Peugeot 306 - 1360cc of raw power.

[PhillipM]

Yes, you read that right, a 1.4

I'll flesh this out later but for now- take one wee 306 and stick some 405Mi16 alloys on:



Be less than impressed with brakes.

Swap these:



For these:



And acquire these:



Swap these:



For these:



(yes, I know, extra weight, but they're sooo comfy)

Make it a touch quicker with these (although still working on the manifold for the TB's):



And fit new rear ARB:



Still not happy with handling?
Make some shiny droplinks:



Along the way, patch up newly found letterbox in sills:



Save at least 16 grams with a shiny 7075 ally bonnet prop (vital performance mod):



Hit big puddle, wonder why car is pulling all over the shop, 3000 mile old wishbone bushes:



Mmm, quality, having gone through 3 sets in short order I was pretty fed up, so made myself some polyurethane ones:



Rework cylinder head as it was a bit breathless near the redline:



Make some ally spacers to replace steel ones:



Make lower strut brace to take some flex out of the subframe:



Go play:







Whoops:



Fit ZX rear arms and machine stub axles for 1 deg more neg. camber to stop that happening again.

Replace dying clutch with Kevlar one:



Lighten flywheel at same time, and make shiny black colour, me being a tart:



Not being happy with the damping on track, borrow some 4-way adjustables, as you do:



Then cry when I have to give 'em back.

And 'cause the shell is still flexing, make a carbon fibre upper brace:



Blow up gearbox:



Build new gearbox with 4-spider diff. EN26 shafts, slightly wider bearings and boron-nitrided gearset:



Yes, I know, I've tarted it up, sue me

Make even lighter spacers to bring wheels to right offset:



So that these can go on:



And do this:



Whilst car is off the road, make some 2-stage poly engine mounts:



Modify Gaz front struts:







Fit nice leather steering wheel to go with a 2.2 turn steering rack (no power steering, car parks are fun...):



Finally finish work on designing internals for new rear dampers and have Fox send a set over:



In case any of you ever wondered what the internals of a monotube look like, I stripped them down anyway to make some tweaks, so here's a load of component pictures if you couldn't give a monkies what the insides of a damper look like then skip the next 2 dozen pictures


How to turn perfectly good, shiny spangly dampers into a box of parts:


Step one, undo little lock screw:


Which lets you unscrew the wiper cap with a pin wrench:


Then you need to push the billet alloy main seal/shaft support down to expose the snap ring it holds against:


Prise that out with a tiny screwdriver and you can remove the shaft support and the 3 captive seals:


This is the bleed hole to purge air from the shock when rebuilding in case you were wondering.


Progressive rebound bumpstop, to prevent that horrible \\\'click\\\' you often get with GAZ/Avo/Koni\\\'s at full extension:


And the main valving piston, complete with shims and high-speed circuit backstop so that you can go jumping over humpback bridges if you like.
The patina is the oil draining off in ripples, not muck


Bronze PTFE coated main piston band, stagger cut for less leakage, and main body circlip:


[/quote]

Main compression stack shims once the piston is taken apart:



Compression valving side of the piston:


Rebound side:


The original rebound shims stack:


My rebound stack:


Remote res. end cap - secured with a circlip the same as the main seal:


And the billet floating piston:


There a barrel adjuster and another set of valving behind that...

Billet floating piston from the other side:


Barrel-type compression adjuster:


And the secondary set of high-speed digressive-linear blowoff valving for when the low speed circuit chokes.


I've got to take that apart later on for cleaning so I'll get some pictures of the internals...

You can re-stack all the shims in here too to adjust how much change the adjuster gives each click, and where in the curve the adjuster comes into effect.
Just in case you'd got bored with those 27 million stack combinations in the main body...


The secondary valving ports - as you can see 2 of these have spring loaded ball-bearings in them, these are to allow the oil to flow back freely in rebound.


The secondary shim stack - in this case a digressive stack due to me machining a concave surface on the adjuster (and drilling 4 oil ports instead of the standard 2) - all those thin shims make a strong, but fairly soft stack, so they have a set amount of preload against the housings, and that means it takes a set amount of force to open them but relatively low force after than, changing the preload affects where the high-speed blowoff comes in, the shape and thickness of the stack adjusts the ratio of low-to-high speed damping and the shape of the high speed curve.


This is what your shiny aluminium knob adjusts - the bypass that goes around the shim stack, as you can see, 8 settings with various orifice sizes to give a consistant, linear and repeatable adjustment every time, unlike the cheaper needle setups.



And the floating piston from the reservoirs - the O-ring seals the fluid from the gas, and another telfon-coated PEEK wear band to prevent the piston twisting.



Right, think that's about the end of the shiny pictures, back to underpowered 306's.









Bye, bye Gaz:



And make some broken brake discs, fully floating:





And I finally fell to the dark side and fitted something that didn't make it quicker this week:



So to make up for it I've shave half a kilo from the droplinks:



And I still haven't sorted out a new grill




+ Shiiiiteloads of maintance and probably a lot more I haven't got pictures of, you know how it is. (Solid rear beam mounts, Glacier rear beam bearings, titanium fittings on the rocker arms, anti-knockback springs in the calipers and drums, residual pressure valves in the brake lines + lots more)

And I'm currently working on the Gaz front struts to give me 3 way adjustment and a remote canister, along with some internal valving and sealing tweaks.

Edited by PhillipM on Friday 30th April 23:25

Edited by PhillipM on Friday 30th April 23:35

Edited by PhillipM on Saturday 1st May 01:33

Edited by PhillipM on Saturday 1st May 01:37

[PhillipM]

Once it's suitably strengthened and caged, yes, in the middle

And to that end:




Oh, look, I've accidentally left room for a rear diff. Whoops.

Edited by PhillipM on Saturday 1st May 00:14

[PhillipM]

AlexVTR said:

Pretty nice stuff i like it when people but some effort into modifying there cars. What is that cylinder head btw ? is it just a standard one you re-worked yourself ?

Just a standard one, yes, I was trying for a Rallye one from the 106 with the bigger valves, but I'm working on a shoestring budget so it wasn't to be.

[PhillipM]

Rick1.8t said:

Brilliant work, and fantastic knowlege of damper internals (i know a bit about mountainbike rear shocks & forks) to be able to alter shim stack configuration and other parts of the damper to suit you.

www.bakerbm.co.uk if you need some adjustable top-mounts, solid rear beam mounts and other such items for the car...

Already made some solid rear beam mounts, fitted and working nicely, just working on the top mounts at the minute as they need to be able to pass the remote canister through to the engine bay, that and none of the 306 top mounts available actually seem to fit the curve of the 306 strut tops properly.

[PhillipM]

hidetheelephants said:

Top bit of car tweaking. Where do you get the stuff to make your own polybushes?

Originally I used eli-flex, but it's a bit soft for wishbone bushes, but they kindly passed my inquiry onto another company who sent me some 3-part polyurethane resin - basically the 3rd component can control the final hardness, within a set range for that compound, and a proper primer for the steel to help adhesion.
I'll see if I can dig out one of the old packs for the name, if I've still got one - thrown most of that stuff out now the car is on rose joints.

[PhillipM]

Nah, it's the ally block - can't be having that boat anchor of an iron engine up front!
I don't know about lowering the compression, I spent a fair bit of time and effort getting it running nicely at 10.4:1 instead of 9.3 as it is.
I'm going to get the throttle bodies on this summer, and make an exhaust manifold and system up to match, which'll probably push it to the heady heights of 120bhp-ish, it's 98 at the minute, not too bad given it originally came with 74bhp and it's limited to 6.2krpm currently.
Fortunately I have a Megasquirt ECU in my sock drawer (like every good petrolhead...) waiting to go on, and I've already worked on the rocker arms and rod bolts so it should be pretty happy with an 8krpm limit once that's sorted. I doubt it'll make power up there without sorting out a wilder cam though.
I also have an Eaton M45 under the bed, that could make it more interesting.

Basically I'm going to see how quick I can get it on track through just handling mods, the throttle bodies and ECU are mainly for the noise and to sort the lumpy fueling out - it's on Monomotronic single-point injection at the minute and it's crap.
Then I'll probably get the supercharger on there just to see how far the 1.4 can be pushed, and when I blow it up I'm working on a Renesis engine to put in the middle, but that'll have to wait until I have some money to throw at the car for all the associated bits and pieces.
There are some things even I'd rather buy than trying to make!

Edited by PhillipM on Saturday 1st May 17:18

Edited by PhillipM on Saturday 1st May 17:19

Edited by PhillipM on Saturday 1st May 17:41

[PhillipM]

I could, but I can't see the point in putting much more money in the engine, it's only a 1.4 after all.
I just like seeing how many 'faster' cars I can catch with it

[PhillipM]

GTi-6 lump up front? Faaarr too heavy

[PhillipM]

This one dyno'd at 98bhp and 96lbft last year, not bad for a basically stock engine bar a reworked head, chambers, upped compression and a lot of little tweaks here and there - it was still climbing at the redline but I can't adjust that on the Bosch setup.
It'd be more if I can ditch the godawful Monopoint injection, you expect to see a small goblin with a bucket and an abacus under the ECU cover occasionally throwing fuel towards the inlet.

Edited by PhillipM on Saturday 1st May 23:45

[PhillipM]

Bugger that, they're iron block

I'll get the throttle bodies running easy enough, it's just finding time at the minute, that and I want to save a few quid and make myself a complete new loom for the car whilst I'm there.
Power isn't really an issue for me (do you get taken outside and shot for saying that on here?), the weekend toy has plenty of surplus acceleration, this is quick enough if you find a nice twisty road, and I don't lose my licence whilst having a play.

Edited by PhillipM on Sunday 2nd May 00:01

[PhillipM]

I was going to install some more shiny brake bits today but I'll be buggered if I can find my brake flaring kit - is it just me that always end up with one tool that's gone walkies?

Anyway, free jaffa cake to anyone who can work out what they are:

[PhillipM]

This one's a wee bit heavier than a 205 though
A couple more ponies won't go amiss, but I'm not going to chase power, hence all the brake/suspension/chassis mods instead.

And not quite, try again.

[PhillipM]

Close the ports off faster on the fiddle brakes I've got to install, stops them pushing fluid back into the pedal circuit in the first little bit of travel
Then I can brake either side of the car independently

Edited by PhillipM on Sunday 2nd May 01:31

[PhillipM]

Made a mount for a 'Suspension Cam' today, and did a quick little test:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM-RTvgzx1s

Just to show rose jointed suspension can be complaint and quiet!
(The belt noise is because I haven't got the covers back on the engine yet)

[PhillipM]

PhillipM said:

So to make up for it I've shave half a kilo from the droplinks:

Tarted them up a bit more

[PhillipM]

Because they're only useful in a specific set of conditions

For OEM cars there's too much brake wear and they give a little whirring noise >70mph, and they need be ductile iron and used with uprated pads so it's even more cost.
For out and out circuit race cars they're often struggling with disc temperature under governed wheel sizes, so no good, and the low temperature performance doesn't come into it.
Where they do fit in is the fast road/occasional track car, rally or sprint machines, where disc temperature generally isn't an issue but pad temperature is, and they're already running high quality discs, and generally a pad that works well at road speeds tends to have fade before disc temperatures become an issue, and vice versa, plus you've got water and puddles knocking pads back from the disc (hence the active systems to clear water from Merc and BMW) and low speed squeal that occurs with really hard pads.

So basically, these allow the use of a harder racing pad whilst boosting low temperature bite (there's also a version designed for use with standard pads simply to save weight and boost initial bite, not as extreme in shape but pad temperatures stay similar to stock as they pump air across the pad surface), so the pads don't have to be warm to work - they break up the harmonics in the disc to stop them squealing, and they clear water/mud from the surface of the disc so the brakes work as well in the wet as the dry.
Plus, they're a lot lighter, in the case of mine, around half the weight of a standard fitment disc, which is 6.8kg of rotational and unsprung weight gone from the front axle.
They do wear faster though, obviously, but then when you can buy 'performance' brake discs with 40/80 grooves in the surface vs these....


And you do see them on off-road safari/rally/sprint cars, provided you know where to look

This has them on:


As does this:


And this


And this:


And this:


And this sprint car, sorry about the small piccy, this one is on the less aggressive patterned discs:



And many others, but I think that's enough pictures

But basically for my car I can fit big enough discs and enough cooling ducts under the wheels that disc temperature will never be a problem, what will is getting brake pads that can cope with the temperatures and still be usable on the roads, the wavy discs allow me all of the advantages of a high-temperature track pad with none of the down sides, along with better acceleration, grip, comfort and handling to boot.

Edited by PhillipM on Wednesday 12th May 13:52

Edited by PhillipM on Wednesday 12th May 14:08

[PhillipM]

No problem, ask away, I love questions on the bits, makes me rethink them myself in case I've missed another direction I could have gone in.

[PhillipM]

As you can see from the photo's I made mine myself, unfortunately I don't have access to that CNC mill anymore due to a workshop move by the owner, but with a bit of luck should be back in commission again soon, so I might be in production with them then.
That's for another day/thread though.


But, together with the tubular wishbones and some lightening on the hubs and spacers, they've helped towards 9kg of weight loss from each front corner, which has made a notable difference to ride comfort - it's actually more comfortable now on the rose-jointed wishbones than it was on the old polyurethane bushed ones.
Steers better too.

Edited by PhillipM on Thursday 13th May 15:31

[PhillipM]

Today's job was a little tweaking and chopping in the form of lengthening the wheelbase by 15mm by shifting the front wheel forwards in the arch, plus corresponding tweaks to the geometery - and measuring the bumpsteer at the minute (it has more than a standard car as I'm running much more castor), and correcting as much of it as I could, which meant lifting the steering rack up by 10mm.

Unfortunately, the steering rack bolts horizontally to the subframe, so I've spent most of the day under the car getting hot welding splatter down my arms whilst I welded the original holes up and drilled 2 new mounts, rather than just being able to shim the rack.
That's got the bumpsteer curves almost back to standard.

A couple of small changes but they've made a huge difference to the traction and stability of the car, power on at the apex now actually pulls the front in rather than pushing into understeer - any corner it will turn into you can almost certainly plant the throttle right out of without worrying about even a hint of the car pushing wide.
Might be able to tell I'm quite happy with the changes

Didn't get any pictures today but I'll grab a couple tommorow.

[PhillipM]

Looks a touch weird if you're looking for it, but it's not that noticable if not: