Forged Megane 225 engine for a clio 197

Hello all, thought it was time to put my progress thread up of my forged build for my clio 197. Been doing it for a year.

Specs:

Wossner pistons
ZRP H beam rods
Supertech Valves
Catcam Springs
ACL bearings
Ported head and Manifold
630cc injectors
Custom Fuel Rail
Quaife Diff
Decat down pipe
td04HL 20T turbo

 

Right guys and girls i thought it was time to start a project thread as Ive had the car around a year now. Now has come the time when i need more power so its a megane conversion for me. Picked up the engine today and drained the oil (No bits of metal in it) now for a few months of stripping it and then hopefully forging it! I think i hold the record for cheapest ebay find £650 for a complete engine with ancillaries, turbo and ecu, bargain!

Heres a pic!

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Small update today, spent about 2 hours today stripping the engine. Managed to get the loom and coolant pipes detached. Also managed to free the inlet manifold and oil filter. With the spark plugs out i did some compression tests and everything seems okay, so fingers crossed Ive got a genuine bargain.

Few pics:

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Quick update on the strip down process.

Had a spare Saturday so it was engine time! Managed to get the belts off and aux assembly, i just cut the aux belt off as it was knackered and all belts will be replaced anyway. Next was getting the rocker cover off to see the state of the insides and it was a pleasant surprise, everything was good condition with no scoring. Had a bit of fart arse around trying to find a star/torx socket for the head bolts as no where sold them eventually found some after an hour of hunting. Used a large torque wrench to loosen them off (My god they were tight) and behold i was greeted with imaculate looking bores! So ive put some grease on them to stop them rusting. Next week ill have it completely stripped.
So I'm a happy man.

 

Some pictures:


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The hex socket worked in the end! I got one piston off tonight as i didnt have much time. Ill take the rest out tomorrow.



Also here are two 1972 honda cb350's I rebuilt with my uncle for the past two years. They are immaculate.

Sadly my uncle unexpectedly passed away in march when we had just completed the bikes but he never got to ride his. If it werent for my uncle i would never have the "know how" to be able to strip the megane engine. So all this build thread will be kind of dedicated to him. He also helped me buy my 197 by helping me with the deposit. I wouldnt therefore be a Clio sport owner without him. RIP Jeff.

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UPDATE: The engine is finally completely stripped and ready for degreasing/clean up and painting. Ill be selling the pistons and rods for some extra funds for forged ones. Ill also sell my turbo in for a 250 one. The colour scheme for the engine will probably be black and red to go with the cars exterior.

Today i removed all the pistons and crank shaft assembly, everything is in excellent condition.

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ll be concentrating on the cylinder head first, now its all been stripped. Today I cleaned up the valves and started the long process of polishing the combustion chambers to a mirror finish to prevent premature ignition. Ill also be stage 1 porting the head by removing all the cast marks and inlet matching. Here are some pics:

 

UPDATE: Picked myself up some polishing pads and flapper wheels for my air dremel. I set about polishing the combustion chambers to prevent carbon build up and "knock". If first used 100 grit wet and dry to flatten out all the casting marks from sand casting. This took around an hour for just one combustion chamber. I then moved to a 180 grit flapper wheel and smoothed out all the scratch marks from the previous stage. next was a 240 grit and 300 grit scotch bright wheel. Then finally used a cotton polishing pad with in combination with black then white rouge polish. This gave it a mirror like appearance which should really prevent carbon build up.

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Right guys the polishing of the chambers is complete! Took over 10 hours in total but I'm very please with the results, the smoothness has increased drastically compared with the old surface that was pitted from sand casting. Next job is to polish and smooth out the inlet and exhaust ports and bowls. The casts marks are quite bad also

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UPDATE:

Out came the dremel again and it was time to tackle the exhaust ports. They were terrible to start with, pitted, flash marks down the sides, big ridges where the valve seats met the casting. I intended to smooth all of this and blend the bowels. I didn't make the ports bigger as this would have reduced the exiting gas velocity which in theory will give more turbo lag.

To prevent me hitting the valve seats with the dremel I covered them in blue tac, this worked incredibly well and the seats came out unscaved.

Many people grind the valve guides flush with the bowel, however I didn't do this in this case due to the exhaust gas temps which could potentially melt the valve stems. I will grind them flush on the inlet ports due to the low temps.









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Done quite a few things over the last week or so.

First off was a 36K service of the car, this included new plugs, oil, cabin filter, oil filter and brake fluid. Wow what a difference the plugs make, the car feels alive again and pulls so much harder.

While the car was up on the jacks i thought it was about time to replace my rear brake callipers, I had some refurbed ones spare and so now i finally have red calipers front and rear. Next month Ill replace the rear and front discs and fit braided lines.





They look much better, just never got time to doing my own as Im always busy refurbing everyone elses callipers

With the car done it was now time to carry on with its new engine This time it was time to port the inlet ports. These were far easier the work with than the exhaust ports at the were a lot wider and shallower. I will also get most gains from re shaping and smoothing the inlet ports.


Below is an image of the ports before porting. As you can the see the partition it fairly large and will cause quite a bit of drag on the flowing air. Like the exhaust ports the walls of the port are really rough with cast marks running down the edges. The valve guides are protruding out which is also an area which will cause excess drag on the air flowing round them. My porting attempts will resolve these issues with the stock ports.




After the first pass with the 60 grit wheel the majority of the shaping is done, the partition has been knife edged to reduce the coefficient of drag on the incoming air. The ridge or hump at the start of the port has also been flattened and blended into the surroundings. The machined channels have also been blended into a smooth curve to aid air flow. The 60 grit wheel has also done a good job at removing all cast marks.




The next stages was a pass with a 120 grit wheel to further refine the contours and smooth the surface. I then used a scotch bright wheel of 180 grit and then 280 grit to smooth the surface to exceptional finish.

I have left the short radius rough (Cant see this in this view) to cause a tumbling effect on the air to increase velocity around the bend into the valve opening. This turbulence should also help with fuel atomization creating a more efficient burn.

The valve guides have been ground flush with the bowls to also aid air flow. This can be done on the inlet due to the reduced temperatures compared with the exhaust ports where the guides are left untouched to protect the valve stem from the intense heat.




I hope you guys are enjoying this build thread!!

Next time Ill blend the valve bowls and get the head skimmed then its time to install the new shiny valves ​

 

Another week and some more work done to the engine.

First off was tackling the inlet bowls. I had to get these all exactly the same to keep airflow through all the ports uniformed. I therefore like before put blue tac around each valve seat to protect them should i slip. I then went in again with the 60 grit wheel then 120. I tried to time myself on each port to prevent me over grinding one of the bowls. After this stage I used a 240 grit flapper wheel to further smooth the contours of the bowl.

Before finsishing with the buffing wheels I inspected the bowls with a vernier calliper, they were all within 0.25mm of each other which I don't think is to bad for just a dremel.

Finally using the finishing buffs I finished the bowls in 400 grit as I want low air resistance just before entering the chamber.







Now with the porting and polishing complete (THANK GOD!!!) its time to get the head cleaned up and skimmed ready for painting. To achieve this i will sand blast the exterior of the head. This means I have to mask off all the machined surfaces and bolts holes. For the combustion chambers I made a aluminum plate to block off this area. Using the head gasket as a template I marked out the bolts holes and drilled them out. Then using 120mm long M10 bolts and nuts I bolted the plate on to the head using the existing head bolt holes (I hope this makes sense )



Over the weekend Ill mask off the other areas using a mix of electrical tape and duct tape. Then I can get it blasted on monday.


I now have to decide the colour scheme of the engine. I was thinking of a gun metal grey for the head and rocker cover with a black intake port and block.

Any ideas will be greatly welcome.

Cheers

 

Not a huge amount done this weekend.

Saturday I picked up some forged rods from @shakey_hand_man, had the pleasure of looking over his clio and my god its a sight to behold. If mines half as good as that ill be happy.

Right back onto the engine re-build I reassembled the top end of the engine and masked all the machined surfaces off with special tape. This will allow me to blast the exterior giving me a good surface ready for paint. Ill do this tomorrow at work then I should be able to remove the tape and wash the head in hot soapy water to remove any foreign particles. Then ready for paint and reassembly.






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Yet another update!

After masking up all the head shown in the previous post I sand blasted it to remove any dirt or contaminants. Wow what a difference this made, looks half decent for once. The sand blasted surface is also a very good surface for paint to stick to.

There is a drawback to blasting however, it leaves tiny particles of sand inside the head and in some of the galleries. If this was left in the engine it would almost certainly cause engine failure. This is why I thoroughly cleaned out the head and covers in hot soapy water followed by a jet washing, focusing on all the crevices and water/oil galleries. I repeated this process a further 3 times to make sure.

Once all clean it was time for masking and painting. I used frog tape for this. I then used e tech alloy paint (High temp isnt needed as the rocker cover only reaches around 120C) First primed with self etch primer, left this for 24 hours, followed by top coat and another 24 hours and then 4 coats of lacquer. Did the breather cover in gloss black and the rocker cover in anthracite. Good combo i reckon








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Another weekend and another quick update on the progress. The good news is the head is almost complete and ready for installation of the valves. I took the head to work to skim it on monday. First off I set the block onto a surface plate and used a DTI gauge to check for warping and it was fine, only 0.003mm variation. Now was to get the mill set up and perfectly leveled to the mills tool head. I used a DTI gauge for this process as well. Now for the clamping down of the head to the bed, I used T bolts and bridge clamps to secure it.

Now with the DTI gauge fitted to the mill tool stock, I checked the cylinder head was flat to within 0.001mm. Using a tungsten carbide fly cutter I made a three passes along the head and took off 0.3mm finished to a mirror finish, ready for an MLS gasket.

(I hope you understood the process, plenty of youtube videos if you didn't)

The only other thing I did this week was spray the oil cap satin black to help with the stealth look looks ace IMO

Before.


After!!!






A quick pic of the oil cap

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UPDATE:

A lot has happened this week on the engine. First off was removing the piston squirters so the bores can be honed. These proved to be a right pain in the arse, mole grips just didnt grip enough to remove them. After some advice on here I started by drilling a 6.8mm dia hole into the top of the squirter, I followed this by tapping them with an m8 x 1.2mm tap, and using a 1/4 inch extension on top of the tap, this gave me enough room to rotate it to cut the thread. Once the holes had been threaded I screwed a slide hammer into the squirter and with a few knocks, hey presto they came out Now with this taken care of the block is ready for hot bathing, honing and pressure testing next week.

I also made up a crank puller tool to finally get the crank pulley off and gave the lifters a good clean to get there "springness" back, then left the in clean oil ready for re-assembly.

A few photo's:















With all the block work done it was back on to the cylinder head and valve lapping. I managed to get all the inlet valves lapped in. Im using the oem inlet valves as I dont think the forged ones are worth it due reduced rev limit on the megane engine. I am however waiting on some supertech inconel exhaust valves, the reason for this is I think the increased heat from the increased power could have an effect on oem exhaust valves.

With the lapping I used a course compound for most the work, then used a fine compound for refining the edge of the valve.


Before:



After:



And now some engine porn



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Not posted on here in a while...so here goes


First off I spent a whole week getting my car ready for PFC expo

I first corrected all the paint to around a 90% correction, I first used chemical guys V36 and V38 with a microfibre pad, this was correcting it very well however was marring the paint very slightly, I therefore opted for a meg's microfibre system, and wow this stuff cuts fast! very impressed! After correction I gave a coat of gtechniq c1 to protect the paint for a good few years. Dressed all the trims with auto glym trim dresser and the tyres with meg's gel.

My front callipers were looking pretty tired also, I did them ages ago with vht paint and they chipped like crazy so it was time to get them swapped over. Rebuilt some of my powder coated ones and spent an hour getting them on and changed the brake fluid also.

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The show was very good and the car was looking stunning! Cant wait for the next one.

When I got home I got a nice delivery of my new shiny inconel exhaust valves so it was off to the garage to get them lapped in Took around an hour and they were in. The combustion chambers look amazing now, almost a shame to cover them up I just have to get the head gasket set and stem seals and I can get the valve springs in and then the head is FINALLY DONE!

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After the head is done Ill try and get the Loom done, tested and re wired.

Sorry for the amount or pics

 

aven't updated this in a while so here goes.

Ive got all the loom checked for continuity and wrapped back up. There were a few frayed wires that needed repairing.

I ordered some cat cam valve springs and new gasket set. Installed these with little problems, making sure I kept the keepers and retainers in the same places as they were before. Once these were in, I poured some petrol into the inlets and outlet ports and checked for leaks. In two of the exhaust ports there was a slight weep at around 30 mins in. I subsequently took them out cleaned them up and lightly lapped again. This has seemed to solve this. The valves will seal further after initial start up anyway.






A few weeks back I also purchased a little treat for the car ever since owning the car Ive wanted recaros, this opportunity arose when mr @smoggy mark had some for sale. So it was a long drive (8 hour round trip) to pick them up.

They took a bit of getting used to due to them sitting slightly higher than standard seats but now I absolutely love them! Really make the inside a nicer place to be with the leather retrim (:




Cheers guys!

 

Haven't been on here in a while with Xmas and such.

First thing is I decided to take the plunge and install nitrided inlet valves as it was just playing on my mind, last thing i want is a valve breaking and destroying the engine and over a grand's worth of con rod, piston and crankshaft and the whole point of this build is "Reliable Power".

When they arrived they only sent 7 for some reason hopefully the 8th one will arrive this week. They were installed and inspected easily, all within spec and leak free which is fine. The head will now be put in storage once the last valve arrives until the block is finished.

While I was waiting for the valves I had a tinker with the tiny Td04l 14t turbo, while I was going to just strip it for something to do and then sell it on with new bearings etc, and then just buy a hybrid from rs tuning. I have decided to just build my own improved version, since the ones ktec and that sell are ludicrous price for the man hours in them.

I am going to make a td04hl 19t with help from "Turbo dynamics" in Christchurch as they'll be building the CHRA and do all the balancing. Ill machine all the compressor and turbine housing myself as I am a machinist by trade, it should be easy. The only thing Ive had to do it saw the inlet pipe off the compressor housing in order to fit in my lathe, Ill then weld it on after (This is what ktec do I believe). I hope this upgrade should produce 320hp without overboosting. Im sure ill knock up a tubular manifold and get a garret in the future but this will do for now.

Today however I tried solve the knocking noise in the rack, checked all swivel joints and replaced all inner and outer track rods as they had play in them anyway on the MOT last year. But the knocking still happens, looks like a new rack when i change out the engine, ill try and get a 200 one for the quicker turning.

Also sorted out the airbag light from fitting the recaros, soldered some pins onto a 3.3 ohm resistor and simply inserted it into the plug and this did the trick.

Did a quick enhancement detail on the steed and the mothers s2000 (Damn I love these cars) last weekend, honda paint is so soft compared to renault diamond hard bloody paint!

One last thing, toying with idea of getting my recaro backs done in gloss black, whats your opinions?













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Quick update:

The missing inlet valve showed up eventually, so that's been installed and the heads been put into storage. At work this week I've started to make up a jig in order for me to hold the compressor housing in a lathe. This week I'll weld flanges onto the jig that bolt into the actuator holes. Here it is at the moment.

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vening all

Ive put the turbo on the side at the moment due to saving up for parts and a mountain of college work i have to complete for my HND. Started work on inlet manifold of the megane 225 engine. I used engineers blue to marked where the inlet lines up with the head ports, and wow! what a difference in sizes. About 5mm smaller in the width and 3mm in the height. This is shown in the photos. I grabbed my dremel again and went back to the process of grinding, sanding and buffing (oh joy ) Ive finished two of the ports so far which took around 5 hours. Ill finish the other two when i find time, hopefully next week end fingers crossed. Ill also open out the throttle body and plenum of the intake. This should hopefully result in some decent gains.

With the engine build on the side line I decided to give the interior a spruce up from that god awful silver. I went to halfords and picked up some black metallic paint the same as my cars colour. Gave 4 coats of primer, 4 colour and 5 lacquer. Then wet sanded with 2000 grit wet and dry and buffed out to get that mirror finish. I put a black renault sport sticker on the long dash trim for a subtle but stealth looking addition.

Next time ill hopefully get the inlet done and maybe make up a custom fuel rail done for the after market fuel pump ill put in the car.

 

UPDATE:

First off I managed to finish all the porting on the inlet manifold which took an absolute age, but I always knew it would with 5mm to take off over the width of the port. Im really happy with it and the continuity between ports is all with 0.25mm which aint bad for a dremel I dont think Ill get it painted some time using the same colour I sprayed the rocker cover in.

With that done I turned my attention to the fuel rail. This is because with a uprated inline fuel pump Ill need to run a regulator and return line, but with the oem rail being plastic I am unable to get another secure line into it. To make one I first got hold of some 18mm dia solid stainless round bar and turned up some injector fittings. I cut these at 25mm long and with a 13.5mm reamed hole through the centre. Then I used a dividing head on a milling machine with an 18mm end mill cutter to dish out the bottom of the to fit the 18mm stainless tube Im using for the rail. The holes were then drilled in the tube at 89mm centres. Using the silver solder I brazed these fittings onto the tube along with an AN6 fitting for the return line. I still need to figure out the position of the feed line which will be soldered on along with some support brackets. But here is how it looks so far.


Difference between the stock manifold and my ported one.










Cheers ​

 

As I had today off I decided to test fit my fuel rail with the manifold, head, block and throttle, then I could see where I am going to drill the hole for the feed line. Had a few issues, mainly being I forgot about the dipstick bracket being located right at the end of the fuel rail where I had my return line. To remedy this I ground off the welds on the bracket, I then ground part of the inlet manifold off so I could swivel the bracket round 60 degrees, the new position was marked with a pen and the bracket was cut to suit. Ill weld it all together when im back at work on tuesday. Feed line should be fine where it is in the picture, I would like it to run perfectly parrallel with the rail but unfortunately this isn't possible due to the throttle body being in the way, hey ho just my perfectionist side coming out there lol. I still need to paint the manifold and some of the brackets.

Pictures:



You can see in this photo just how tight it is by the throttle body, you can also see where I have ground off the bracket and repositioned it so it doesn't foul on the fuel rail return.



I do love a bit of braided fuel hose ;D will looks loads better when manifold is painted though


Stephen

 

That used to be the plan but they wouldn't let me do it so I'm designing a brake calliper instead :lol:

 

Very nice, I'm just doing a machinist/mechanical with a bit if electrical. Just like making car bits as it interests me and makes me want to actually do college work :lol:

 

Yeah I know, so busy at the moment that I can't spend much time on the engine :/ roll on summer when I can spend days on the engine. Especially getting the fuelling sorted.

 

Cheers mate, I'll try and keep it updated.

 

Had a little time over the weekend to finally finish my fuel rail. I soldered a plug into the end along with the feed an6 fitting into the same end opposite injector number 1. The support brackets made out of 5mm stainless were also soldered in position The rail was then buffed with a scotch bright pad. I also at the same time soldered the repositioned bracket onto the dipstick.

Now the rail was complete it was time to give the inlet manifold and dip stick a lick of paint, i decided to paint it the same colour as my rocker cover which was a athracite colour. This was then lacquered to create a nice shine.

The fuel line around the manifold could then be finalised. I mentioned before that I didnt like how the braided line didnt go parralell with the rail, i solved this problem by using 2 x 45 degree fittings along with a an6 union, the made it far neater and satisfied my OCD. The pics will show this in more detail.














Cheers

 

Right havent kept this updated so it needs to be done, so here goes.

First thing on the list was some car maintanence. My alloys were in a bad way, and after a recent kerbing it was time to tackle them over a weekend. Gave them a thorough wash and then sanded with 400 grit paper to key the surface. They were then primed and the base coat (Black) was laid on. Left this for 24 hours and then gave 3 coats of 2k lacquer. I will wet sand them and buff out but Ill leave them a month first for the paint to fully gas off.

While the car was on stands I gave the car a good surface, Oil, brake fluid and coolant was changed followed by a good brake calliper clean. I can say coolant was the biggest pain, as there is no drain plug. I got round this by pulling off the engine block return hose to drain the radiator. The rad was then flushed through with water. The hose was then connected and the radiator filled back up with just water. I turned on the engine and waited for it to heat up so the thermostat would open, this gave the block a good flush out. The coolant was then drained again and refilled using 50/50 water to anti freeze.

Right now the engine/conversion. Havent done much but I did manage to clean up the cam pulleys and give them a lick of paint to prevent oxidisation. I also picked up a milltek non res exhaust from a fellow member on here. It did need rewelding on one joint but this isnt a problem. This weekend however I set my attention on getting the tailpipes to a chrome like shine. They cam up really well using autosol and my DA with an old pad.

The final thing was to test the fuel rail, I did this by assembling the fuel rail with the injectors and then bolting it to the inlet manifold. The fuel lines were then mocked up and an 8mm piece of tube inserted into the fuel hose with a hose clip to secure it. This was then set up on a test rig at my work and tested to 150 psi, and hey presto no leaks luckily.

Also got a new reg, which kind of spells my surname























Cheers,