RossD's Renault 8

RossD wrote: I dribbled some Marvel Mystery Oil in when the plugs where out. Then for seemingly no reason at all, I dumped the remainder into the valve cover. Not sure why.

Dude, quit copying my moves

I'm liking where this is heading!

That sounds like some exciting weather the other day! Glad there wasn't much damage. Similar thing happened to me last fall; I was doing something under a car with the door open, and all of a sudden i was being pelted with dime size hail under the car! Good times...

I pulled the carb top off and hosed it all off. I will have to wait until later for photos but the Pine Sol and Dawn soak looks to have worked quite well. I just hope I didnt lose parts when I popped the top. I did hose it down with WD-40 and left it out in the sun for a couple hours.

I received a book: "Solex Carburetor: Tune, Adjust, Repair, Rebuild" and am paging through it. The rest of the tune up parts came today too, so maybe I try and install some of that tonight.

What an interesting looking car:)

RossD wrote: In reply to Rufledt: You're in Southern Wisconsin right? If you're near Appleton/Green Bay and you want to check it out, PM me. I live in Freedom.

Oh man that is so tempting. I'll have to take you up on that at some point. I rarely get up to Appleton but I do go there for stuff at Lawrence U now and then.

The photos speak for themselves. Other than picking at the gasket between the top cover and the carb body with my nail, I did nothing but soak and hit it with the hose with a nozzle.

Wow, that worked really well. I wonder if Pine-Sol would eat the rubber guts out of my parts washer?

Well, I tried to install the ignition conversion but I bought the Bosch dizzy version and I have the SEV dizzy. Although some Bosch components are in the engine compartment, I didnt do my due dilagence. Lame. Trying to figure out what to do about it.

RossD wrote: Well, I tried to install the ignition conversion but I bought the Bosch dizzy version and I have the SEV dizzy. Although some Bosch components are in the engine compartment, I didnt do my due dilagence. Lame. Trying to figure out what to do about it.

Surrender?

Now that brings back some memories lol long time since I worked on any Renault let alone an R8. Engine is easy, compression test, set valve clearances good plugs and carbs and your good to go. Lack of coolant change the only thing that ever really stopped them, resulting in head gasket failure. Gordini ran twin shocks each side at the rear to tame the swing axle. French cars of this era ran front springs with a lot of free length so be very carefully if you do front struts. Finally the motor you want is the Renault 16 ts fits easily, good for over 100 mph :) D seriously quick little car.

My wife said it three times now: put a turbo on it!

So cool. Love it!

RossD wrote: My wife said it three times now: put a turbo on it!

You obviously married the right woman.

Pete Gossett wrote:

RossD wrote: My wife said it three times now: put a turbo on it!

You obviously married the right woman.

So when is the new turbo being delivered? You don't want your wife to be disappointed, do you?

RossD wrote: My wife said it three times now: put a turbo on it!

Uhhh, yeah dude. Do it.

Turbochargers should be moving across the nation... soonish.

I'm looking at getting Megasquirt 2, 14point7 Spartan 2, and possibly parts from a Renault Alliance/Encore 1.4liter to help with fuel injection parts and maybe a vacuum advance distributor.

Side note: Pine Sol left a rash on the part of my hands that weren't covered by my rubber lined gloves. I thought it was poison ivy for a while. Be careful if you have the "Sensitive Skin" note next to the "Needs Corrective Lenses" one on your Man Card.

Not much has been done lately. I'm brewing up some salt/dawn/water for some weed control.

Hi,

I arrived there through Mazdeuce's R63 AMG thread a few weeks ago, and spent some time lurking and admiring the various builds I can see around there. Seeing your new project, I decided to make the leap of registering.

I live in France (and am French, which can explain my less-than-perfect English - sorry for that), and I wanted to offer you some "local" assistance if you need/want it. I'm way out of my league in terms of hands-on mechanical know-how, but I can reach to Renault "history" department (or any french expert you may have identified) to get some info about your car, or can help round-up/translate tech documentation. It seems it's still possible to find quite some parts for those (including new third-party reman), and I can help for those also if needed, but the shipping rates will probably be murderous.

Speaking about Turbo, not too worried about heat in this small NA rear-engined car ?

Any way, I'll keep looking around there, and good luck :)

In reply to madpenguin:

Welcome! Mazduece and his threads are usually pretty entertaining, so I hope I don't disappoint! Thanks for the offer to help, I might have to take you up on it. At the moment I am focusing on the engine because I want to hear it come to life. As for the heat. Not sure yet!

And I just order Megasquirt 2 and a 14point7 Spartan 2 O2 sensor.

This is near me...

Renault fuego turbo- $400 (Marysville)

Owner sez: "I'm out of town. Insides pretty ruff, had a broken window for some time. Finally found the ecu, it had water in it."

That might be too far away from Wisconsin for me to drag home.

coexist wrote: This is near me... Renault fuego turbo- $400 (Marysville) Owner sez: "I'm out of town. Insides pretty ruff, had a broken window for some time. Finally found the ecu, it had water in it."

Just a quick warning : here in France, those are renowned for huge amount of rust quite quickly. Seeing some of the builds I saw around here, I have no doubt that it won't scare you, but better jumping in with both eyes open :)

(on another side, the Fuego is also kind of a meme around here as the "Hillbilly's Porsche", due to the similarity of design with the 924 and 944 back in the 80's, the wide-body tuning kits very often applied, and the modest power output - most were sold with between 64 and 92 hp, the more powerful 110 to 132 hp models came quite late and were deemed expensive)

That would mostly be a donor parts car if it was local. But I'm still trying to figure out what would be worth swapping, if any parts. I'll forget about it for now unless one pops up close by for similar money.

RossD wrote: That would mostly be a donor parts car if it was local. But I'm still trying to figure out what would be worth swapping, if any parts. I'll forget about it for now unless one pops up close by for similar money.

Not sure it would be very interesting. Not a lot of common things between the two cars. Sure, the engine basis is the same ("Sierra" engine, more commonly known as "Cléon"), but the R8 one is a "Cléon-Fonte" ("cast-iron" - from your engine shot, the NA 1108 cc, 70mm bore, 72mm stroke), when the Fuego can come in the US with a "Cléon-Alu" ("Aluminum"), NA or Turbo (1565cc Turbo or 1596cc NA, 84mm stroke, 77mm bore Turbo or 77.8mm bore NA), or a "Douvrin" (another 4l engine, 2165cc). Yep, you guys avoided the little 1397cc 64hp "Cléon-Fonte" engines in the Fuego you were getting accross the pond ;)

My guess is even if the engine basis is the same, lot of stuff got changed in the 20 years between the models. More to the point : the R8's engine was in a rear-longitudinal mount with a 4-speed stick and RWD, the Fuego's engine was in a front-longitudinal mount with a 5-speed stick and FWD... Swapping those would mean at least quite some headaches with mounting points and ancillary, if the 5-speed gearbox can be fitted (or if it's possible to use the 4-speed from the R8, but I'm not sure it will be able to deal with the added power and torque). But hey, if you're game, go ahead :) just be careful, the R8 Gordini and its 88hp was already known as a handful...

At the moment the engine and transmission are staying put. Other components on the other hand... I've been waiting for the right project to come along for about 10 years now.

Parts are coming in.

Also, my newest addition to the garage:

This is when it was still in the house but I'm going to install in the garage. I might have the fanciest garage fire place north of Chicago.

Cool parts are arriving! Good luck, I'm interested to see how that part of the plan unfurls.