Apes Timeline (It's a big Read)

Name: Project Track Slug
Car : Peugeot 206 1.4 16v Sport. Registered July 2005.

The Pug was originally a replacement for my Fiesta Zetec that I well and truly knackered through lack of maintainence and car know-how. The option was either a new engine, or repair the existing one, both with a tag of around the £2500 mark. As I was doing about 200 miles a week at the time I needed a car and needed a warranty with it. I needed reliability too (so why go french! )

After looking on the internet I needed something for around £10,000 which was brand new, lots of gadgets (what I thought was important at the time) and creature comforts, reasonable engine, and available quickly as my fiesta engine was going to implode iminently. The 206 ticked most of the boxes, so I paid for the one in the showroom, had a spoiler and some SP bits added, and picked it up a week later. The fiesta just about lasted and off it went to auction, giving a small reduction on the Pug.

I swore that I wasn't going to modify the 206, the Fiesta had undergone a few cheap mods, backbox, wheels etc. The 206 had warranty and was brand new. After about 10 months I'd finished choosing the alloys, got a suspension kit and got them fitted together (well, within a week of each other). Got myself some tools and the bug had bitten. I knew nothing of cars so thought it was a good time to learn.


Soon after buying, Carla bought me the complete rear light setup:


The suspension arrived and was fitted:






Shortly after, a Peco Backbox


And this waste of time:

A PiperX induction kit, nice and power sapping lol.

That was it for it a while, a few minor touches followed, interior item tarting and that sort of thing:


Sub, Amp and that jazz also installed.

Then........


Cut a long story short, brake malfunction = loss of abs and ebfd = spin + kerb = damage + birth of the performance project (hows that for an equation lol)
The damage meant that I needed to replace the Rear Axle. Rather than replace like for like, I sourced an axle from a dead Gti180, cleaned it up and bolted it up:


Removed old Axle and fitted new:










Sourced some brakes from a Gti180 so cleaned them up and fitted them:






Then the Pug went into the bodyshop for some work and some SP arches were also added:












The wheels had come back after their refurb and were wrapped in new Parada Spec2 Tyres:



I also got hold of a 4-2-1 Manifold from a good friend as well, so fitted that too:


From there I went and had a Powerflow Full system inc Sports Cat fitted:





A quick cosmetic addition thrown in between stages:


Then started a bit of weight loss:


And a bit of weight gain, but with the comprimise of better comfort / stability of the occupants when cornering and the ability to put some harnesses in properly too.









The PiperX was changed for a BMC DIA Enclosed Filter, although the gains weren't noticable. I also had a duff remap put on by Angel Tuning, which was sorted out later by Red Dot Racing

Angel Tuning....

I attended a remap meet, where a few of us were having it done. I was a bit dubious but the price was right so I thought why not? I'd just had the full exhaust done by Powerflow and then went straight to the meet. From what I knew remaps needed rollers and some time. Rather than a quick 15 minute download. So.... A few guys were having theirs done and seemed happy enough.

It came to my car, and they took the standard map off, and downloaded their "remap". this took 30 minutes or so. Followed by a non starting car, no turning over, no burping, clicking, nothing. It took them 3 hours to get the standard map on, at one point they asked if I had RAC or AA cover, to which I replied "yes thanks, but what are you going to use to tow it to a garage if it doesn't work". Anyway, the standard map eventually took and it fired up, albeit a bit rough for a while. They offered to come to my house and try again, as their map needed sending to a bloke in Germany to do some tweaks (no poopoo!). So they did, a week later they turned up in their little van and "remapped" the car. They asked me to take it for a spin, and when I came back telling them there was no difference their response was "it will need a few hundred miles to sort itself out". Yeah right , anyway a few hundred miles came and went and nothing. Don't get me wrong, its a 1.4 16v and I wasn't expecting it to set the world on fire by any stretch of the imagination. I had also bought an enclosed BMC filter from them to try out, but that turned out to be pap also.

I then got involved with GSR and Red Dot Racing as they held a Rolling Road meet. I wanted to see what the outcome of the remap was so attended. Got speaking to the guys down there and when "Angel Tuning" was mentioned, they began laughing. Now, I thought the usual - that different tuners have different ways and will ridicule other tuners methods. It wasn't until they got it on the Rolling Road and we could see the Air/Fuel Ratio. Basically running that lean that the ECU was retarding all ignition to prevent the engine from cooking itself as there just wasn't enough fuel to burn, and it was losing power over the standard setup. It turns out that Angel Tuning bought a load of kit from Red Dot Racing, and decided they knew all there is to know about remapping modern cars, and make their money by doing "we come to you tuning". Which is quite frankly shite. A friend with a Fiesta 1.4 (Mk5) also had a map and I believe is losing power. Funnily enough Angel Tuning have nothing to say, and their gains chart on their website is comical.

Red Dot wouldn't let me leave their garage with the car in such a dangerous / unhealthy state, so remapped it for free for me. A fantastic gesture considering they'd do a run on the rollers, tweak the map, back on the rollers etc, plenty of advice and a good chat with them and GSR later I find myself measuring the engine bay up for a prototype induction kit.

When that was manufactured I went back to Red Dot and had another rolling road session. The induction kit improved torque considerably (for an induction kit) and overall power, however because of the extra air going in, and the mixture richened, it still needed more fuel, so I put larger injectors in and went back to Red Dot, who sorted another remap for me now that the extra fuel was pumping through, and its just carried on from there. I trust their work, as they actually care about their reputation and customers, rather than just try to make fast cash. Coupled with GSR's knowledge we've made quite a formiddable team and from there we've decided to turn my lowly 1360cc trolley into a fun track car, not particularly fast, but fun. Which is what its all about

I had a day at Castle Coombe and met GSR and the plans exploded from there :







After sliding around the track in what turned out to be the most fun I'd had in the Pug for a while we set about tuning the Engine. GSR produced a Prototype Induction Kit for testing on the relatively new type of Pug 206 Engine (also in the C4's, 1007's and 207's etc):









Which followed with Bigger Injectors:









and then a trip to Red Dot Racing for a Remap and runs on the Rollers:




From there the car was running about 110 bhp with similar torque levels, this was later increased with a bit more mapping to about 114bhp or so with around the same torque levels. Not bad from the 88bhp and 99lb ft standard.

Another quick cosmetic change before more work in the form of some HID's and Caliper painting:







I bought another 1.4 16v engine complete with box as spares ready for the development, and a 1.6 16v head for future use after uprating. This was stripped down for inspection / testing and whatever else it was needed for:











The cams were extracted and sent away for reprofiling, at the time the only cams available were standard ones, or competition ones which removed the variable valve timing and required extensive work to the head, standalone management etc. Suited to race teams rather than a fast road set up. When the cams returned we made some shims to fit in the lifter bores to aid the cams:










I then fitted them to the car, along with a new cam belt and few other bits, after getting it all timed up, it was apparent the the timing needed a bit of tweaking to get it running properly:












After various attempts at getting it running smoothly, we really needed vernier pulleys to finish the timing. The previous set of photos shows me squashing a hydraulic lifter in a clamp. I should have done this previously, as I didn't a slight problem occured. After some problems trying to get a shim into the lifter bore, I ended up drilling it out and fitting another one, this had weakened the bore walls and the lifter decided to shatter its bore walls:




This has left us with a few options. currently the engine is sat like so:

wrapped up to prevent the elements from getting at it.

The plan is to fit the spare 1.4 16v head in the meantime so that the Pug is running for Castle Coombe at the end of April, and then get the 1.6 16v head finished (its having some serious work done to it first) and fitted to the 1.4 16v block.
The additional plans are a rollcage, alloy wheel colour change and a few other bits

Cheers for reading, bit of a long one, I've had it for over 3.5 years now and have learnt so much from working on it and want to continue on with it and continue the prototype development etc with GSR and Red Dot
So.... I've waffled on enough now But basically you've got to be careful and ensure you get a tuner rather than a tuna working on your car!

Good thread mate... Got to say though... Avoid puddles with the air filter there!

Yep, although it will put up with minor fording. We've done a fair bit of testing on it. Common sense prevails is most cases though. If its too deep - find another way or disconnect it at the throttle body etc.

Good read, any updates?

Aye, I rebuilt the Engine and took it around Coombe the next day, then sold it

ape, are PP having a stand at Spring Action day or you fancy inviting a few onto our stand...more the merrier!

Whats replaced it?

Leon cupra iirc?

Aye, A LCR 225, there's a project thread on here. I'll start a new one as there are quite a few updates now