Clementine's Garage
Clementine the Cat
 
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Yellow R4
 
Réparateur d'automobiles

It feels good not being alone

Enrique

Enthusiast
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Hi all, My name is Enrique (you must've guessed that already). I live in Bogotá, Colombia.
I own a beige '81 R4. Paint is not very nice, but rust is under control (well, sort of). The frame I had to change for a new one two years ago, when rust started to show in too many parts.
Mechanically it runs very well, it's got a C2L engine I'm currently breaking in and an HA1 (354 type) gearbox. A double body brake pump (original was single) I decided to change that one after a leak in a rear cylinder let the pedal go straight to the floor, I didn't like that feeling.
Rest is stock.
Original lamps have become yellowish and lost their shine, so I bought some aftermarket produced in Argentina. Definitely not the same, they just don't focus right. Had to attach extra lamps for travel. Originals I just haven't been able to find here. I wrote the guys at Whitehouse (took that advice from this forum). Very very nice people indeed, but 50GBP (plus VAT and shipment) a piece is quite a bit for my pocket. If any of you know of another alternative, I'd be very thankful.
I used to do many things to it myself, but now I don't have so much spare time, so I have it done by someone else, but I try to get involved as much as I can. It's not much, but some knowledge I have and it's at your service I it helps.
I'm planning to paint it (some day) and improve it's performance a little bit (some parts are on their way already)
Many people, including my wife (she hates it), tell me I'm throwing money away keeping this "piece of junk" runnin, but I think otherwise. I think "some" of you may understand that.
Now I see I'm not alone, that gives me a nice warm feeling... :wink:
I have no pictures at the moment, but I'll take some and post them If you like.

Enrique
 
Welcome to the forum Enrique,

Your Renault must be very quick - thats a Renault 9 1.6 engine with a 5 speed gearbox? I have a 1400cc engine from the R5 TX with the same gearbox sitting in the garage at the moment. I'm planning to fit them to an early Renault 4. I'd love to see photos of your engine and gearbox. I think I will have to modify the front crossmember and do something with the air filter, but otherwise it looks straight forward. Is there anything that's tricky with the conversion? What did you do with the exhaust?

I like to keep these cars running - I've owned other cars in the past but seem to be drawn back to Renault 4s. I find them cheap to run (apart from headlamps - they seem to have gone up in price). Your wife would be amazed how much money can be thrown away on other cars.

:clementi:
 
Thanks for the welcome Clementine!
Yes, you have to modify the front crossmember. but that should be no problem with your skills. The HA1 gearbox is very similar in constuction to the original one, but the 5th gear sits outside of it (in the front) and it needs the extra space in the chasis. You can use the original R4 cover and the original R4 shifting lever, but when changing the cover, don't forget to change the selector for the R5's! The R4 selector will not put in 5th.
With the engine, we had some mods too. Temporarily, we have used the same 1.3l engine head with minor mods, we can do this here, since we're still inside the CR (or should I say VR) limits, given the altitude (2600m above sea level) the car runs fine. Same intake manifold and header. Well, the dished shape pistons helped a lot by the way :wink:
We're expecting another head (Now THAT's gonna be some work), but it'll give it some stamina. I'll tell you about that when it's a fact.
The 1.4l engine you have, may be the better choice if you want to get high output from it. It's easier to modify and it'll get you much higher revs, as opposed to the C2L, which can't rev so much due to it's much longer stroke (you'll achieve max safe piston speed below 6500rpm), but in exchange you get some BRUTAL torque. Another tip, have a good look at your camshaft, there is a great variety of stock camshafts for these sierra blocks, depending of what you want to take out of it.
Another thing, I don't know how the chasis was constructed over there, but from your restoration pictures I figure it's almost the same. That chasis was intended for an 850cc engine, so don't forget to work up your chasis accordingly to the engine or it wil break, believe me, it will break. I've heard a few sad stories around here.
Maybe you should ask R4T (I saw him around this forum) he seems to have made one hell of a job on his chasis to handle that insane ammount of power.
 
Here are some pics. Had to reduce them a lot to have a decent size to post. If you want to look at a detail, ask me for the full size version of the corresponding pic.

front02-small_545.jpg
http://www.renault4.co.uk/forum/files/front02-small_545.jpgHere you can se two welding lines. The fixing was cut of and the section bent open. Then a small piece of extra material added and welded again. Inside top and bottom too, of course Not visible here.

front03-small_550.jpg


here you can see the front section protuding a bit more than standard

front01-small_969.jpg



http://www.renault4.co.uk/forum/files/front03-small_550.jpg
 
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Sorry about the image posting issues - it's a modification to the software and some bits and pieces are not great. Thanks for posting all the photos - they will be very useful to me.

Wow - you've done an excellent job to keep the strength in the front crossmember. I think it's a good idea to extend it like that to keep the torsional strength in the front of the car.

Which parts of the chassis can break with extra power? I had been planning to fit disc brakes, and replace the worn mechanical bits, but wasn't aware of any other chassis work that I might need to do.

That's a cool exhaust manifold as well. Is it custom or from a performance Renault? It looks very close to the radiator hose. :roll:

:clementi:
 
Many things can break.
There's a lot of opinions about this matter. Some people may not agree.
First, the front section can separate from the rest. Not all of a sudden, of course, but you'll see your car bending with time.
The engine will try to tear off the engine stands, I mean the section where four bits hold the stands on the chasis.
Then the engine power and the needed additional braking power will try to break the point where this part is attached (I don't know how you would call that, I'll attach the pic)
If you go turbo, the thing will get more complicated. You'll have to work almost everywhere and use special materials in some suspension parts. Please ask R4T about this, I'm sure he'll know much better. I opened a new topic in the forum to see who will help. I'm not putting in a turbo, but I find the subject very interesting.
The extension you saw on the posted pic, isn't only below, but on top too, forming a "tube", which goes into and below the front section. I forgot to take pics of the inside. The front section was reinforced in all corners too. I didn't think of this solution. It was a combination of different racing car mechanics's opinions who lent me a hand for the project.
The exhaust manifold is a spanish racing design by Femsa if I remember right. I've seen different designs, all very similar, but this is the only one I know of in which all lenghts in the head and the tubes where technically measured, calculated and combined.
Yes, it's very close to the hose, but somehow (don't know why) temperature isn't as high as with the stock one. The hose has suffered no damage in 5 years.

epm-nachlaufauge_414.jpg
 
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Good point - the front stay bar mounting (the bit the part in your photo attaches to) is weak - I once broke one off a chassis when I pulled over onto a verge at the side of the road and a wheel dropped into a transverse drainage ditch.

I suppose the other problems could get worse in time due to rust - the front chassis seems prone to rust where it attaches to the front of the main shell, and it's difficult to see what's going on inside that box section. Hopefully this sort of thing is only really a problem is you really use the performance by racing the car.

This is all good information - I'm not ready to fit the engine yet - I want to fit it to an older car that has more of the features I want. I'll probably buy a scrap car to restore so will be able to implement these modifications while the car is in bits.

:clementi:
 
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