Why the f**k do people insist on bodging stuff? Renault make a perfectly good set of tools for changing the cambelt on an F4R and yet people (i.e. garages charging for it) insist on bodging them with tipex and buzz guns.
My cup didn't pull as well at high RPM as I though it should do, this was explained when pulling the old cams out today by the fact the inlet cam was retarded a good few degrees from where it should be. Tipex marks on the pulleys and back of the cam cover/bearing carrier pointed to a back street cambelt change - however I was a lot less amused when it turned out that some tit had buzzed all the pulleys up with an airgun, knackering the exhaust cam pulley mounting stud - I know exactly what they've done here as well, when fitting the belt they've tweaked the pulley with a spanner to get it to line up with the teeth on the belt only to find the bolt move rather than the pulley. Assuming its 'loose' they've buzzed it up tight. This mean it was an absolute bastard to get the exhaust pulley off, the exhaust cam pulley mounting stud was actually stretched with knackered threads meaning the Dremel and miniature cutting discs had to come out to machine through the nut so it'd pass over the damaged threads. Back street garages BUY THE PROPER TOOLS!!!!!
Fred cam to the rescue with a spare Laguna cam shaft that we were able to salvage the stud and nut from avoiding having to wait until Friday for the bits to come in (and yes I know the book says to always use a new nut etc. etc. but this one is my car so I made a judgement call, anything else would have new) which means the project is still on target at the moment. Fred I owe you a beer or six :-)
Once that little lot was sorted the new Cat Cams went in with no problems and the rocker cover was bolted down after sealing with high temp silicone sealant.
New tensioners and belts on tomorrow and then its just a case of building back up. Oh and I need to mount the battery... and sort some sort of induction/filtration setup. Theres a rather nice and bloody huge ITG filter in the AB80 airbox on the race car which may be temporarily installed as a solution so we can get it calibrated. Regarding the battery I've decided to stick it in the boot as per the original plan, the race engineer side of me just won't let me stick 6KG's that high up in the car!
I'm guessing circa 190bhp at the moment - it'll need a trick fabricated manifold to make 200+ but thats part 2 of the project ;-)
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