Why am I making a thread for my car? Well who knows what I'll end up doing with it, and some people might want to follow along. Lets start with a few pictures: It's a f****** horrible piece of **** by modern standards, coming in with no ABS, no power steering and a repaired rust hole in the oil pan. But what it lacks in features, is also missing in power. I can hardly keep up with traffic, but that could be related to the blinking oil light. Anyway, it's just good enough for commuting to work. And very epic for cruising with the roof open, as long as the radiator doesn't leak too fast. The twingo knows what awaits, as the front left wheel bearing started screaming a few nights ago suffocating the sound of valve tick: I haven't done much to the car, just changed the belt and water pump back in January. I already regret doing them. And don't worry, that block heater is unplugged because it doesn't work. I guess I should also mention the front brake disks are warped, making the whole car vibrate violently when I glance at the brake pedal. From all this, one could easily say it will face scrapping fairly soon. But all the problems are related to the running gear... and it's an epic car... just too slow.
In January, as my first car. Since then I bought another car too: Which is soon to be a daily driver. This one is a bit rusty at places, but only has 137 000km on it and the engine runs good.
We don't seem to share our views. The only exciting part of my Megane as opposed to the Twingo is the engine for me. With an ECU tune it should make about double what my Twingo could manage on a good day.
Pulled out the engine today: First the front came off. This meant unplugging and removing the lights, draining the coolant, unplugging a vacuum line (no idea what that was for???) and removing the hood latching thingie (it comes easily out after removing the radiator). There was one bit of wiring I had to cut which I believe was for the right side blinker. Not sure yet, but I labeled it as such. No other wiring was cut. I labeled most of the wires, but gave up when it came to the intake related wiring as I had no idea how there could be so many connectors. All wiring was stripped from the engine, except for the lambda sensor that was left on the exhaust. Next the fuel lines got pulled out from the fuel rail, and I remembered my childhood memories of mowing the lawn with an old mower. It's a nice smell. Throttle and clutch cables were pretty easy to remove too. Then the CV axles came off. I found a tutorial on Youtube for a clio, and it was basically the same for Twingo. I didn't pull them from the gearbox just yet, but that will come one day. After that the exhaust was separated at the easiest-to-reach connection. At this point the engine was hold on by the engine mounts and some interior heater hoses (is that how you call it?). The engine pulled out very easily with that crane thingy. There were no clear lifting points, but the clutch cable holder, an exhaust header and the right side mount worked well enough. So what's next? Probably sorting out the wiring, stripping out everything I don't need. I'll remove the dash and see what horrors the french engineers managed to build under it. I already removed the radio some days ago, and found the aftermarket central locking system some previous owner put in.
Visited parents for about a week so no progress... until today. Pulled out the dash and engine wiring: Interior is basically all torx screws and very easy to figure out. I had some trouble with the steering wheel, it took about an hour to pull out. I was very cautios while removing the wiring, but as it turned out everything that plugged into the engine could just be ripped out no problem. All lights and interior stuff tested and working. Blinkers need the dash to work, as the relay is located in there. What's next? Probably buying some tools and materials... I might drive the megane for a few more weeks, but then it's time to part it out.
A quick update: we ran out of argon at the garage, so I didn't weld an engine mount. Luckily the transmission can be mounted with twingo mounts, so I just needed one slightly temporary wooden mount: I've been taking out the megane wiring and trimming useless stuff (like the radio, roof lights etc) from the loom:
Fuel pumps look about the same, but needed some clever thought to fit the megane pump in twingo: Got all the wiring in twingo, even the ignition switch fit right on: I also welded a simple mount for the engine, using a piece from megane: Everything fits in: And first start today: Next I need to make a mount for the twingo alternator (megane one won't fit), buy some adapters for the coolant hoses, build an exhaust, find/build fitting cv axles and fill up the transmission with some oil. So that's going to take some time between work and hobbies.
Is that gauge cluster from the Megane compatible with the Twingo, and if it is does everything work on it correctly?
Right now all gauges are connected, the megane gauge cluster is wired just like it was in the megane (I moved all the required wiring over in one piece). Everything I have tested so far works on it, but understandably it shows the service light, abs and air bag warning lights. Because my twingo doesn't have abs or air bags. Also I have not connected the brake pedal and handbrake sensors, so there is that one red light, but that works properly on the original warning light cluster. The megane gauge cluster would not be compatible with the original twingo wiring.
small update: built an exhaust did the timing belt and water pump while I last had the engine out and as you can see, the alternator is from twingo, very simple mount: halfshafts are basically the same between twingo and megane, so I used the ones from twingo: got the interior in and the bumper back on: not much room left: It now drives, and everything in terms of engine swap is done (except for a working speedometer....), so is this the end? No. I can't get it inspected until I replace the front wheel bearings, brake disks and pads, fix the gear shifter, adjust the exhaust (and fix a leak), fix the handbrake, mount the ignition switch better and get time for a dyno. So still, lots of work even though the engine is swapped and running.
