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Diagnosing coolant leakage in oil

Do you mean 10W-30? It is too thin an oil, except if you live in a cold area. Plus, it's usually synthetic or semi-synthetic, which our engines generally don't like.

Copper grease is a completely different thing from copper gasket sealant, obviously. Sealant is not necessary if your head has no pitting - I guess the shop that will refurbish it is going to skim the gasket face as well, so all will be OK.
Thread locking agent on head bolts is absolutely wrong practice. These bolts need a very light coat of lubricant such as engine oil or copper grease - here does it come in handy - both on the threads and below their heads, so that torque readings when tightening will "translate" to true bolt tensioning forces and not friction on the threads. These bolts will not work loose by themselves, if they did, it may be due to a lot of reasons not related to vibrations or such, that can be prevented by threadlocker.
 
Agreed 100% with Angel. As to oil, I'd suggest a good quality "classic" 10/40 oil, made by say, Castrol or Millers.

As the the sealant, as Angel says, if everything's been machined properly there's no need for an extra sealant, so don't use that, although a light coating of copper grease on the bolt threads & their heads helps to prevent any friction in the threads or bores causing errors in the torque readings. Once correctly tightened to the required settings, and subsequently re-tightened after the required running-in you should have no further problems.

Did you ask the machine shop to fit hardened valve seats? As you've gone to the trouble (and expense!) of having the cylinder head refurbished, it might be worth asking about fitting hardened valve seats. These remove the need to add an additive to the fuel and allow the car to run on unleaded fuel with no danger of the valves sinking in to the head, owing to the absence of lead. Just a thought......
 
Regarding the oil: I ended up getting 5L of Mobil Super 1000 15W40. Not sure about what I had in the engine before but I'll see how it runs with this stuff. If I'm not satisfied, I can always change brand when I re-tighten the head bolts!

Regarding the locking agent: Yeah, that's what I suspected. If you think copper grease will be beneficial, I'll get some to apply on the bolts when reassembling the engine. Should I get a spray can or a tube?

Regarding the valve seats: I didn't tell them anything specific, but I don't think I ever had any problem with unleaded petrol before. Considering that the head had already been resurfaced once, I think it might have been upgraded already. In any case, the guys at the shop seem very competent and I hope they had the foresight to go with upgraded components suitable for today's petrol. I'll ask them on Friday when I pick up the head.

On a side note, I decided to disassemble the water pump belt tensioner as the bearing was very sticky, and I accidentally bent one of the sides of the pulley. I think I'll be able to locate a suitable replacement but we'll see. I might have gone a tad too far on this one!
 
If you need a replacement pulley, you can get one here ( I'm assuming this is the right type):
www.demarcoparts.com

Belt tensioner pulley kit for Renault 4 all models, R5 and R6

Purchase the belt tensioner pulley kit for Renault. High-quality product available at De Marco Parts. Fast and secure shipping.
www.demarcoparts.com www.demarcoparts.com

Or you could get a new unit here (temporarily out of stock, though):
vehicules-anciens.fr

Tendeur de courroie pompe à eau complet neuf pour Renault R4 4L à moteur Cléon 956 ou 1100cc.

Ce tendeur de courroie pour votre moteur Cleon de Renault 4, R4, 4L Berline, F4 et F6 se montera en lieu et place de l'ancien, sans modification à prévoir. Le moteur Cléon est le moteur dont le ventilateur, électrique, est fixé sur le radiateur. Strictement conforme à l'origine, vous serez...
vehicules-anciens.fr vehicules-anciens.fr
 
Nice find, thanks! We managed to straighten the pulley and it should work for now. I also managed to find both the bearing and a billet pulley I could get machined locally, but that would probably be more expensive than buying that kit.
 
I guess you have the sheet metal type of pulley. Unfortunately the bearing isn't practically replaceable on this type, there are no circlips hoding it in the pulley, but rather the pulley is punched around the bearing. Try to find a secondhand earlier style pulley wih circlips, to be able to replace the bearing in the future.
I would not bother with valve seats, they are of a very good quality as fitted at the factory and they have no issues with unleaded fuel.
 
These pictures show the two types of tensioners - the bottom type is the one whose bearing can't be replaced. If yours is like this, the DeMarco kit I mentioned above won't be any good. The other type, as Angel says, is much more practical - the bearing can be replaced easily. The new unit sold by vehicules-anciens.fr is like this.

20210606_152346.jpg20210606_152326.jpg
 
I have the stamped version, but I was able to fully disassemble it. The problem is getting it back together properly, as the stamped part likes to warp horribly. I was able to somewhat get it mounted but it's quite wobbly and I don't trust it at all. Could you check for me that the diameter of the shaft is identical in both versions? The De Marco kit should work on both in that case, as the bearing is both pressed in place and held with Seeger clips on each side. I am also scouring local demolition shops for potential spares.

The head is in great shape, everything's been checked and changed and/or refurbished. I am waiting for the water pump and filters to arrive, then I can start reassembling the engine.

My main concern now is the rocker registration procedure, but I guess the shop manual will describe it well enough.
 
Unfortunately, I don't have the tensioners to hand - I took the photo I posted some years ago. If you're looking for a secondhand unit, try here:

Palace de l'ancienne

www.palace-de-lancienne.com www.palace-de-lancienne.com
They're not listing one for Cléon engines at the moment, but I'm sure they'd be able to find you one.
There's one here:
This might be useful too:

Contrôle et réglage du jeu des culbuteurs

Contrôle et réglage du jeu de culbuteurs sur une Renault 4
www.la4ldesylvie.fr www.la4ldesylvie.fr
 
Thank you for your pointers: I'm thinking that any V-shaped pulley with a 15mm inner diameter bearing will do, as the outer diameter of the pulley won't be as important given the huge range of the tensioner's regulation screw.

Regarding the regulation procedure: that website seems to describe the procedure clearly and precisely, and it brought back some faint memories of my middle school French lessons!
 
Hi all, last weekend I managed to put in some more work. I have bolted the water pump onto the block and I have given the pistons a light scrub with Diesel fuel to remove some deposits. I have also managed to get some more watery oil out of the block by pouring Diesel in the pathways and letting it sit for a while.

While checking the parts, I noticed that the new head bolts didn't come with washers, unlike the old ones. Can I reuse the old washers? They all seem okay at a glance.
 
You must use washers on these head bolts. No need to fit new ones, just make sure these came off the old head bolts and not from somewhere else. They are special high tensile steel.
Cylinder head bolts can be reused as they are not tightened past their yield point on this engine. It's nevertheless a good practice to replace them.
 
angel said:
You must use washers on these head bolts. No need to fit new ones, just make sure these came off the old head bolts and not from somewhere else. They are special high tensile steel.
Cylinder head bolts can be reused as they are not tightened past their yield point on this engine. It's nevertheless a good practice to replace them.
Click to expand...
Thank you. I have transfered the washers to the new bolts.

I've had some setbacks, sadly: my manual seems to be MIA, and the head gasket kit I got seems to be for a Billancourt engine. I already got another kit ready I need to pick up. Regarding the manual, could anyone give me the torque specs for the head bolts, and possibly for the water pump and the manifold as well?
 
5,5 kgm for the head bolts.
No torque spec for either the manifold nuts - 2 kgm is the standard torque figure for M8 nuts, if you can fit a torque wrench there. ;)
The same goes for water pump bolts, 0,8 - 1 kgm is a normal tightening torque for them.
 
I went in today to torque the head and I broke a head bolt! I am wondering how it happened, since I never felt like the wrench was about to click. There were some bolts which felt looser than the rest, like they were not tightening properly. The rest clicked fine.
 
jack23247 said:
I went in today to torque the head and I broke a head bolt! I am wondering how it happened, since I never felt like the wrench was about to click. There were some bolts which felt looser than the rest, like they were not tightening properly. The rest clicked fine.
Click to expand...
Ouch! Is the top of the bolt exposed or did it break inside the cylinder block? I presume the bolt was a new one and not an old one being re-used. it's possible some detritus was at the bottom of the bore, thus affecting the torque reading, but, either way, this is a setback.
 
André4Renaults said:
Ouch! Is the top of the bolt exposed or did it break inside the cylinder block? I presume the bolt was a new one and not an old one being re-used. it's possible some detritus was at the bottom of the bore, thus affecting the torque reading, but, either way, this is a setback.
Click to expand...
I didn't check yet, I needed a break. I blew out all bores with compressed air and a thin nozzle, as instructed. I might've missed one by accident, or the pressure might've been insufficient to remove all debris.

Anyway, this might not be a bad thing after all... despite my best effort to keep them clean, the cylinder liners showed signs of corrosion and I probably would've had to replace them anyway in the future. This might be a good excuse to have the lower half of the block serviced professionally as well.

Should I take any preventive measures to avoid corrosion to the serviced head? Maybe sprinkle some engine oil on the rockers?
 
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