Clementine's Garage
Clementine the Cat
 
Image of flower
Yellow R4
 
home my cars restoration tech tips guides forum
Réparateur d'automobiles

What have I done! (R4 GTL)

Well, ladies and gent, it seems that my problems are solved.....

Is it because better weather or something i have done, can not say but car is working fine now.

Story behind this words.....

After i have changed plugs have went on long trip to Zagreb and back


https://www.google.hr/maps/dir/Vodi...63899!2m2!1d15.8326343!2d45.8188512!3e0?hl=hr

Mostly open road and last 50 km is highway(motorway), driving 70-90km/h on some parts even 110km/h.....very easy and relaxing drive

In Zagreb i visited an older guy who is working on carbs (among other thing he do) to see what he will tell me about all settings on my car.
I was more or less aware that there would not be much things to do but wanted to talk to someone who has many experience with old cars so i can "get filing" for right setting.

He first checked dwell angel, and rpms at idle, then with strob light timing (without vacuum), and told me that all is perfect. Set as it should be. Checked vacuum pump.

Then he inspected old plugs and pipes around carb, and removed air filter box. looking inside carb. Turn it up few times. All was alright. Did not have anything to do on this part.

He mentioned that my gas pedal wire is to tight, adjust just little bit and show me how much play wire should have and still be tight.

And final thing he done was exhaust analyser. Turn mixture screw to get CO at about 1% (CO was 0,5% on my way to Zagreb). His comment was that from his experience at that position car is working best. Tested CO at high rpms and CO jumped little bit over 1% but not more.....He was very happy about that

No more juddering. I can go down below 60km/h in 4th gear at flat road and it works fine. Car is accelerating nicely aldo it seems that has some struggle between 90-100 (or is it just me triing to preserve my car - it start to be noisy at that speed)

Will not bother with it any more......this is how it should be....

My journey back was nice and smooth....

Made 450 km from Zagreb and still have 1/4 of fuel tank to empty - according to indicator on dash board.
I know that it is not precise and that i had open road so consumption should be lower than in town, but it looks promising.
If i manage to get 450km on 26-28 liters of petrol i will be satisfied (that would be 45-50MPG)

It was long and hard learning curve about carb, timing, points but i believe that now i know how to set all of these parts and have "filing" about it....

Thank you all for sheering your knowledge, expertise, experience about this matter.... helped me a lot to get it almost right.....

One picture on my way to Zagreb between Obrovac and Gračac...long steep uphill and downhill over Velebit mountain with hard corners and road that is carved into Velebit mountain.
20170321_083903.jpg
 
You had to drive a long way to visit your friend, but finally your problem is solved:). I think my car is also running too lean, perhaps and extra half turn out will help.

Such beautiful countryside and no traffic!
 
It was few jobs journey. Had some job to do in Zagreb, and take a chance to visit guy and chance to drive my R4 on long run :D....I was missing that.... So businesses and pleasure combined :cool:

Once (until there were no highway) this was only road from my part of Dalmatia to Zagreb, and it was night mare.
Imagine this curvy steep (7-8% steep) road full of trucks, buses, and small cars on both sides driving uphill (or downhill) some 20-30km/h (40km/h if you are lucky). It is 25km road that sometimes (usually) took about 50 to 60 min to cross.

Now when highway is build this road is empty (almost) until Bura start to blow. Than highway is closed for all traffic and again this road is very much alive.
 
Petak what a great journey - love the photo. Quite an adventure. I do hope you were able to do some good business when you got there.
Good to have the experienced guy look at your car and to pronounce all was what it should be. Just a minor tweak from an old hand gives great reassurance coupled with a good performance on the way home
 
Thanks JonathanT!
It was very successful journey.

Aldo all off you guys here were very informative and helpful and tried to explain as simplest as possible what to do there were always some doubts "did i done it right".
Talking to this guy in Zagreb was more helpful than all adjustment he has done (aldo not much) as i realized that settings i have done are correct and i got that feeling you all was talking about.

Yesterday i was putting petrol to R4 first time after Zagreb.
Made 506km and gas station stopped at 26,89 lit. SO that would be 5,3 literes per 100km (or 53 MPG) what is fantastic.
I am aware that this was open road so my normal consumption would be around 6 l/100km (or 47 MPG) which is more than 1 liter less then till now

I am very happy!

Now i can go back to detailing R4 with some personal touches and improvements that i have in mind.
Wheel arches for example ;)
 
petak said:
Thanks JonathanT!
It was very successful journey.

Aldo all off you guys here were very informative and helpful and tried to explain as simplest as possible what to do there were always some doubts "did i done it right".
Talking to this guy in Zagreb was more helpful than all adjustment he has done (aldo not much) as i realized that settings i have done are correct and i got that feeling you all was talking about.

Yesterday i was putting petrol to R4 first time after Zagreb.
Made 506km and gas station stopped at 26,89 lit. SO that would be 5,3 literes per 100km (or 53 MPG) what is fantastic.
I am aware that this was open road so my normal consumption would be around 6 l/100km (or 47 MPG) which is more than 1 liter less then till now

I am very happy!

Now i can go back to detailing R4 with some personal touches and improvements that i have in mind.
Wheel arches for example ;)
Click to expand...
That sounds about right, I reckon. We reckon to average around 45mpg in general with our 1980 GTL, though we've never bothered strictly measuring/testing this. We also rattle - literally - along at 110KMH when necessary, though I personally prefer to roll along at around 75KMH through the French countryside.
 
I don't think mine is doing as much MPG at the moment as it is still running in as such. I will look at my carb again when back on the road next week (1st April) as taxing car for 6months through the summer.
Yes will catch up with wheel arch liners soon and publish the shapes in PDF. I have the house to paint first though :(Even though my mind wanders to doing the R4;)
 
Nothing much is going on here.

Driving around and enjoying.

Last visit to petrol station was example of my real use of the car so i was very interesting what will consumption say.
numbers
440km
24,55 liters of petrol
5,6 l/100km ( or 50MPG)

I am very happy with these numbers.

Bought 3mm MDF board to make that "C" pillar (around rear window) and booth door lining.

Find out that squeaking sound is coming from rear shock absorber lower bushes. Do not know what to do to stop them from squeaking?

And it looks like i am loosing cooling fluid somewhere very slowly. My cooling fluid lever drop from max to min (in expansion bottle) during few mounts.
Poor some water to max again and write down date and km to see how long will it take to drop at min again.

Does your R4 loosing cooling fluid?

I do not have experience with this matter on R4.
MY other car, not so much new but newer (Renault Laguna 2, 2001 1.6 16v), have never loose cooling fluid in last 9 years that i am driving it.
It is always at the max level.
 
Hi Petak, wherever the leak is in your engine compartment, there will be little crystals that look like coloured sugar crystals. Of course that will be if you're using antifreeze.

I found that my waterpump was leaking and the crystals were beneath it near the flywheel. Had to replace it.

You can also check all your water hoses for the same crystals.
 
TX Mojobaby!

Yes antifreez is inside.....

Will look thru engine compartment and all joints to see if there are any crystals.
 
Great tip mojobaby! I notice the other day the same trouble. In a few weeks I lost some antifreeze and have to refill to the maximum level, Where is exactly the waterpump? (Sorry for my ignorance, i´m a rookie)

Thank´s
 
Hi Sutree, follow the top hose from the radiator, it goes straight to the top of the waterpump. Have a look at all the hoses where they connect and look for the crystals. Also inspect your radiator for damage. Mine had a leak and I saw the same crystals.

They look like this:

IMGP1312.JPG
 
Yes, check your radiator carefully. Ours had such a small leak that the coolant evaporated before having the chance to drip anywhere, making it very hard to find the leak.
 
Sutree said:
Great tip mojobaby! I notice the other day the same trouble. In a few weeks I lost some antifreeze and have to refill to the maximum level, Where is exactly the waterpump? (Sorry for my ignorance, i´m a rookie)

Thank´s
Click to expand...

Sutree

You shouldn't really even consider tinkering with any car without at the very least the works handbook, or a Haynes workshop manual. Have a look on Amazon for the Haynes as they often have secondhand copies for a few pounds, and the handbooks can sometimes be found on eBay. Strangely some simple service items can be found in the handbook are often completely ignored by the Haynes manuals. If you are starting to assemble a workshop and tool kit, don't waste money on poor tools such as spanners. The first time your ring spanner spins on a rounded off bolt and you loose some skin will remind you of that. Cheap hammers, rubber or hide mallets and so are are fine, but spanners and socket sets, quality matters. If I was starting off again I'd go for Snap-On spanners. These fine tools are often used by race mechanics but are awfully expensive.
 
Paul Narramore said:
Sutree

You shouldn't really even consider tinkering with any car without at the very least the works handbook, or a Haynes workshop manual. Have a look on Amazon for the Haynes as they often have secondhand copies for a few pounds, and the handbooks can sometimes be found on eBay. Strangely some simple service items can be found in the handbook are often completely ignored by the Haynes manuals. If you are starting to assemble a workshop and tool kit, don't waste money on poor tools such as spanners. The first time your ring spanner spins on a rounded off bolt and you loose some skin will remind you of that. Cheap hammers, rubber or hide mallets and so are are fine, but spanners and socket sets, quality matters. If I was starting off again I'd go for Snap-On spanners. These fine tools are often used by race mechanics but are awfully expensive.
Click to expand...

Hello Paul

I believe your right. I broke a 10mm open spanner trying to unscrew the gearbox plug. I know it´s always hard unscrew this Plug but with a cheap spanner it´s more dangerous. It rip a little bit of my hand, and the skin evaporate... Thank you for your advice i will buy the Haynes manual,everyone talks about the importance of this manual to start of making our own mecanic so i will go a head.
 
I checked my expansion bottle and noticed that the coolant had dropped from 'Max' to 'Min' since Saturday! There were no leaks and no crystals but I did find that the plastic radiator cap could be tightened a further 1/8th of a turn, so perhaps that is the culprit?
 
lets hope so Paul!!

To lose that amount of coolant in such a short time. it must be going somewhere. Its under a lot of pressure in the radiator, so if it leaked past the cap you must see signs of splatter down the side of the radiator, on the gear box and perhaps on the underside of your bonnet.

Failing that I can only think that its escaping into your oil, so check your dipstick:(

Fill up again, tighten the cap and monitor it closely and hope for the best!
 
mojobaby said:
lets hope so Paul!!

To lose that amount of coolant in such a short time. it must be going somewhere. Its under a lot of pressure in the radiator, so if it leaked past the cap you must see signs of splatter down the side of the radiator, on the gear box and perhaps on the underside of your bonnet.

Failing that I can only think that its escaping into your oil, so check your dipstick:(

Fill up again, tighten the cap and monitor it closely and hope for the best!
Click to expand...

MB, No signs of splatter from around the radiator cap nor the bonnet, nor the oil. I did wonder if the heater radiator connections might be at fault but than would show I imagine with water/coolant on the cars floor. All the hose connections are nice and dry and no obvious signs of the hoses themselves leaking. I need to remove the radio/heater console to look inside. Strange.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Community platform by XenForo® © 2010-2024 XenForo Ltd.
Back
Top