure the issue I had a friend from work spin up collars/spacers to sit on the injector, this stopped them being able to push into the manifold and when the rail was bolted up held them pinned in place. So far so good, hopefully they still work fine under high boost/fuel pressure.









I've spent today prepping it ready for tuning, set the wheels straight on a friend ramp, one of the track rod ends was a bit seized, but nothing a bit of heat and some mole grips couldn't sort. I've actually set it quite conservatively to normal, -1.3 camber and about -0.05 toe out, plan is too see how it puts down the power and then ill adjust it from there. Plugs cleaned and checked, gaps set at .6mm.



Anyway its time to play the guessing game again, What are your predictions????

 

BOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!

Nah only joking, so where are we at? Yesterday I took a lovely drive up to EFI Parts for a remap on the new engine setup. The drive was totally un eventful though it was a lovely day so I just took in the scenery (excluding the Birmingham area)

Once there a quick chat was had with Chris about the setup and expectations then whilst he did his Rainman thing with calibrating the ecu I fitted the 250 map sensors and set the actuator. The ECU on these is a dick to flash, around 7min a go, so everything takes a lot longer than a meg or clio. Initially it took about 45min to get it set up before it was on the dyno, once on though the calibration didn't take Chris long at all. Initially set up on gate pressure (I run switchable boost) which is now 15psi solid the car was showing good strong numbers (270ish bhp and 255ish lbft) and it was doing it with plenty of revs the thing was singing high!

Next up was mapping for high boost.... this is where things start to get more technical, It started climbing but very soon started to hit a bit of a wall... The hybrid turbo, though bigger and flowing well didn't flow well enough for the cams, the rear end is stock sized. Now I've introduced the 172 cams that flow very nicely they have more overlap than the stock Turbo camshafts, cams with more overlap don't tolerate high back pressure as much. We actually got to the point that adding more boost was causing the power to drop indicating we were choking the engine out. There are ways I can check to prove this but in reality I don't need too. If I want more power I need a bigger AR turbine housing or a bigger wheel put in my housing (still makes 300bhp and 290ftlb) I'm not going to lie, I was a little deflated but totally understand the outcome, its a chance you take when building a bit of a hybrid engine. That was until I drove the thing......

FARK ME, it doesn't half shift now, its quicker than it was and you rev it a lot more to make it move, It drives more like a big power N/A than a turbo motor. Peak power is being delivered right up top, It holds 280bhp and more from 5750 to 7200rpm, it was dropping off at about 6200 on the old setup. The spool up isn't effected too much either, about 200rpm later on this new setup. Rather than being delivered as a bit of a slug its been spread right out, the extra 1000rpm now also means I can do 60 to over 100mph in 3rd gear, on the road its savage. I swear this car has driven like 4 totally different ones with each iteration or step through this build.

TLDR, less (well the same) is more, still 300bhp different delivery.

 

Little bit of prep gone on with the car now we are nearing 2k on the engine. Oil and filter change done, 3rd since the build so ill probably switch back to normal services now. I still need to give the brakes a little bleed I think. I was going to get the alignment changed up for something more track focused like I normally run but its not really worth it for a half day session. I have added a 4 point harness to the car in the best way I can, not ideal with an oem seat but id rather that and be pinned in than strain my stomach muscles (which are still a little off since the op) trying to stay in the seat. Rears in at 22 degrees into 2 x FIA compliant eye bolts and plates, mounted in sheer and 2 x b23a snap brackets beside the seats. Itll do for me (y)


Managed to slap together a video, I think I need to sort a decent microphone for the old gopro and the phone for some reason keeps corrupting videos an pictures. All probably just old and worn out tbh.





Looking forward to the CSFestival, will be a good run out and be great to catch up with folk after the lack of events in the last few years.