Great Track Day Car, needs a little work though…

After the track day, I claimed I would be better off with a hot hatch. I even said I would have just as much fun…that and my pockets aren’t deep enough to track my current car. Anyway, with that in mind I now have a car I think will be more than capable of tackling a few apex’s. 

It’s a Renault Clio 172. It’s done 63k, has full service history, two sets of wheels and some modifications that will suit the track well. It does however require some attention. Nothing big, the auxiliary belt decided it didn’t want to be governed by pulleys (A bit like Alex Salmond) and instead wanted to be free. Whilst attempting this freedom the auxiliary belt invited, well, insisted the cambelt followed it. This in turn put all the timing out, and now there are objects roaming freely about in the cylinder head. Hydraulic lifters?

So I’m ambitiously taking it to bits to assess the damage and see if the engine is salvageable. I say ambitiously, as I am aware these engines are not easy to work on and my mechanical skills are, let’s say novice to say the least. The way I see it is, it’s just nuts and bolts that disassemble things that you can then reassemble. 

Yes, I have already nearly dropped the engine after I started to undo some part that connects the engine to the mount, but in my defence, this is to access the pulley phaser. And yes, because of how the variable valve timing works (and my lack of skills), I have no idea how to time the engine. But that’s way way ahead. Let’s see what the innards of the head brings first.