Nurburgring, tuning questions, custom carbon airbox, colvern TPS

[owen87]

Hi,

As the title suggests this is a mixed bag.

As lots of people say at the start of these posts "haven't been on here in a while". I have, I just don't comment .

Lessons learned:

Anyway just back from my second trip to the Nurburgring, which was as excellent as the first. Having been there once before I assumed I would have the car completely prepared and everything would go smoothly hmmm. The biggest issues from the first trip were damaged fuel lines (basically the harsh driving caused the lines to touch the Aux belt and wear a hole which sprung a leak mid lap yikkees), floaty engine mounts (see fuel lines issue ha), unsuitable tyres (R888's great for grip, not great getting back to Ireland through rain soaked Belgium), leaky exhaust (god the exhaust is a bitch) and induction heat soak (I had a cone which was hotter than the sun after half hours driving).

Upgrades for second trip:

Before this years trip I put in braided fuel lines, vibratechnics engine mounts (some job), got Michelin PS3's (Best thing I ever bought, fantastic tyre, much more fun on the ring than the R888's which were far too grippy and gave way to much confidence), got a custom job done on the exhaust and had a custom carbon intake box made with cold air feed to spot light (I'm an engineer at a Composites company in Ireland and had plug and mold made for the job). Other jobs completed included wrapping the manifold, poly bushing the front, poly bushed dog mount, clutch cable, throttle cable new belts etc.

This years issues:

This years trip wasn't without hiccups, in the lead up the idle went ballistic and I spent a few months, a lot of money with many mechanics to sort the issue. In the finish the speedo cable accounted for the 2000 RPM and the purchase of a brand new Colvern TPS sorted the cutting out (I literally plugged in the new TPS at a random position and the results were immediate).

With all the months spent sorting the idle issue the ball was dropped on everything else meaning one of the drive shafts was a little ropey, the exhaust wasn't completely satisfactory and I again had to use Dot 4 brake fluid and avoid braided line upgrade (some of the bleed nipples and flexi pipe fittings were rotten).

Thinking of the third trip:

Anyway the trip went well, only completed 5 laps in my car rented a Twingo RS and a Clio 197 for 7 others, two fantastic cars in there own ways. Fuel lines worked, tyres were great, brakes were sufficient and the custom carbon airbox was a massive success. Only problem was the drive shaft, which may also be the gearbox not sure yet. This caused me to only complete 5 laps as I wanted to get the car home in one piece.

With all this being said the Ring is unreal and is very addictive especially when your getting the hang of it and then you realise there's no money left. The more laps you complete the more enjoyable it becomes. I will definitely be going again hopefully next year if not the year after.

Possible upgrades:

Before going the next time there are plenty of things I want to do to the car. I had the car put on a rolling road before I left to test two different ECU's one standard and one with a chip which came with the car. The car has Kent RN2002 cams so I assume that's what the chip was for. Both ECU's returned the power at 148 BHP with the chipped one reving slightly more but to no real advantage. The guy who owns the rolling road is an extremely reputable engine builder and tuner and informed me that any standard Williams he ever worked on never had the Renault quoted 148 and was usually more like 135/140. Therefore by that reckoning the cams have provided 10 to 15 HP, does anyone have any opinion on that theory?

A medium sized flat spot was picked up on the read out and this was obvious on the first trip and more so on the second with it now in the back of my head. This drop of in power happens around 4000 revs and isn't that noticeable on the road but quite apparent on track. I'm thinking of an ECU and then ITB's to get rid of said flat spot and also increase power. What sort of power should I expect? and What cost? does anyone in the UK do a whole package?

I'm also looking for a carbon or glass bonnet/boot lid probably a two skin job which will fit exactly like standard, anyone come across these?

On another note if there was any demand for composite parts I can have molds made through work, we now have a CnC machine so this can be done even quicker and cheaper, this would obviously depend on demand.

A few pic's (Not sure if its my crappy computer, slow internet or possibly awkward upload function but getting photos was a nightmare)

http://williamsclio.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=7246&stc=1 The genuine colvern TPS I sourced and solved my idle issue

http://williamsclio.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=7242&stc=1 Last year's damaged fuel line

http://williamsclio.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=7244&stc=1 Custom carbon airbox, If anyone wants one of these I could get some made. Parts would come fully trimmed and ready for fitting.

http://williamsclio.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=7245&stc=1

http://williamsclio.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=7243&stc=1 Flexi pipe enters bottom of air box and connect to old pipe work leading to spot light. the unit is completely sealed

http://williamsclio.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=7240&stc=1 The old clio after some laps this year


http://williamsclio.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=7239&stc=1 Section leading up to first Carosell, the hills are unbelievably steep

http://williamsclio.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=7241&stc=1 Dyno read out both Ecu's are on this, the flat spot is quite obvious


Thanks for looking any comments welcome.

[16v_paddy]

I fcuking love the ring, was supposed to be there this week in my Accord but I blew it up at Castle Combe in June :evil:

Bit hard to figure anything out from the dyno plot as I can't see the AFR's but I suspect that neither of the ecu's are suited to the cams & the chipped 1 is most probably just a raised rev limiter & nothing more.

I'm inclined to disagree with your tuner a bit as there are plenty of stock F7R's making the quoted 150 & more plus others using those cams are making up to & around 160bhp. Have the cams been dialled in properly with vernier pullies?

All the upgrades are pretty useless without proper mapping tbh so I'd be looking at that before anything else. Not sure how difficult it will be to get the standard ecu mapped over there but it's not a cheap or easy task to get done over here either with only 2 companies I know of that offer it. If itb's are on the cards further down the line, your best bet is to sort the ecu side of things with proper standalone management 1st.
Speak to the guy who will do your mapping for his advice on what ecu to go for as all the advice on the subject we could give you on here can be rendered useless & counter-productive if it's something your mapper isn't familiar with.

If you don't fancy having to swap the flywheel & want to stick with the distributor, Canems works with the standard trigger pattern and if I remember correctly I think it can be done on Omex as well but I can't be 100% sure on that

Ktec supply complete kits http://www.k-tecracing.com/show_product.asp?id=2914&catid=&appid=1&pic=1 it can be done a bit cheaper by being clever with used parts mixed in with new, a bit of luck might also be required it just depends if you're patient enough to slowly acquire the parts over time in order to avoid paying out a big chunk of cash in 1 go

The expected power increase wont be huge with itb's but you gain a significant dollop of extra torque throughout the whole rev range, the limiting factor is your cams as they're rather mild so I doubt you'd crack 170bhp but the extra torque & throttle response will make a big difference.