1991 480 ES "Williams" 2.0 16v conversion!
Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2019 8:18 am
Hi folks,
I've previously had a topic in this area of the forum, but never really went anywhere with it, not that I'm promising to be a model poster on this thread BUT! I thought I'd post some kinda timeline of my ownership of my 480!
SO, I bought the car late November 2013 at the age of 18, totally standard, used the car daily for just over a year racking up 15000 miles! loved every second of it, surprisingly good on fuel but realised I wanted to try to keep the miles off it a little bit and bought another car to use daily!
In early 2014 I got my first “real job” and so the modifying bug hit… a set of scabby Ronal Turbo’s and eventually some Spax lowering springs fitted the bill nicely! But I realised I wanted a little more.
In 2015 the car was off the road sitting, I was trying to save up funds to do things right and the car received a dodgy paint job and a few other things that ended up being rectified further down the line, but learning curve, you get what you pay for!
Early 2016 the 480 returned! A new set of “proper” Ronal Aero 16’s and a power flow exhaust went onto the car, much needed improvements as well as a set of Bilstein shocks and some other small items.
The winter of 2016 and early 2017 saw the major renovation take place, Decided it was time to just “do it” so the car was stripped back to a shell, all glass out, all underside components off, every perishable item, bush, bearing and fuel/brake hose was replaced, every bush was upgraded to poly and all underside components were blasted and powdercoated! To top it off a set of GAZ Gold coilovers were installed. After getting the rear arches replaced and the whole car painted I got it delivered back to the shed and in 10 days had it totally reassembled and MOT’d ready for a show I wanted to attend!
The winter of 2017 and early 2018 saw the next phase, I wanted more power. I had a turbo engine sitting in my parts hoard along with some rare forged pistons but wasn’t totally sold on the idea. So hatched a plan based on hopes and prayers that a 2.0 16v engine from a Clio Williams would fit, after buying an engine already stripped requiring a rebuild I then caught wind of a deal I couldn’t pass up on and purchased a complete rebuilt engine fitted with a ported and polished head, uprated cams and possibly higher compression pistons that was previously fitted to a mk1 Clio. Along with this I bought a set of Jenvey 45mm throttle bodies and all the necessary hardware and sensors, ECU and so on to ‘make it go really fast’ haha. I coupled the engine with a JC5 089 Clio 172 phase 1 gearbox and after some head scratching with wiring and so on and mapping we had 208 bhp and 230 nm at the flywheel! She screams, redline is at 7200rpm just however the higher you rev the harder it pulls and its something else for a little old Volvo with pop ups Also fitted was a complete Recaro interior!
10 Points for anyone who recognises a certain Scottish 480 enthusiast in this picture!
That’s about it for the moment, since Autumn 2018 she’s been in storage, there have been a few issues arise and teething problems needing addressed since the engine conversion as to be expected so this year I’ve been trying to clear my feet a bit with other projects and do some saving to fund improvements and so on!
Will try update this! But no promises as I’m terrible at that haha!
I've previously had a topic in this area of the forum, but never really went anywhere with it, not that I'm promising to be a model poster on this thread BUT! I thought I'd post some kinda timeline of my ownership of my 480!
SO, I bought the car late November 2013 at the age of 18, totally standard, used the car daily for just over a year racking up 15000 miles! loved every second of it, surprisingly good on fuel but realised I wanted to try to keep the miles off it a little bit and bought another car to use daily!
In early 2014 I got my first “real job” and so the modifying bug hit… a set of scabby Ronal Turbo’s and eventually some Spax lowering springs fitted the bill nicely! But I realised I wanted a little more.
In 2015 the car was off the road sitting, I was trying to save up funds to do things right and the car received a dodgy paint job and a few other things that ended up being rectified further down the line, but learning curve, you get what you pay for!
Early 2016 the 480 returned! A new set of “proper” Ronal Aero 16’s and a power flow exhaust went onto the car, much needed improvements as well as a set of Bilstein shocks and some other small items.
The winter of 2016 and early 2017 saw the major renovation take place, Decided it was time to just “do it” so the car was stripped back to a shell, all glass out, all underside components off, every perishable item, bush, bearing and fuel/brake hose was replaced, every bush was upgraded to poly and all underside components were blasted and powdercoated! To top it off a set of GAZ Gold coilovers were installed. After getting the rear arches replaced and the whole car painted I got it delivered back to the shed and in 10 days had it totally reassembled and MOT’d ready for a show I wanted to attend!
The winter of 2017 and early 2018 saw the next phase, I wanted more power. I had a turbo engine sitting in my parts hoard along with some rare forged pistons but wasn’t totally sold on the idea. So hatched a plan based on hopes and prayers that a 2.0 16v engine from a Clio Williams would fit, after buying an engine already stripped requiring a rebuild I then caught wind of a deal I couldn’t pass up on and purchased a complete rebuilt engine fitted with a ported and polished head, uprated cams and possibly higher compression pistons that was previously fitted to a mk1 Clio. Along with this I bought a set of Jenvey 45mm throttle bodies and all the necessary hardware and sensors, ECU and so on to ‘make it go really fast’ haha. I coupled the engine with a JC5 089 Clio 172 phase 1 gearbox and after some head scratching with wiring and so on and mapping we had 208 bhp and 230 nm at the flywheel! She screams, redline is at 7200rpm just however the higher you rev the harder it pulls and its something else for a little old Volvo with pop ups Also fitted was a complete Recaro interior!
10 Points for anyone who recognises a certain Scottish 480 enthusiast in this picture!
That’s about it for the moment, since Autumn 2018 she’s been in storage, there have been a few issues arise and teething problems needing addressed since the engine conversion as to be expected so this year I’ve been trying to clear my feet a bit with other projects and do some saving to fund improvements and so on!
Will try update this! But no promises as I’m terrible at that haha!