A rescue in the US

[S-Car-Go]

Hello to all! Sending my regards from Tennessee. A friend recently found a worthy 5 over here in a junkyard and sent pictures to me. So, of course, I impulsively bought it and now find myself in the Renault enthusiast community.

When I made the purchase, there was no battery or ignition key, so I bought it with the hope that I could make it run. The engine spun freely. Upon compression testing, the engine seized, so I took the cylinder head off. The valve-train was seized but the lower end seems fine. The head has been off to a machine shop and is ready to be refitted. I have purchased a battery, ignition key, fuel pump, water pump, all new gaskets, the carburetor rebuild kit, and ignition parts. The radiator will come off this week for professional cleaning and all lines will be flushed and replaced. It needs all new tyres. I expect to replace the braking components as well. In other words, I've lost my mind.

I hope to finish the engine refresh in the next few weeks and get it back on the road. Once that is done, I would like to look into fitting euro-spec lights and bumpers.

Here are a few pictures of my 1979 "Le Car".




-John

PS- The machine shop wants to know when I can get new valve stem seals. These 810 28 engines don't have valve stem seals do they?

 

[malcolm]

Your Le Car looks like it is in really good condition and looks like it is in good hands. It's funny to see the changes they made to sell the cars over there, and amazing they could sell anything so small.

You know to be careful with the cylinder liners? They are loose and can lose their seal at the bottom if disturbed with the head off (even turning the engine).

There aren't any valve stem seals in that engine.

My '83 Renault 5 is booked in for a MOT test on Thursday so will hopefully be back on the road after 6 years.

 

[S-Car-Go]

Yes, I made the mistake of removing the head before I purchase the MR 177 shop manual. I am going to assume that I have unseated the liners and that I will need to replace the paper seals. I called my machinist and he assures me that valve seals did indeed come off of the head. I imagine this could be for any number of reasons. If they weren't added as some sort of US pollution nonsense, then I suppose a mechanic along the way could have added them. In any case, I now have a huge headache. The guy, in a very sarcastic tone, stated that he could just give the head back to me with no seals. Now I am unsure what to do.

You are correct, the changes are bizarre to say the least. They remind me of what was done to the MGB to keep it on the market here.

 

[malcolm]

Valve seals often come in the engine gasket sets you buy for these cars over here. Payen is the common manufacturer over here and I'm sure their kits have them. I've never known what to make of them but it is possible they were fitted to US cars for Californian emissions regs. I've never fitted the seals as UK cars don't have them - it doesn't seem to cause any trouble, though thinking about it you can get some oil smoke on start up if the car has not been run for several days.

 

[S-Car-Go]

Well, that is very helpful to know. I hope that he has fitted the correct valve guides, such that I have correct tolerances. I imagine I could run it without the seals then. Tennessee is not very strict at all about emissions, etc. (we have nothing like the MOT). If I were to move though, I would have to leave the car here as I have removed the non-functioning smog pump equipment.

 

[Eoynteenie]

I believe stems seals where only on the last batch of engines from the 90's and if yours is a 1979 i very much doute it has them and if you tried to install them it prob would just mash them up and do harm to the engine.

 

[M.Knight]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[AntonioConceicao]

Nice to see a Renault saved in US they becoming rare to see on US roads. Nice find! good luck with it .

 

[S-Car-Go]

So, here we are in February and I finally drove the "Le Car" out of the garage under its own power. Back in September I had no idea what all it was going to take to resurrect the little guy, but it is almost done.

Here's the rundown:

The radiator had a leak, so I had to source one that didn't leak. That was loads of fun. I tried buying a new one from Spectra Premium. I ordered it in September and by December it still wasn't ready. So, I lucked out on a used one from Minnesota. All of the coolant lines were shot, so I had to replace them as well as the water pump, which was full of crystallized coolant.

The fuel tank was a mess of solidified petrol and rust. Fortunately, there were no holes and I was able to do the POR15 tank restoration. If you haven't given that a shot, it is worth every one of the £44 it costs. The fuel level sender disintegrated. I now have no way to measure the level of fuel other than guess work. If anyone has any ideas, I am all ears

Fuel pump and lines all replaced.

The smog equipment was toast. The EGR valve return line was cracked at the junction with the intake manifold. I removed all of it and capped the holes with steel plugs. Likewise with the smog pump and associated manifolds. The smog pump manifold injectors turned to dust as soon as I attempted to remove them from the head. They have now been replaced with plugs as well. I have a de-smogged engine now. Fortunately I live in Tennessee where we don't worry about the environment.

Alternator checked out fine, what a surprise!

The carburetor was remarkably clean. The only thing I was required to do was figure out which vacuum ports to plug since I have no emissions equipment left. That wasn't too difficult. I installed a direct route to the vacuum advance can on the distributor.

The distributor required new points, rotor, cap, condenser, and wires. The old cap had no spark receptor nodes underneath. They were just gone. No biggie, it works now.

I replaced the oil seals under the engine. Nice with no drippies now.

The biggest thing I had to do was replace the pistons and cylinders. I found an NOS set in Texas. Unfortunately, they did not come with the paper gaskets. I sourced those for £13 a ring, yikes! I had the rods trued and balanced. I replaced the rod bearings with NOS Renault bearings and bolted it all back together.

Upon the first start-up, the engine sounded smooth with the exception of a terrible rattle. That turned out to be the heat shield for the resonator. The rivets that hold it and the R plate on had come loose. Once fixed, it ran as smoothly as silk (if silk were to run).

Moving on to brakes, the rears were interesting. I replaced the wheel cylinders and lines. The near side had one shoe with no lining. Upon trying to replace the shoes with new ones, I learned that some shoes are thicker than others. My new shoes didn't fit inside the drum. Evidently, some "mechanic" in the past ran into the same problem. His solution was to remove a lining from one shoe. My solution was to order another set of shoes that actually fit in the drums. Problem solved.

The front brakes got new lines, pads, and may need a caliper rebuild. They work, but I think they are dragging. I won't drive it until this is resolved.

I haven't gotten to dampers yet, but that is next.

The cosmetic stuff is to come. This is a really nice example, so it doesn't need much. I need to re-glue my rear windows onto their hinges. The front, near side wing is banged up, so that will need to be beaten out or replaced. The bonnet needs painting from where a box sat on it for decades and left a stain. After that, I think I'll go euro look and replace the lights, grill, and bumpers. Maybe I'll lower it a bit.

So far, sourcing parts from all over the world and getting to use my French has been a lot of fun. I'll post up some pics soon.

-John