Endless water leaks...please help

[galaxian]

Hi to everyone.

First of all i would like to apologize for always asking questions and not contributing to others questions. The fact is that I am completely new to R4 's and I am actually discovering this car and its engine.
I hope that by gaining a little more experience, I will be able to actively contribute to the forum.
Nevertheless I am quite proud of what I have achieved so far. The truth is that I still have a lot of work before I make this babe suitable for every day use.
My main concern and priority is to make the engine and brakes reliable and then I will attack interior and exterior refurbishing.

Now, to come to my question, I have made a new gasket for the blanking plate, cleaned and straightened the plate, I have applied red paste gasket and put the thing back in place. I let it dry overnight, and this morning, I filled the radiator with water. There are no leaks anymore from that spot, but to my great disapointement i noticed that another water leak is present somewhere else.
Now it is quite difficult to determine from were because the spot is quite unaccesible. It appears that (I am not sure) some water is leaking from a screw that is a little bit lower and on the right of the starter motor. It appears that water is dropping (aprox 1 drop every two seconds) from that srew but it may also drop from the pipe of the heating which goes to the water pump althoght it seems quit dry.
Any suggestions or have you ever encountered this problem ? Shall I try to tighten the screw or remove it and put some teflon?
Also, How can I be sure that the water pump works? When I look from the radiator filling cap, there does not appear to have any bubbles!!

Thanks and best regards
Galaxian

 

[malcolm]

Don't worry about asking questions - we need people to ask questions as well as answer them.

The bolt on the side of the engine looks like a drain plug for the coolant. Probably best to remove it, clean it, cover the thread with the gasket sealant, and then refit.

The water pump should be working as long as the pulley on the front is going round. They can seize or leak, but I've not known them not work for any other reason.

 

[angel]

"...The water pump should be working as long as the pulley on the front is going round. They can seize or leak, but I've not known them not work for any other reason..."

I used to think that water pumps either leak or work perfectly too... But my trusted '75 R4 Export had another opinion some four years ago! It seems that on genuine Renault pumps the impeller is being held on the shaft by means of a pressed-on brass ring (and maybe brazing???) This ring came loose somehow,therefore the impeller freewheeled on the shaft. I discovered this after I disassembled the head (after the R4 had blown the head gasket) but I could not determine which one happened first, overheating (as I was doing a mountaineous journey ,at 35 oC, four people) then the impeller loosening due to excessive heating, or the impeller loosed first then the car overheated? Other non-Renault water pumps that I have seen, though, have the impeller directly pressed (and maybe welded) on the shaft.