340 tuning etc

Post by **ebdl** » 16 Mar 2006 06:58 pm

I'm looking for some info on easy, cheap and sensible mods I could make to a 1.4 340 to most importantly improve the handling and brakes, and then work on improving the power. They'd need to be things that someone like me could have a stab at with regular maintenance type tools (i.e. I can do unbolting and replacing, but I don't have access to machining tools). I don't know if there's a specific tuning site as such, but it would be handy to have a page on this site somewhere that told people how to do easy and/or popular mods - it would be good to have them in one place rather than trying to trawls through this part of the forum.

Any suggestions?

Ta,

edit: actually, thinking about this I haven't definitely decided on a 1.4 - might be getting a 360 but I think suspension is fairly similar... not sure about brakes and obviously the engine is a whole different story

Post by MJ » 16 Mar 2006 07:44 pm

Come to think of it, it'd be good to have a stickied thread with links to all tuning posts. Therefore if people want to do some mods they can look through and see what options there are. Perhaps there could be a difficulty rating as well, although that would be difficult to judge with different peoples experiences.

Post by **Ali** » 16 Mar 2006 09:00 pm

Well really there isn't a lot you can do with the brakes unless your going to do some fabricating work like Adam, all the suspension parts are covered in Dai's (classicswede) "performance parts catalogue" thread in the offer section, he also offers a range of exhaust parts which could be used to create your own "performance" system but with most things on these cars, all the building has to be done yourself

cheers
Ali

Post by **340cbr** » 16 Mar 2006 09:26 pm

How about a Renault 18 GTS carburator to improve power?

To improve handling.. correct psi in the tires helps

Post by **ebdl** » 16 Mar 2006 10:01 pm

I'm really interested in mods that have been done already and are known to help, particularly with the handling - I guess that this is where all of Dai's stuff comes in. Anyone got any decent front shocks sorted yet?

Post by **340GLT** » 16 Mar 2006 10:08 pm

Get Dai's poly bushes all of them. Its fairly pricey but well worth it!! It transforms the car!!! Any mods you want info on let me know, i have done most of them!!!!

Adam

Post by **Chris_C** » 17 Mar 2006 12:30 am

Rear suspension, well, having now driven Fake for 700ish miles (Brand new monroes), Beast for 1200ish miles (3yr old yellow things, that had no name on) Kar 40, 000 miles ('91 orig Volvo susspension) and Andy's GLT for a thrash round the lanes when he put MS in (brand new GLT shocks), I'll tell you my experiances about suspension.

Kar which I've driven as my car for 5 years, has knackered suspension. I knew that. I just didn't realise what a difference it made. It has been the most tail happy of any 300, and body rolled badly. Beast I thought was different as it was a 360, and I didn't think I'd driven Andy's long enough to find out. It's only since I've properly started drving Fake, that decent uprated suss works. I can take my favourite corner on a lane near me around 10 mph faster, without thinking I'm going to have to catch the rear when it starts overtaking me.

All this is down to just rear susspension in my case (it's the only part of it I've changed in Fake so far) and I'm wanting to see what difference the front makes now. Kar needs a new engine before I can bring it back on the road, but I'm not bringing it back till I've done the shocks too. I'll put myself into a hedge after being used to this more go-kart handling!

Post by **340cbr** » 17 Mar 2006 01:27 am

chris_C so.... if I wanna drift let's just take the suspension as old and stock as possible?

My have new original shocks (between 80 and 82% in the exame)... it drives pretty well

Post by **Chris_C** » 17 Mar 2006 01:51 am

That seems to be how it's gone for me! Brakes I'm still not happy with, I've worked out the reason I cooked Kar's on my first couple of rallies was down to bad driving style, but even so, they still arn't amazing, they heat up way to quick, but then I am on steel wheels still. Only other useful thing would be a lsd and a quick rack, but not too much hope of that happening any time soon...

Shocks wise, I've been in Vicky's car, and for any kind of higher performance, would get the Spax (what Kar's getting...) if you want something to play with on a budget, get Monroes (I paid a tenner a few years ago from ebay), I know Carl has just put new (I can't remember what now though) in Fioner, but he'll give an opinion I'm sure.

And rears are dead simple to change. Take out the rear boot sides (just 2 screws and 2 poppers after popping the rear seats out, 2 more bolts)), which you don't have to do, just makes undoing the lock nut on the shock top easier. Then nut off teh top of the shocks, and off the rear, and lift out, new bushes in, and bolt it up! (Ok, even Haynes explains that better than me, but I did it in an hour. Easy way to get out old bushes, pop the metal liner out, and cut the top from the bottom, saves trying to push a wide thing through a narrow hole

Post by **340cbr** » 17 Mar 2006 02:30 am

I'll left the suspension mods of mine to a suspension "guru" round here

Don't no what he willd o.. I just tell him that I wan't it lower and stiffer

When you get quick rack say something! I'll love to get it to!

About the brakes.. With 5 spoke alloys they get hot very quick to. I will mount some fresh air pipes like in mine Renault 21 Turbo, and maybe another pipes for the brakes oil (don't know how is the name of the sport brake oil pipes in english)

Post by **Ali** » 17 Mar 2006 11:00 am

Yeah the rear dampers are stupidly easy to change, first time you do it its a bit harder as the bolts at the bottom have been exposed to the bad weather so worth using a wire brush to clean them up. I had to make an adjustment to my koni's and I had them both off and back on the car within 15mins. Front is a bit more tricky but yet again, once you know what your doing and all the bolts have been undone in the past its fairly straight forward. 340cbr - You might think that keeping it sloppy would help for drifting but i'm pretty sure thats only for breaking traction, once it has lost traction it will be a lot better with it stiffer. I have noticed that lowering mine has made it a lot harder to unsettle in the wet and quite often as soon as the tail has broken loose it just grips and pulls straight back in again. If you can't afford to get Dai's dampers due to postage, etc i'd strongly recommend trying to do something with the dampers. Get looking on ebay and make adapter brackets for the base if they're the wrong style, its definately worth the effort

Post by **ebdl** » 17 Mar 2006 02:18 pm

As far as keeping brakes cool goes, when I was racing a 2CV a lot of people used big heat sinks (like the ones you get on computer CPUs, but bigger) attached somehow to the caliper. I don't know how effective they were - I never actually suffered from brake fade in my 2CV even in a 1hr race, although I suspect the cars that do the 24hr get more problems - but it's something to consider as it's a cheap and easy thing to do.

Post by **340GLT** » 17 Mar 2006 02:24 pm

For the rear spax ALL the way!!! Ab awesome i cant begin to describe the difference they make to a car!!!
Adam

Post by **Chris_C** » 17 Mar 2006 05:37 pm

I'm with Ali in th ebreaking traction thing, it is a lot more predictable on good suspension. At leas tI now know why I found Kar easier to slide than Beast... that really confused me

Post by **SteveP** » 17 Mar 2006 06:27 pm

Dunno really - I was more confident with sliding my black car and that had god awful suspension in hindsight!