RS250 Race Build

After blowing my bottom end to a million pieces at Brands (oh and also catching fire), I’m going to be converting my Meg from track spec to race spec. Along with the engine replacement.

Not worked on cars much, so should be interesting

Few pics below of before and after she blew. Had only just fitted the Puretrack splitter as well a ZPO shifter. She was running nice til she let go.

I was running a hybrid turbo at about 340bhp. When I bought the car it was already on its second engine after running 360bhp and the blowing bottom end the same way. Neither engine had done that many miles. First one blew on 40 (shows in the history paperwork), then mine blew on 65k.

Consensus is that the power is just too hard on the standard internals. Not so bad if you’re on road and booting it every so often.
But a bit too much stress when doing 15/20 min track sessions.

Also think the hybrids burn a bit of oil, so something to really keep on top of.

When I split the engine open there may be more evidence of what failed first.

Hope that’s of some use for anyone considering them.

I’m going to keep the hybrid on but will be limiting the boost so that I only make circa 300. This was suggested by Andy at Engine Dynamics who certainly can’t be argued with, the reason for retaining the hybrid is that although we’re restricting the boost, it will be able to hold it for longer.

Also worth adding the power will be limited based on the bhp/tonne limit for the class I want to enter.

The races I’ll be entering are 40 mins long, so cooling will be something we need to get around too.

Will post some bits on my Instagram too jordanmoyle55 if of any interest. Look forward to seeing how the Meg holds up against the other cars. Series I’m considering are the roadsport series and the turbo tin tops.

Have already started the project so will post more very soon.

 

Holes in the casing. These bits of bearing and conrod were literally sat on the splitter.

 

My bad for duplicating pics above.

Removed most the front end to start with, binned the AC condenser off.

 

Then off with the crash bar, Rad, Fan and IC

 

Thanks mate, I’m gonna need it

 

The 110k mile replacement engine has arrived, hope it works

 

Waiting for a wiring diagram to arrive (£40 on eBay ) but in the meantime started stripping out the airbag wiring.

 

After starting all this, I then had a change of job and all my free time disappeared. Fortunately I’ve just had a friend from Poland visit for a week. Full time mechanic so he lent a helping hand and we’ve finally got things moving. Engine finally out

 

So, new engine, albeit 110k miles on it. New clutch, light weight flywheel, timing belts and water pump. Red silicone pipes too because why not

 

She starts going in

 

So we split the old engine. It wasn’t pretty!

 

Been chasing my tail trying to sort out the electrical issues. Big mistake but obviously you spend the whole time chasing a possible quick fix, never to find that little cut or short, in the meantime spending money swapping out every possibility. So a lot of time wasted, but lesson learnt. New plan, rip out absolutely everything, inc ABS, and run a custom loom with ECUmaster running gear. Going to be horrifically expensive, but will be mega platform going forward. So come the time of big turbo etc, it will be nice, Plus should i blow another engine, it makes the swap piece of piss.
In the meantime, custom cage has gone in...

 

So there’s two parts to this, when the car blew there was a small fire, I thought that all the electrics were fine with the exception of an abs sensor that’s burnt through entirely. That was replaced, thought all would be fine.

Before getting the new engine in and reconnecting up the battery I got a bit excited and started cutting out anything and everything i didn’t need. Airbags, speakers, reverse sensors, window motors etc etc

Come to firing the car back up the dash was having a shit fit. Spent a lot of time where going in circles. Everything brought a small improvement but nothing cured it. Most recently we found the abs module is massively fucked, disconnecting it makes huge improvements but still issues.

So I can’t tell what caused what, abs sensor burning out probs caused the ABS Ecu to shit itself. But I think I did an equal amount of damage trying to trim down the loom. Speaking to a few dealers nearer the time, like APMotorsport for example, they all winced saying oooo wouldn’t have done that, they don’t like it. Well they were right. Speaking to an experience race car builder, he said there can be loads of additional small ground cables intwined in those wires that I thought were irrelevant. Maybe that’s common knowledge, but I had no idea.

My personal advice would be don’t bother, and if you do, keep it simple.

I think the main issue is there are no straightforward wiring diagrams online.

 

Got a link? Everything I can find is practically in hieroglyphics !!

 

Oh okay, Good to know! So I might’ve been okay, had other parts of the system not already been fried anyway

 

Door and boot lid on

 

That’s the weight off, but the boot and doors had already had cards and motors removed,
So think in all there’s about 105 to be removed. A quick weigh up of the GRP bonnet, doors, boot and Perspex windows is showing around 32kg to go back in. So say 3kg to allow for aero catches, glues, and lightweight door cards. Looking at a net saving of 70kg