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Renault 19/Clio 16v
Tuning the F7P engine
Induction
Any sort of improvement to breathing works well on this type of
engine. However they run very hot so an induction kit would need to
well shielded to prevent the heat being soaked up from the filter
The best way of doing it is using a panel filter which fits inside
the original airbox then rigging a cold air feed as large as
possible into the airbox. Around 100mm in diameter, from low in the
front bumper should get lots of nice cool into the engine
If you must have an induction kit (the noise is worth it), then make
sure its well shielded from the rest of the engine and you have as
many cold air feeds pointing at it as possible
Exhaust
If you’ve got a car made after 1992 then the best mod for money is a
de-cat pipe. This gets rid of the catalytic converter which
restricts the exhaust gases leaving the engine.
The ideal exhaust system would be one section and have no silencers
on it at all. However, this is far from ideal for the road and the
noise would get you pulled every few yards ! One or two silencers
are best for the road, using a 4-2-1 manifold
There isn’t much difference between the off the shelf exhausts, I
used a Magnex one which was 2 ½ inches in diameter which is about
right for retaining back pressure while still allowing a good flow
of gases
Cams
The cams from the Williams can fit into these engines for a small
increase in power (they have more lift but the same duration) but
for anything more then you’ll need to look towards some fast road
cams with a longer duration.
Anything too wild will need a lot of setting up and will make the
car idle poorly so if its your daily driver I’d leave them alone
The standard cams have 260degree duration and 9.2mm lift on inlet
and zorst. Williams cams have 9.9mm lift, if you’re fitting these
make sure of the valve clearances otherwise there could be contact
between them and the pistons = mega bucks
Headwork
This engine benefits greatly from porting and polishing work. As
standard the casting quality is poor so there’s quite a lot of
material that could be removed to allow the air to enter the engine
more efficiently.
The water and oil ways are well spaced out so a lot of material can
be removed without risk of rupturing these
The inlet manifold can be port machined to those on the head but
shouldn’t be polished as much as the exhaust manifold (I’m not 100%
sure why but I’ve read it on a few good sources) The exhaust
manifold should have slightly less material taken off than the inlet
and be polished as smooth as possible
ECU
The standard ECU is actually quite good at making small adjustments
for mods such as air filter and exhaust. To take full advantage of
any other mods, then you will need to get your ECU remapped. This
changes the amount of fuelling the engine gets and the timing.
Its important to get it mapped for your car rather than buy one
that’s already set up. All engines are different so what was good
for one engine may not be good for yours.
The rev limit is also normally raised with any chipping which
doesn’t increase power but allows you to hold onto gears longer.
Without any mods, the power will drop off at the same point
Engine swaps
I’ve broken these down into the 3 most logical ones :
Williams / megane / spider 2.0l 16v
This is a fairly good swap as its easier than tuning the F7P engine
to the same level. However, trying to find a rear ended Williams
could prove difficult and expensive.
The engine should fit in the bay with no mods but you need to use
the normal 1.8 Ecu and get it chipped
Volvo 440 turbo
This was actually an engine designed by Renault but finished up by
Volvo. It is a fair bit down on power compared to the F7P. tuning
parts and knowledge are few and far between so its not a very
popular swap
Renault 5 GTT
This is a more popular swap for Clios rather than 19s due to the
heavier weight of the latter. The engines are down on standard power
but are much more tunable and have been around for ages so very good
for getting information about
You’ll ideally need a donor car for the whole swap rather than just
the engine
Good sources of information
www.cliosport.net
www.renaultsportclub.co.uk
www.rtoc.co.uk
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