"Serial Renault Deviant" Adey's current Renault R8 adventure

[adey]

Poor cars been sat since the 27th of last month, I may go make sure it still starts shortly. Anyway I was nudged to say there was a small pic of it in the Retro Rides write up in copacetic magazine, had to order a copy just for that.

can be found here, its a very well put together bit of reading actually, worth a look Copacetic Magazine - Modified Cars for Inquisitive Minds

 

[adey]

I'm currently recovering from a large parastomal hernia repair, it hasn't gone as well as it should but I'm still on the mend, just slower than expected. On the run up to having the op I decided it would be a good time to get some repair work done to the 8. Now underneath it isn't the worst but equally it isn't the best. From what I can tell the sills are actually pretty good but the floor pan where it has had water sat has gone through in a few places. Luckily for me, Jim, who made the turbo manifold for this is a very good with a welder. He has collected the car and taken it away to cut out and fabricate repair panels. The main ones I needed are NLA. Not looking for a factory fresh finish, its never going to be a pristine car in my ownership but solid safe and useable is what I want. Having it done now has stopped me from tinkering, much to the relief of my wife, forcing me into not doing anything whilst I heal, but this has left me with more time to shop.

I ended up ordering indicator lenses for the front and side of the car, they are repros but look very fresh, I've also ordered some 180mm bowls from a mini/landrover, shiny rings and managed to find some flat lenses to suit. This should give the me "gordini" look headlights at a fraction of the cost of actual gordini units, and I'm not particularly fond of the convex lenses they have anyway. Looking forward to getting it back in a few weeks to get cracking again. Getting the structural work done will hit the wallet and may put the turbo conversion on the back burner for a little while....

 

[adey]

Haven't updated this much as I've had a shite recovery with further complications but have had the odd picture update

Lots of metal removed, more that could be seen but expected, and some replacement panels made up

 

[adey]

Jim's been giving me regular updates, I was passing today so popped in to drop some parts off and take a look at the progress. All being well I may get it back by the end of the week, Excited and very pleased with the work on the rusty 8, should give it a few more years of life for sure

 

[adey]

So after nearly 8 weeks away its back on the driveway. I've not started refitting the interior yet but have cracked on with the headlights and indicators. I did originally put yellow tint on the new larger units but decided to remove them as I did a crap job at the edges. Cars looking boggley now as its had small headlights, Defo like the new larger units though. The new headlights and indicators giving it a fresher look in contrast to the rest of the body work. Defo needs a good clean though, the outside is properly dirty.

 

[adey]

Threw some wax on today just to assist for a while, it'll do nothing much else left to do other than drive it for now. Then look to finally start the turbo engine build, all being well by the end of this month

 

[adey]

 

[adey]

Just as an FYI, this far in the thread is around October 2025 

[High Jetter]

Thanks for the timeline update. Keep going M9

[adey]

M9 ...... what a throwback 🤣

[adey]

After some chatting to @sparkie ref N/A tuning the 1397 I contacted piper cams and asked for a custom grind camshaft. A little back and forth and they have one on grind for me (y) So off with the head and I whipped out the old cam ready for the new one. Cam is a 288 degree with a shave over 10.5mm of lift on both the inlet and exhaust. Along with that I've ordered uprated springs, a vernier pully and the rocker assembly from a gt turbo. The campus engine doesn't have end supports on the rockers, so have added this due to the increased load there will be with the stiffer springs and higher lift (plus revs)

I popped a message to another mate of mine as I needed to remove a chunk of material from the head to bump the compression ratio, Saturday afternoon was spent at his workshop chopping it off on the bridgeport (y) I need to clean up the other mating faces next and reassemble it when parts arrive, I could go nuts still and add in headwork and bigger valves but the whole point of this is to add a little more spice without going fully nuts, or I would just end up in the same position I would with doing a turbo build.
 

 

 

[adey]

And I have found my new favourite job on an 8..... fuel tank removal. Im sure the Haynes manual told me I need to drop the axle and engine only 2 inches. Yeah I needed alot more than that and I have no head on the block. With some assistance from the wife and kids the fuel tank has now been removed. I can confirm my araldite/Guinness can/duct tape fix on the tank has held firm and shows no sign of letting go. Should have just left the thing in there 

Bags of space now

 

[adey]

Super quick service from the guys/girls at piper. Turned up this afternoon so spent some time this evening getting it bob on. Ive left the timing cover off for now. Next up will fitting the valve springs, followed by a test fit of the head, checking for piston to valve contact and making sure the springs dont go coil bound. All being well ive not messed it up, it only needed slight adjustment on the pulley 
 

 

[adey]

Have checked the above, the piper adjustable pulley definitely sits further out. I measured the head of the bolt with the stock washer in place sits 31mm from the mounting face on the block. I have relieved the cover to 34mm using an old compressor housing, a socket, bench vice and hammer...

 

[adey]

And we are in and running! Fuel from a jerry can but I wanted to get it fired up and revved to get the cam bed in and allow it too cool overnight. I can do the retorque of the head and reset the tappets tomorrow along with a oil and filter change.

little tappy and idle is struggling, love that it sounds almost like a rotary when at rest  hopefully it'll be quieter after resetting everything. Will likely need to get the base settings on the ecu adjusted as the trigger wheel is probably off from where it was.

 

[adey]

This morning I gave the head a retorque and reset the tappets to pipers values 0.25 inlet and 0.30 exhaust (bit big?). Adjusted the base timing a little on the ECU as the 36-1 is back on in a slightly different place. Ecu has plenty of adjustment though so all is good. Fresh oil and filter on to help flush it just in case, will get some decent stuff ordered up. Comp check is showing 11.5bar on every cylinder (cant remember what it was before, but all equal) idle is lopey, sounds like a cammed up V8! though a little tappy, the camera makes it sound louder than it is in person. Next up is fuel tank mounting and it'll be ready for mapping again

 

[adey]

 

 

PS feel free to add a like and subscribe to the channel (y) id really appreciate it 

[adey]

Some oil and coolant on the way from opie, base timing rechecked and adjusted and car running sweeter again. Fuel tank mounted and im now waiting on delivery of a few fittings and some fuel pipe. struggling to get heat into It, unsure if the thermostat is faulty so may need to replace that too. Hopefully that all arrives this week as mapping is booked for Tuesday next week, roll on 80+hp 😆

Todays job was to get the fuel line in, ran it along with the heater matrix hoses but will likely replace with some hard line in the future. Rain was coming down hard, wind blowing and the light dimming fast made it very fun to do. Only had about 2ltrs of fuel to test the tank with so Ill grab the jerry can full on the way home tomorrow. Pump primed fine and the car ran with what was there (y) Just another oil change and the coolant to flush left to do, a few gentle test miles and it should be good for mapping (y)

 

[adey]

Just a few test miles to complete, but I think we are ready for Tuesdays mapping session.

 

[adey]

Last bits wrapped up. Fresh resisted spark plugs in, which seems to have fixed my intermittent ecu connection issue. Ive fitted an electric fan again, so will keep an eye on things there. Indicators stopped working today and I found the flasher units has seemed to have gotten very wet... coolant bled through again. And a visit from @Wheelers Workshop to exchange some spare parts 👍🏼all in all a very good day

 

[adey]

Car was singing on the dyno before the gearbox went tight.... full video will be up soon

 

[adey]

want to see the car make some noise, then lock up.... watch this

 

[adey]

Well guess who let all the gearbox oil leak out.....

That's me, im that idiot. Based on what came out, the poor thing would have been cooking

 

[adey]

There's a little story to these and a break down in coms. I was told these were 2 good boxes by a third party, he passed on my details to the owner of said boxes who contacted me to go take a look. I arrived expecting to see 2 good boxes ready to go but to be greeted by 2 "parts" boxes that the owner thought I wanted just for the casings.... anyway, didn't want to waste a trip so made an offer on the better looking of the 2 and took it home (the other looked to be semi opened up previously and left loose with no cups) thinking about it now I should of got that one too 👀

Have given it a look over and it may go again, so leaning towards giving it a chance as is, with some new gaskets fitted.

The chap is a big Renault head though, 2 r5s an r8 and a 21T quadra getting some love, plus a matching to mine red Clio 200 edc. He has some R8 panels going spare so I said id be back in contact next year (y)

 

[adey]

I've come to the conclusion that I'm getting very old, this should have been a simple job and it did me in. Took way too long and that really annoyed me. Anyway, gearbox out and in the garage

 

 

 

[adey]

Small update and hopefully going in the right direction. @Steve Swan sent me some gaskets of varying thickness, the originals came in at 10 thou Thank you very much Steve (y)

I opted to fit new gearbox mounts whilst it was out, ordered up and at my house from France in 4 days. They are "uprated" not sure how true that is but they use 2x rubber mounts with custom plates. Gearbox went back in easy as pie on my own, just lined it up, took the weight of the box and with a slight rotation of the crank it slid on. Ive now got the whole lot hanging on the central gearbox mount so next up will be finishing off the axles and nipping everything up. All being well it should be good for a test drive at the weekend. Got a few ltrs of gearbox oil to flush it with and have some lucas 75/140 on the way.

fingers crossed it engages all the gears and drives when it gets to it 😆 🤞

 

[adey]

 

[adey]

i asked Chat gpt to find we the gear ratios of the box and them plot them out giving me rpm vs speed in each gear

Here you go — speeds in MPH at different RPM for the Renault 330 gearbox using:

 

Ratios: 3.62 / 2.25 / 1.48 / 1.03

Final drive: 4.13

Tyres: 195/50R15

Rolling circumference: 1.8096 m

 

[adey]

Haven't had the chance to put many miles on it since the fix. Threw a moisture absorber in it and covered it over for the next few weeks. Another operation this week will put me out of playing for a while I'm told. First on the agenda for when I'm able again is banging some miles on it and stripping the old gearbox.

 

[adey]

Had a little time in the garage today, decided to take a look at what failed in the gearbox. 24hr support from Steve Swan (thanks again (y))

Cage in the end bearing seems to have failed and locked up. The end bearing is very stiff on the shaft and has spun slightly in the housing. Hopefully the casings are salvageable?...... worst case I have another chance with the later 330 that's in the car currently

All future stuff for now just collecting parts