No man, it broke my heart but did replaced for the Meg. Well, the Meg make me forget the Gtt sometimes, but isn´t so funny like the Gtt.
Long time no update, plenty has been going on though. Fitted some lock stops to the steering rack as had slight tyre to coilover rub on full lock. This appears to be a known issue on ast coilovers on megs from a little research. The stops are double the thickness of oem and knock onto the tie rod ends tight so quite a nice bit of kit. Its not the ideal solution as lost a bit of lock, its not clio v6 turning circle bad but have to be a little bit more mindful when parking etc, but tons of clearance on tyres now. The other options would have been to run a spacer up front or lower et wheels but i like the comps and not really a fan of spacers. Lost another compomotive centre cap too but replaced from one i have in stock. Had the toe set yesterday at my local for mates rates on the hunter anlignment. Toe was miles out as expected. From memory massive toe in on drivers, toe out on passenger side. Toe et close to parallel, the setup is not agressive, camber is a little bit less than planned -1.5deg but even so ill take that as i set that prior with a spirit level and some trigonometry. Rear not bad at all, could do with a slight shim however will need custom shims as massive 60mm bolt spacing and 21mm bolts holding the stubs on. I can report that for the first time since conversion it pulls straight on boost. The difference in drivability is amazing. All torque steer has gone which ive been fighting since converting it, you can hold the steering wheel with one hand on boost, where before it was hang on for dear life as the lsd would pull it about on any slight bit of camber. First time ive actually properly enjoyed driving it since getting it on the road, and dont need to concentrate on focusing on holding it in a straight line. Ive been battling torque steer since conversion, with the old suspension setup it was all over the place if hitting camber on the road and lsd scrabbling for traction. It was that bad that it could put you into the next lane if hitting a bump on full throttle so had to be very careful. If it was wheelspinning then it would go straight but that defeats the object. I renewed all the bushes and steering components up front and fitted r26 22mm arb, toe set parallel which made little difference on the old suspension. Next step was purchasing the Ast's and fitting them made a 90% improvement although it would still be a bit skitty in certain circumstances and feeling like it was swapping power left to right although not pulling all over the place. I was at the point of pulling the box to get the lsd checked or replaced or getting the van on a chassis jig to see if the shell was straight, as had checked engine and box was mounted straight/level etc. Still can not believe the toe set up has cured all issues and on the plus side the steering has a nice weighted feeling as it used to go light before. Its been an absolute ball ache to get right but we are 100% moving in the right direction now.
Prep for Cliosport festival. Still not done much and a list of bits to do before CS festival, thought id better make a start now back from hols. Started with a trial fit of the Technomagnesio champion 201B wheels wearing 235/40/18 Yokohama A048 Medium hard compound semis. Got these refurbed a couple of years ago for the blue meg for track use and not used them and have been sat in wheel bags in the garage. As the Kangoo needs a lower offset than the meg on the rear for clearance from inner arch a spacer is required. I dont need to run one with the mo6 as its a staggered set with lower et on the rear approx et50, i believe the technos are et60. I have a pair of 10mm pms slip on spacers in stock which work ok as the hub centre is massive so plenty left to locate the wheel, and clearance is good. Should be epic on a dry track with this combo Liking the look of them fitted now its suitably low. The wheels are like a cross between oldskool flat faced compomotive mo5 and speedline corse 1822, nice motorsport look.
CSF prep almost done New brembo hc front discs fitted, ferodo ds1.11 front pads, system fully flushed with motul rbf 600 fluid. Discs come pre painted on the bits that rust in anthricite and look well. Pressure bled brakes in sequence and the pedal went a bit long for some bizarre reason was no issues prior. Give them another bleed and air came out of the rears and now the pedal feel is wicked. Flushed clutch hydraulics too. Technomagnesios on now longer bolts have arrived for rears due to 10mm pms spacers. Black ebay special centre caps fitted as only had 2 of the silver ones in last pics. £6 delivered for them, bargain. Took it out this morning to bed the brakes in and once some pad material was on the new discs the stopping power is unreal. Quick stop by the old woodyard in M/boro whilst brakes cooled a little. Went back home and changed oil and filter and modine seal. Id been putting this off as access is tight. Pulled front end off and was very easy to be fair. Modine bolt torqued to 44nm as per workshop manual and mocal sandwich plate torqued to 25nm as both were a little loose for my liking when removed. Dry as a bone now as it had a slight weep in this area. Filled up with Millers Cfs motorsport 5/40. Took it out for a test run and done some pulls with RsTuner hooked up for datalogging, whilst keeping an eye on afr gauge. Feels quick as and very planted in higher gears thats all im saying. Checked logs and the consensus is all good. Fitted a nimbus heatshield to the upper scuttle yesterday. It had a crappy bit of carpet sound deadening fitted originally which was looking ropey so took it off when i first done the conversion. Thought it was worthwhile fitting something right above the turbo to reflect some radiant heat. Scuttle off and some riv nuts to hold it in place, daft hour job before the weather was scorchio. Nimbus is class, so easy to work with, moulded around the contours of the scuttle dead easy with minimum fuss. Thats all the bits done for CSF apart from quick wash and fill up with fuel. Thanks for reading!!
What Powerflex bushings did you use for the Rear axle? Still a stock Kangoo axle? I've done some research on fitting a Kangoo axle to a Meg 225 as it's the same width and has the same track width, but then with the possibility to put shims on there. Haven't measured anything yet but curious to see what you used.
The rear beam is stock kangoo,not sure if the meg beam will fit as never compared. The bushes are custom made by powerflex to suit the kangoo. Engine is currently poorly in this. Building another engine up ready for next year. Will update later.
Long time no update!! Lets go back to September 2022. Engine problems!! I had noted a bit of white smoke on boost out of the exhaust when giving it some boost. Overall the engine is mostly running OK and going well, but still had 10 second misfire from cold and coolant use has not gone away. It lured me into a false sense of security with a couple of days of clean starts after changing upstream lambda which was needed, but went back to misfiring from cold, and coolant going from max to min in 250 miles. So more investigation was absolutely needed. I had suspicions about misfiring from cold and using coolant with no visible leaks. From my gtt days this was almost certainly coolant in the cylinders when sitting. I had noted cylinder 1 spark plug was cleaner than the rest which indicated something was going on in that cylinder when i changed them recently, so pulled that when engine was cold/sat overnight. The indicated wet ring around the spark plug was not good, with the smell of coolant and brown mark on electrode. My borescope is about knackered but confirmed type d green coolant sitting in the piston dome. So the engine is pretty poorly. Consensus is the head is cracked between the valves/water jacket, which is an issue that has cropped up on a few meg 250s due to thin casting in the cylinder head. With the oil useage ill have to get this engine pulled soon and rebuilt.
Typically i was planning to take it to the Nurburgring last October. Got my Compomotive mo6 1880 refurbed in anthracite ready for the trip but was not to be. Took them down to Advance Detail in Leeds to be ceramic coated with Gtechniq crystal serum ultra. I took Jon who owns Advance Detail out in it to show him what its about, and i believe that almost finished the poorly engine off, s**t happens i guess!! Check out the R S stamp and 2002 date stamp on the inner face, and 2x valves on one wheel. From research i believe Icarus used them on the pre production 225 for testing which is super cool. " They can now sit in wheel bags looking sexy until new engine is built.
End of September 2022. Kangoo is now sorn due to poorly engine. Ive not really touched it since last post but have started gathering parts. Have purchased a rebuilt megane bottom end. Spec is Wossner pistons stock c/r, pec conrods, new oem renault oil pump, gen renault main bearings, king big end bearings and new oem oil squirters. I wanted to use different pistons and rods, but this came up at the right price and built by a trusted company so will do for what i need. 197 head also purchased to replace the damaged 250 head. Ive got a set of inconel supertech valves and cat cams valve springs coming to suit. Itll be engine building time soon after doing the vital checks.
Bottom end buttoned up, oil pump cover, oil splash plate and sump refitted. Sump had a mega clean. Block had a quick clean up and repaint. Ive painfully removed the flaking powdercoat off the 197 cam cover. I sprayed gasket remover all over it to soften it up and a combo of acetone to get the stubborn bits off. Took hours of pain but now its ready for aquablasting. Head is in the machine shop to get the supertech valves fitted, guides checked and catcams springs in. Just been doing the maths and its a toss up of 1.75mm thick head gasket giving around 8.3:1 comp or 1.9mm giving around 8.0:1, need to make a decision on that. Interestingly the old engine had an 0.65mm clio head gasket on so static comp was a bit on the high side from memory around 9.0.1, that will explain why it was knock limited and would not take much timing up top. Cam cover came back from aquablasting. Looks nice and fresh.
Head was in the machine shop for ages. In the mean time i had my spare set of Compomotive Mo 1882 in rare r26r et63 offset refurbed in white and michelin pilotsport cup2 tyres fitted. Look mega, going to get them ceramic coated to help with future cleaning.
Got head back from the machine shop, so can start assembly soon. Amac have fitted the supertech inlet and exhaust valves, cut 3 angled valve seats, lapped valves in. They also installed the cat cams single valve springs, which required a 2.2mm shim making up so the installed spring length was correct. Alastair machined up some bucket style shims that sit on top of the valve stem oil seals as he did not like the usual way of installing what is basically a flat washer under the valve stem oil seals. He said that raising the stem seal 2mm above the guide is a bit too much so wanted it as oem in that respect. Head has also had a little face too, decoke etc. Cc'd the head to check combustion chamber volume after facing, and had repeat results of 43.6cc. Done the maths for static comp and selected a cometic headgasket to suit, static comp around 8.4:1. Motivation to go in the garage was very low over xmas so didnt get anything done. Now the new year has ticked over, ive finally got my arse into gear. Mot runs out in April and i need it up and running soon ish so i can just get it straight out on the road to run the new engine in. Set goals, get s**t done. Block face a quick wipe over to get the lube off. Needed a thread chaser to clean the holes out in the block. Typically my set did not have the right size, so went oldskool and ground some grooves into an old head bolt. Works great. Arp studs lubed up with arp lube and installed to block as per instructions. Cometic head gasket 1.52mm. Head face wiped over, fitted and torqued in 3x stages, letting it settle between each one timed by a brew. Final stage 105ft/lb.
In the process of building the new engine up im putting the parts in place to run 197/250 vvt and full sequential injection. To do this, i need a trigger wheel on the inlet cam for cam position, and the 172 inlet cam does not have one. Next step was to fit a catcams trigger wheel. I had this in stock but got stuck fitting it, as it would not go over the ridge on the cam as described above and would need to be machined off so it can locate in the correct position (41mm from the end of the cam if anybody needs to know in the future). Took the cam round to a retired machinist i know who has a lathe in his garage. He had the cam in, clocked and ridge machined off in ten mins, for the price of a drink. This has allowed the trigger wheel to go fully home in the correct position. Its a nice tight fit, so just needs a small amount of studlock and nip up the grubscrew and its going nowhere. Im going to set the orientation as close to oem position as poss but as im planning on using a standalone ecu, it wont matter too much can fine tune it in the software.
Hydraulic lifters, rocker arms and cams fitted and liberal amounts of assembly lube applied. Loctite 518 applied to cam cover. Fitted and torqued to spec Cam seals in, using new seal driver kit which made very easy work of fitting them in square to the right location. New dephaser, exhaust pulley and cambelt fitted. Cams set and locked with relevant oem Renault tooling. Torqued to spec. Horseshoe slips in lovely after a few revolutions of the crank. Cambelt cover on, crank pulley torqued to spec.
Had some more parts aquablasted as they were looking a bit scruffy. Before After Fitted (temporary as i need the cam cover spacers and nuts off the old engine)
Gtt days...what a days!! Really a good job there, man. Just curiosity, how do you calculate the gasket thickness you need?? To be honest, you afraid to me, yours is the 2nd case I see with problem in a 250 head. I have a 2010 one!! Anyway, I hope that pretty rebuild works fine, waitting for the first start!!
Cheers mate! Its getting there slowly. Thanks sir! Ive heard of a lot of issues with cracked 250 cylinder heads in the UK. I worked out the static cr with some maths and combustion chamber volume.
More updates, recent ones now. Modified the 250 breather plate. The hole is very small inside so enlarged that. I dont run any of the emissions s**t so same as old engine ive removed the stub that goes to the vac pipe, and drilled/tapped it 1/8npt and fitted a grubscrew. Started stripping the old engine out and it started pissing down, but apart from driveshafts, engine mounts and exhaust its ready to lift tomorrow if all goes well. Plastic 2ltr bottle catch tank still delivering the goods!
Engine is out and in bits in the garage. Started transferring some bits to the new engine. Also flushed heater matrix out, the amount of rust and shite that came out of it was insane. Took several forward/backwards flushes to get the water running clear. I assume all the rusty sediment out of the old block had settled in there! Have also flushed rad and same story, and all hoses have been cleaned. Also noticed that both lower balljoint rubber boots have perished and almost split. They were quality trw balljoints and less than 2 years old/5k miles so pissed off at that. Still mega stiff so will change the boots, as they are press fit and i fear the hole will be too baggy on next balljoint swap! Also painted the boost hoses up in vht wrinkle black. Heatgunned it dry for max wrinkle then banged them in the oven for an hr at gasmark 1 to bake it on.
Snuck a quick hour in today. Pulled 250 inlet off old engine, and its not a straight fit on the 197 head. Basically, the cam sensor on 250 is in the cam cover, and on 197 its lower down in the head so the inlet fouls it. Out comes the grinder to add clearance, not ideal but im sure itll be reet, still plenty of webbing above the runner. Tested up fits OK. Painted up with vht aluminium paint. Considered aquablasting, but be a nightmare to clean the inside and times cracking on, and i want it up and running soon. Also done alternator bracket. Finish looks nice and fresh.
Had an hour spare here and there over the last couple of days, so got a bit more done 250 Inlet and fuel rail fitted Dipstick tube needed a spacer to clear 197 cam sensor Exhaust manifold and new gasket fitted, and oil feed/return pipes. Cam cover and top mount fitted and torqued. Throttle body painted and fitted. I considered making a more aesthetically pleasing throttle adaptor but cant hardly see it when fitted, so function over form Thats the thread fully up to date. If weather plays ball and no little issues arise, this should be in and running this weekend. Thanks for reading!!
I never heard weakness issues in the 250 heads here in Spain, well, there isn´t a big and communicative forum/club like yours either... So, any reason why you fit a 197 head?? Stronger than 250 one?? I tell you, great job, a lot of knowledge about this engines in England!!
197 head was easier to find than 250. Inlet port machining looks good on 197 head too compared to the rough cast finish of 250.
Quick hour again today Turbo on, decat on and torqued. Oil feed/return fitted and torqued. Mocked up boost hose. Doesnt look too bad! Ill crack on with this and get crank seal in and clutch/dmf once off stand, get box back on and see if i can get it in the hole this weekend. Thanks for reading!!
This is quite a cool detail. I have a set of these wheels aswell and my wheels also had 2 valve holes. They've been welded shut. Where did you find the information from Icarus using them on 225 for testing? Would be cool to know and see.
Are yours a yellow set on a silver 225? I seen one at the Nurburgring with a set on last year. I found the info on here, https://www.meganesport.net/threads/compomotives-anyone.9805/ There is a few other posts if you dig deep. It was actually the company Ricardo that used them and Icarus was the person who posted it up. I believe a few sets were sold on after testing was finished. Great wheels, i confirmed with compomotive that they were made special order a long time ago.
That would've been me indeed. They are changing colour later this year, bought them from a French guy last summer. They'll be going Anthracite aswell. Thanks for the link, cool to know.
@Martijn106 i spotted you at the Nurburgring/devils diner last October. Looks great on the compomotives.
The alternator and ac pump were looking well weathered and would have let the side down, so masked them up and painted with vht aluminium paint. Also removed modine from old engine, and flushed it/cleaned it up and also lightly painted with vht. Turbo heatshield received the same treatment. New aux belt/tensioner fitted, all bits torqued to spec. Ive removed the rts twin friction clutch and dmf from the old engine to inspect, and luckily there is minimal wear to it so its simply reset the self adjuster and refit.
Reset self adjusting mech on the clutch. Ive done this in my press before, but as the trophy is in the way and couldnt be arsed moving it, done it with a puller instead. The self adjusting mech had barely moved but didnt want to risk any issues. Simply compress the pressure plate, push small springs round until fully compressed, hold whilst undoing the puller and it locks in place. The proper tool to do it is fairly expensive even for a chinese knock off so this works great for a one off. Pressure plate springs on full adjustment for reference in this pic. , Next job was to get the engine off the stand so could fit the crank seal. Dug out Mot. 991 for the job. Lubed up and sent to the correct depth Dmf fitted, used another renault flywheel locking tool i had lying about, worked spot on Dmf fitted and torqued. Pressure plate drawn on square so mechanism stays set (note springs fully compressed), bolts torqued. Engine mount tarted up with a bit of paint
Box back on, starter etc all bolts torqued. Filled with running in mineral oil and took plugs out/put turbo oil feed into a bottle and span engine over on starter to prime oil system. Oil came out of the feed after a few seconds so thats good, its ready to start. Plugs gapped to 0.6mm, fitted and torqued. Coilpacks and wiring on. Decat repaired as small crack around support bracket and wrapped with DEI titanium wrap.
March 12th Boxed off the last bits early am as weather was mild and dry. Replaced rubber dust covers on balljoints - pains me as they are 6000 miles/18 month old quality trw replacements that i fitted, rubber boot had totally split on drivers side and passengers cracked. Refitted driveshafts and filled with gearbox oil. All done by 11am - went and got 20ltrs of momentum from Tesco as it barely had any fuel in. Filled it up, and hit the switch and it started as normal. No missing or nothing it was quite uneventful, as some first starts can be a carry on, however id done all the pre flight checks so was confident it would go first crank. This is why it was essential to prime oil system before attempting start up, as even though it was well lubed up with assembly lube, not taking any chances of a dry start. Click link below for first start vid. https://youtube.com/shorts/xDw8ZL9LNxU?feature=share Let it idle briefly just to run round and check for any leaks which was none. Hydraulic lifters sounded noisy for a minute or so then top end quietened down to normal. Oil pressure is spot on, seen 75-80psi cold, ran it on fast idle around 2k until up to temp and coolant thermostat had opened, 25 psi on idle/75psi 4k rpm @80deg oil temps so id say thats pretty decent for f4r. Shut it down and dropped oil out for fresh and changed filter. Ran out of time as had to do some running about this afternoon, but only needs wheels swapping over, coolant topping up now stat has opened, and good to drive.
Had a couple of small jobs to do. Started off by making a small cowling to go around rad, to keep the s**t out of the engine bay and to try and force air through the rad. Not the prettiest, but hidden from view when grill is on anyway. Fitted the freshly refurbed compomotive mo6 and new centre caps. Took it out for a drive to bed the rings in, done my usual north yorkshire route of hills which gives a good amount of load/vac pulls on overrun. Overall very uneventful, engine is super quiet and seems to be running very well, no leaks, no smoke, Oil pressure is spot on. Done around 40 miles in total, had the rstuner hooked up for datalogging purposes and nothing to note. Current map is very good and the engine spec has not wildly changed apart from a decrease in C/R so it felt absolutely normal to drive. Ill change oil and filter for fresh in the morning and get out in it again to get more miles on it. Get 500 or so boxed off and straight in to Efi for a map tweak if all goes well.
Changed oil for 3rd lot of fresh millers cro mineral with new filter. Filtered drained oil and nothing to be concerned about. More running in miles done, around 150 done in total. Brimmed tank and took it for a blast up to Whitby and surrounding areas, all b road/hilly and perfect for running in a new engine. Was nice to drive something petrol turbo instead of dirty diesel, weather was great too just nice to get out and about instead of up to my eyes in s**t in the garage. Have not cleaned it for weeks as couldnt really be arsed with crap weather. Fallout on the paint was horrendous and them black marks off the trims that happen on white paint, also rust all over the wheels after initial driving/disc cleaning up when brakes used. Weather was good yesterday and got back from site early so give it some love. BH Korrosol all over and left to dwell, rinsed, BH autofoam, gtechniq gwash, and dried off using gtecnhiq c2v3 as a drying aid. 45 mins, done. Anyway we are up to date now. Engine has around 450 miles on it and no issues at all. Its booked in for mapping at the end of the month at Efi so will do a few more miles before and get the synthetic oil in and it should be good to go! Thanks for reading!!
Great job once again! Good to see you're enjoying it again now. Such a cool build, can't get over how funny the Compact Kangoo's look.
