This one is an 850 from 1983.

I am sure it rotated clockwise in forward motion.... Will have a look in a minute as I need to do the timing for the last time.

I am glad I stripped the head off though, as I found at least 5 cm of sludge in the crankcase - the car was overheating in traffic in the summer so this was probably the cause. We will run some coolant flush through today and then put new coolant in.

Will also chage the oil again and filter just to make sure anything that fell in when I took the head off has a chance of leaving before even more problems.

Good little car though, body is totally beaten up, but as they say in toulouse, drive a 4L and no one will come near you.

I've always loved those little cars.

These are our two little Renault 4Ls

One on the left is a '79 4GTL (The Wife's) and the on the right is the troublesome '83 4TL (The Son's) But saying that this is the first time in 2 years it has broken down and for €700 it has not done bad. The 4GTL was €650 so 4Ls are a lot more affordable than the 2CVs around.

Aw aren't they lovely

makes me think i might have been in one when i was a kid or something, when I look at one i feel all nostalgic but don't know why.

Doesn't make much sense to me... when your trying to hit the timing mark adjusting the points...
Only when retarding/advancing the ignition on purpose (for instance an engine which knocks on newer (crappy) fuel) then the direction of the engine/rotor becomes important...

@Tripirinees Seems you gave it a good full service, (when you could do with only a new rotor and cap).......

R4's are nice a shame that their chassis rust even harder than the 2cv ones. Due to design. But since this year new chassis are available.

Geo,
so knowing which direction an engine rotates isn't useful when making marks for use with a strobe?
These R4 fanatics seem to think it's useful, as did I when I owned a couple of R4s in the past...

http://www.renault4.co.uk/tech-points.htm

Ken if you look at the story why they are mention it....



They are fooling their timing because of bad fuel... just as I told before....and only then the direction of the crankshaft is importend (however the direction of the distributor you need to turn for advancing/retarding is the real importend thing ).....


A few weeks ago. I brought back a HY engine to life, several other people had tried but couldn't do it... So I started with finding the TDC of the 1. cilinder (plugs out feeling when compression comes in and putting in a wooden chopstick to define TDC) and after that I worked out the sequence of the cilinders by letting the rotor point out which cilinder needs to be fired next.. The owner of the HY was cranking the engine slowly by hand and I still don't know in what direction he was turning the engine ..... It seemed that the timing was 30 degrees of and all leads where in the wrong places as I started so it never could run...
(and no I didn't use a strobe....) I adjused it by ear and feeling.... So it won't be spot on but it runs like a dream again...

But hey everybody has it's own routine to set up an ignition..... I mostly start by looking at the distributor (if it has one) looking for cracks and if the suspension system and midle connector are in good condition.

Woohoo - I had a problem with the wife's 4GTL since November, I just left it in the barn and forgot about it thinking it was something major.
Seemed only to run with the choke out (so when the fault started we were on the Auto route and every time we slowed to a toll or traffic lights it conked out, so we had to push it across 10 lanes to the hard shoulder and start it using the battery booster - didn't know about the choke at this point but as we were at high revs on the motorway, I suppose it was similar)
Just drove it in the garage, checked the compressions and visually inspected around the head gasket. All looked good. Took the air filter off the carb and voila!!

Luckily it was purely the breather pipe from the inlet manifold......put it back on and all is perfect.

After the last one I needed some luck

Now back to the Traction

I'll be over in the morning to collect it.