Megane 250 CUP Track Car
Discussion
Next on the list of items that i have looked in to changing is the Fuel injectors as the car has done 96K miles and they are still the original units on the car and this is the one arear that can give problems so as there was a sale offer on with RPD i ordered some new injector units and also a new FPR .
First was to remove the fuel rail and injectors and as this is not a direct injection engine on the Megane 250 , 265 , 275 this job was made much easer .
Fuel rail and injectors removed .
Old fuel pressure regulator .
Fuel Rail all cleaned .
New OEM FPR from Kam racing .
Old and new unit .
New OEM fuel injectors .
Then installed in to a clean and shiny fuel rail .
Then installed .
This is another job done that should futureproof the car with regards to fuelling .
First was to remove the fuel rail and injectors and as this is not a direct injection engine on the Megane 250 , 265 , 275 this job was made much easer .
Fuel rail and injectors removed .
Old fuel pressure regulator .
Fuel Rail all cleaned .
New OEM FPR from Kam racing .
Old and new unit .
New OEM fuel injectors .
Then installed in to a clean and shiny fuel rail .
Then installed .
This is another job done that should futureproof the car with regards to fuelling .
Another update on the car with regards to seats this time .
The car came with some rather lovely leather Recaro sportster seats and my first plane was to change them over for some bucket seats and harnesses but after having a re think on this i have come up with a much better plan .
First up was to remove to leather Recaro seats and this is just x 4 simple bolts so this was very easy .
They are in very good condition with no rips or damage to them and just need a quick clean up so i orders some cleaner and some leather cream .
Before .
After .
So my plan was to remove the stock seats and install bucket seats but after thinking about this a much better plan would be to keep the stock seats for every day driving and then have a bucket seat that is all made up that can be bolted in for track days .
The bucket seat i will be using will be a OMP Champ R and as luck would have it i have a spare one in the garage as it is one of the only things that was undamaged on my old track car .
I also ordered a new set of Schroth AMS 4 point harnesses .
As the OMP bucket seat will only be used on track i have ordered a floor mounted side mount from Pure Motorsport .
And installed to the seat .
I also ordered a set of set of harness mounting brackets from Pure Motorsport .
Then to test fit in to the car .
And installed with the harnesses .
I will keep the shoulder harness belts attached to the roll cage but all tied up out of the way and the OMP bucket seat has all of the side harness and mounting brackets attached so this should be a very quick swap in and swap out job .
Then it was back to re installing the leather Recarco seats .
Last part was to find out how much of a weight saving the seat swap out would give ( old habits die hard ) .
The Renault leather Recarco seats are very heavy and have a weight of 27.5 Kg .
The OMP Champ R and side mount are much lighter and have a weight of 5.5 Kg .
So if i remove the x 2 Recarco seats and just use the x 1 OMP seat this gives a weight saving of 49.5 Kg so a very good saving .
I still have a long list of parts still to fit so getting the car on a track day this year is look less likely so i will have to plan for early next year i think .
The car came with some rather lovely leather Recaro sportster seats and my first plane was to change them over for some bucket seats and harnesses but after having a re think on this i have come up with a much better plan .
First up was to remove to leather Recaro seats and this is just x 4 simple bolts so this was very easy .
They are in very good condition with no rips or damage to them and just need a quick clean up so i orders some cleaner and some leather cream .
Before .
After .
So my plan was to remove the stock seats and install bucket seats but after thinking about this a much better plan would be to keep the stock seats for every day driving and then have a bucket seat that is all made up that can be bolted in for track days .
The bucket seat i will be using will be a OMP Champ R and as luck would have it i have a spare one in the garage as it is one of the only things that was undamaged on my old track car .
I also ordered a new set of Schroth AMS 4 point harnesses .
As the OMP bucket seat will only be used on track i have ordered a floor mounted side mount from Pure Motorsport .
And installed to the seat .
I also ordered a set of set of harness mounting brackets from Pure Motorsport .
Then to test fit in to the car .
And installed with the harnesses .
I will keep the shoulder harness belts attached to the roll cage but all tied up out of the way and the OMP bucket seat has all of the side harness and mounting brackets attached so this should be a very quick swap in and swap out job .
Then it was back to re installing the leather Recarco seats .
Last part was to find out how much of a weight saving the seat swap out would give ( old habits die hard ) .
The Renault leather Recarco seats are very heavy and have a weight of 27.5 Kg .
The OMP Champ R and side mount are much lighter and have a weight of 5.5 Kg .
So if i remove the x 2 Recarco seats and just use the x 1 OMP seat this gives a weight saving of 49.5 Kg so a very good saving .
I still have a long list of parts still to fit so getting the car on a track day this year is look less likely so i will have to plan for early next year i think .
Kaveney said:
The bucket seat i will be using will be a OMP Champ R and as luck would have it i have a spare one in the garage as it is one of the only things that was undamaged on my old track car.
Are you sure it's undamaged? Have you checked it carefully?
Because I imagine your a
hole probably took a pretty big bite out of it during the accident 
Joking aside - looks like a great move on the seats. Keep going!
Edited by MDifficult on Friday 23 September 20:06
MDifficult said:
Are you sure it's undamaged?
Have you checked it carefully?
Because I imagine your ahole probably took a pretty big bite out of it during the accident
Joking aside - looks like a great move on the seats. Keep going!
Just to confirm the seat is from the passenger side that avoided the impact and I have check the seat from top to bottom and it is 100 % .Have you checked it carefully?
Because I imagine your a
hole probably took a pretty big bite out of it during the accident Joking aside - looks like a great move on the seats. Keep going!
Edited by MDifficult on Friday 23 September 20:06
The drivers seat did not fair as well so it was scrapped and may have had a few brown stains on it after the crash
Another update to the car last weekend .
The car was running an ITG induction set up when i got the car but the location of this set up has always worried me with regards to sucking up water as the location of the filter is low at the front of the car and even tho a lot of people run this set up and have not had a problems it still would bug me .
Old ITG induction set up .
The ITG was removed and a order placed for a new K-Tec induction set up .
New K-Tec induction kit .
Then all installed .
The K-Tec kit is well made and fits nicely and it will remove my fears of any problems with water ingress and also is much easier to access to clean the filter etc .
The ITG will perform better due to its location but the K-Tec has a heat shield box and is tucked out of the way of the engine so should not lost too many horses with heat soak vs the ITG .
The car was running an ITG induction set up when i got the car but the location of this set up has always worried me with regards to sucking up water as the location of the filter is low at the front of the car and even tho a lot of people run this set up and have not had a problems it still would bug me .
Old ITG induction set up .
The ITG was removed and a order placed for a new K-Tec induction set up .
New K-Tec induction kit .
Then all installed .
The K-Tec kit is well made and fits nicely and it will remove my fears of any problems with water ingress and also is much easier to access to clean the filter etc .
The ITG will perform better due to its location but the K-Tec has a heat shield box and is tucked out of the way of the engine so should not lost too many horses with heat soak vs the ITG .
Just a small update this time .
As the crossover intake pipe sits next to the engine i have ordered some DEI heat tape to wrap the pipe in as one it will keep this a bit cooler and two i love a bit of gold in the engine bay
crossover intake pipe .
And then wrapped in the Gold DEI heat tape .
Was not the most easy thing to wrap but should help to keep the metal pipe a touch cooler .
As the crossover intake pipe sits next to the engine i have ordered some DEI heat tape to wrap the pipe in as one it will keep this a bit cooler and two i love a bit of gold in the engine bay
crossover intake pipe .
And then wrapped in the Gold DEI heat tape .
Was not the most easy thing to wrap but should help to keep the metal pipe a touch cooler .
Kaveney said:
Kev_Mk3 said:
Lovely build mate. I remember your fiesta and the smash 
Thank you sir yes it did not end as I hoped it would with the Fiesta but we move on and should have the car finished by the end of the year and may see you on track in your lovely I30N .I have been away on holiday but last week i managed to get another new part installed on the car .
With looking to remove some weight from the car but with out going to silly ( my last track car i may have got a bit obsessed with the weight reduction ) i set out to just look at the big weight savings i could make and so far i have changed the wheels to light weight items the seats to light weight bucket units and removed the full air con system .
The only last big weight saving left was the battery so i have ordered a light weight unit to replace the stock heavy SLA battery .
First was to remove the stock Yuasa battery .
On my last track car i did run a small light weight battery but as the car will be my road / track car i was looking for a replacement that would be the same spec / power as the original unit .
The stock Yuasa SLA is a 60AH 550CCA unit .
After looking at a few options i ordered a Dead Weight industries Touge 500 Lithium unit .
Dead Weight industries Touge 500 is a 60AH 650CCA unit so has the same life but more cold cranking amps .
Then on to the main reason for changing the battery in the first place .
The stock OEM battery has a weight of 19.2 Kg
The Dead Weight industries Touge 500 battery has a weight of 3.7 Kg
So a nice weight saving of 15.5 Kg .
The Dead Weight industries Touge 500 battery is a direct fit , has the same AH battery life and grater cold crank amps to start the car and is 15 Kg lighter so the only downside is the price of the unit but £ to Kg it is still the cheepist way to remove a chunk of weight .
Then all that was left was to install the new battery .
That will be it with the weight savings for now as i have changed / removed all of the big weight items that do not affect the cars ability to be compliant as a road car ( air con aside but i never use it much in my cars anyway ) so with the light weight wheels , lightweight bucket seats , Air con removal and light weight battery i have removed 123.1 Kg from the car .
With looking to remove some weight from the car but with out going to silly ( my last track car i may have got a bit obsessed with the weight reduction ) i set out to just look at the big weight savings i could make and so far i have changed the wheels to light weight items the seats to light weight bucket units and removed the full air con system .
The only last big weight saving left was the battery so i have ordered a light weight unit to replace the stock heavy SLA battery .
First was to remove the stock Yuasa battery .
On my last track car i did run a small light weight battery but as the car will be my road / track car i was looking for a replacement that would be the same spec / power as the original unit .
The stock Yuasa SLA is a 60AH 550CCA unit .
After looking at a few options i ordered a Dead Weight industries Touge 500 Lithium unit .
Dead Weight industries Touge 500 is a 60AH 650CCA unit so has the same life but more cold cranking amps .
Then on to the main reason for changing the battery in the first place .
The stock OEM battery has a weight of 19.2 Kg
The Dead Weight industries Touge 500 battery has a weight of 3.7 Kg
So a nice weight saving of 15.5 Kg .
The Dead Weight industries Touge 500 battery is a direct fit , has the same AH battery life and grater cold crank amps to start the car and is 15 Kg lighter so the only downside is the price of the unit but £ to Kg it is still the cheepist way to remove a chunk of weight .
Then all that was left was to install the new battery .
That will be it with the weight savings for now as i have changed / removed all of the big weight items that do not affect the cars ability to be compliant as a road car ( air con aside but i never use it much in my cars anyway ) so with the light weight wheels , lightweight bucket seats , Air con removal and light weight battery i have removed 123.1 Kg from the car .
The Bearded Tit said:
I just looked up one of those batteries - the price is frightening. Makes me wonder if a fibreglass bonnet would be a similar cost-to-kg-saved?
Yeah they are not cheep but are very well made and give a great weight saving .I did look at bonnets but the stock one is light all ready and after painting would work out about the same cost as the battery but would only be around 4 Kg lighter than stock .
Its Just Adz said:
I love this sort of detailed upgrading. I wouldn't have the patience to do it, but enjoy seeing it done.
Have you a thread for the Fiesta?
I do enjoy getting my cars to how i want them and recording the journey .Have you a thread for the Fiesta?
I do indeed have one on the Fiesta below and that was a great little car before i killed it
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Next on the list of jobs to do was to fit a turbo blanket that i installed last week .
I ran a Forge turbo blanket on my last turbo track car and rated this little upgrade as I did some data recording and the turbo blanket reduced the under-bonnet temperatures and improved the turbo spool response time so i set about looking for one to install on the Megane .
After looking at a few different types but in the end i ordered a Funk Motorsport Megane 250 Carbon turbo blanket .
The install was quit easy as the turbo sits at the beck of the engine and there is just enough space to install this without too much bother .
This should help reduce the under-bonnet temps nicely and also give a quicker spool rate .
I ran a Forge turbo blanket on my last turbo track car and rated this little upgrade as I did some data recording and the turbo blanket reduced the under-bonnet temperatures and improved the turbo spool response time so i set about looking for one to install on the Megane .
After looking at a few different types but in the end i ordered a Funk Motorsport Megane 250 Carbon turbo blanket .
The install was quit easy as the turbo sits at the beck of the engine and there is just enough space to install this without too much bother .
This should help reduce the under-bonnet temps nicely and also give a quicker spool rate .
I must admit I am a bit unsure about turbo blankets as although they may reduce heat build up under the bonnet you are effectively preventing the turbo from cooling. Won’t this have a detrimental affect on the turbo’s lifespan and performance if it is running hotter than intended?
I don’t know the answer just trying to understand.
I don’t know the answer just trying to understand.
Bright Halo said:
I must admit I am a bit unsure about turbo blankets as although they may reduce heat build up under the bonnet you are effectively preventing the turbo from cooling. Won’t this have a detrimental affect on the turbo’s lifespan and performance if it is running hotter than intended?
I don’t know the answer just trying to understand.
I think its one of those that divides opinions TBH .I don’t know the answer just trying to understand.
Modern turbos are designed to run hot and the benefits of the reduced under bonnet temps and quicker spool outweigh a possible slight reduction in turbo life IMOH .
There is some good reading on the below links .
https://carperformanceboss.com/turbo-blanket-guide...
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/car-acces...
Next on my long list was to tidy up the boot of the car as with the rear seats being removed this left it looking a bit ugly .
After a look around at what was on offer I ordered a K-Tec rear boot / seat delete mat to tidy up the rear .
I ordered the mat in Yellow to keep the colour theme going with the car .
And then installed .
After a look around at what was on offer I ordered a K-Tec rear boot / seat delete mat to tidy up the rear .
I ordered the mat in Yellow to keep the colour theme going with the car .
And then installed .
Kaveney said:
Next on my long list was to tidy up the boot of the car as with the rear seats being removed this left it looking a bit ugly .
After a look around at what was on offer I ordered a K-Tec rear boot / seat delete mat to tidy up the rear .
I ordered the mat in Yellow to keep the colour theme going with the car .
And then installed .
Looks like you've added a little weight back in with that mat!After a look around at what was on offer I ordered a K-Tec rear boot / seat delete mat to tidy up the rear .
I ordered the mat in Yellow to keep the colour theme going with the car .
And then installed .
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