From the photo the engine looks a bit more sophisticated than the standard 845cc "Ventoux" engine which one normally encounters.
Try to keep it running with the choke on. if it runs better you probably have an air leak.
My experience is that probably one of the breather pipes from the rocker cover to the carb. and to the inlet manifold is leaking.
Or there might be air coming in from the connection of the carburetor to the inlet manifold.
you can check for air leaks by spraying WD40 on all the connections if it starts to run better you might have found the sourceView attachment 17147
The pipes with the y connection are the breather pipes, usually the connections are cracked because of age.
the topmost pipe connected to the y connection runs to the inlet manifold just underneath the carburetor. There should be a restriction in it.
If its not there you're engine won't idle if all the connections are ok.
The restrictor is a small piece of plastic with a 1,3mm hole in it. It fits neatly in the breather pipe.
If the restrictor is missing and all the connections are ok.
As a quick fix you can either make a restrictor yourself.
take a bolt that fits snugly in the breather pipe and saw the head of. You want to end up with a piece of about 10mm. Drill a hole of 1,3 or 1,5 mm through the length of it and push it in to the breather pipe and re connect it.
Or block the pipe that runs to the inlet manifold.
good luck
If the heating system isn't working then possibly you've lost the coolant or you have a blockage/airlock/pump failure in the water system so the water isn't circulating. You can get a certain distance with radiator convection alone (I once did 25 miles when the fanbelt broke — fortunately it was a freezing, moonlit night on empty roads so I could drive without headlights and not drain the battery unduly) but 90 kph would be too much for this to cope with (on the occasion in question anything over 70 kph brought on the overheating light). Either way, no water or no circulation would rapidly lead to overheating and if the water is lost you'll damage the water pump as well.
In this situation the pinking would not have been caused by dodgy points but by the petrol pre-igniting in overheated cylinders.
Hopefully you haven't cooked the engine otherwise it's a rebore/new liners.
Overheating may also explain the poor running. There has been a recent exchange of views on this entitled "Fuel starvation problem" posted by member ID WIzarick in the "Renault 4 Discussion" section.
Regarding petrol octane rating : R4s were designed to run on 1960s French petrol, i.e. low octane, in fact complete cr*p. They have hardened valve seatings so no lead additive is necessary. I've run two 845cc R4s on unleaded ever since it was introduced in the UK in 1989, with no problems. But obviously, as Grumm says, the higher octane of unleaded the better if you can get it. Only problem is, higher octane = more benzene additive = more carcinogenic.
According to Wikipedia only a few Spanish R4s between 1972 and 1976 were fitted with the 852cc Type 813 engine. It doesn't feature in my 1971-1975 parts book but it looks as if it was only to applied to R4F4 vans. Possibly your car, if it's not a van, has had an engine swop at some time? From the photo the engine looks a bit more sophisticated than the standard 845cc "Ventoux" engine which one normally encounters.