Say hello to BOB! Renault R6L revival

[adey]

 

[Timewaster]

Hello.... Bob?

[stuboy]

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Good man! I followed the trials and tribulations of Bob from the start when he was originally exhumed. You definitely seem to have form for getting grumpy old Renaults coughing back into life - it will be great to hear the rasp of the old fella's exhaust pipe on that eventual first start. I seem to remember there was a lot of head scratching over compatible gearboxes. Could be interesting to see what you've got there. 

Good luck!

Edit: No doubt you're aware of old threads, but thought I'd link them just in case...

[adey]

have had a good read of them and backed up the pics 👍

[quicksilver]

Hello again Bob, it's been a while. Following with interest to see Bob finally make it back on the road for the first time since 1994.

[Matty]

Bob lives on. Legend.

[High Jetter]

Excellent to see this in the hands of another capable owner, hopefully to be back OTR soon!

[Datsuncog]

[adey]

So this evening I've managed to salvage 4 pistons and rods, cleaned them up and fitted a set or slightly rusty rings. I'm not going nuts, tbh as long as it runs like the old agricultural engines they are, ill be happy (remember my old r8 engine.... thing was doing 100s of miles with chunks missing out of 2 pistons ) the rings cleaned up fine with a scotch pad. One of the oil scraper rings was damaged, so if anyone has a spare I would really appreciate it.

 

One of the blocks has the liners still in, looks ok so I may give it a quick DIY deglaze, cam rotates fine in there, just looks a little crusty on the outside. 

 

I have 2 gearbox's here. The "Type 334-12" one is the early dog leg 1st, the other doesn't look like it would fit without changing the driveshafts and mounts, its a chunk wider. So I need to figure a way of checking that the original works whilst not fitted to the car?

 

 

[djoptix]

1 hour ago, adey said:

One of the blocks has the liners still in, looks ok so I may give it a quick DIY deglaze, cam rotates fine in there, just looks a little crusty on the outside. 

That's the block that I stripped down and honed the liners. The head and sump are there for that block as well. No2 piston was the most stuck, but did eventually come out. The original block was completely fucked and I think two of the liners came out of that one when it was with @Slowsilver.

The newer engine, when it ran, was probably the smoothest of all the R4s I've driven. But that was a very long time ago!

Driveshafts etc is an interesting question. There is some funny business with driveshafts from different eras, some have roll pins at the gearbox end and some don't. You might be right that you need a shorter set of driveshafts and possibly the ones from the R4 that donated that engine will be suitable. I can almost certainly get you a set, and thinking about it you'll probably need a carb too. Let me know and I can raid the spares stock, which is near Ledbury so I think actually quite close to @adeytowers.

 

1 hour ago, adey said:

One of the oil scraper rings was damaged

I knew there was something wrong with that set of rings. Sorry. I think it got kinked under something when it was in my shed. Hopefully another one can be found somewhere.

 

It's bittersweet seeing progress, I wish I could have made more progress with Bob, but overall it's definitely more sweet than bitter because I think the car is with the right person, at least for this phase of the process  

[Six-cylinder]

I helped with the original rescue collection  @Slowsilver did in 2017 and am very pleased the car is being given another chance to live.

A couple of years ago I bought myself a Renault 4GTL and this wasn't my first offence.  

[wuvvum]

3 hours ago, djoptix said:

There is some funny business with driveshafts from different eras, some have roll pins at the gearbox end and some don't. You might be right that you need a shorter set of driveshafts and possibly the ones from the R4 that donated that engine will be suitable. I can almost certainly get you a set, and thinking about it you'll probably need a carb too. Let me know and I can raid the spares stock, which is near Ledbury so I think actually quite close to @adeytowers.

I'm pretty sure I remember Slowsilver having great fun* with the roll pins in the driveshafts when he had the car. 

[adey]

8 hours ago, djoptix said:

That's the block that I stripped down and honed the liners. The head and sump are there for that block as well. No2 piston was the most stuck, but did eventually come out. The original block was completely fucked and I think two of the liners came out of that one when it was with @Slowsilver.

The newer engine, when it ran, was probably the smoothest of all the R4s I've driven. But that was a very long time ago!

Driveshafts etc is an interesting question. There is some funny business with driveshafts from different eras, some have roll pins at the gearbox end and some don't. You might be right that you need a shorter set of driveshafts and possibly the ones from the R4 that donated that engine will be suitable. I can almost certainly get you a set, and thinking about it you'll probably need a carb too. Let me know and I can raid the spares stock, which is near Ledbury so I think actually quite close to @adeytowers.

 

I knew there was something wrong with that set of rings. Sorry. I think it got kinked under something when it was in my shed. Hopefully another one can be found somewhere.

 

It's bittersweet seeing progress, I wish I could have made more progress with Bob, but overall it's definitely more sweet than bitter because I think the car is with the right person, at least for this phase of the process  

Ledbury is very close to me! like 10/15 min close for the most part! so that would be great. If a set of shafts is all that's needed to make it fit that would be great, ideally without having to swap out to new hubs brakes and uprights at the same time. That said if i can confirm the old box is actually ok (did read of some towing escapades) then that can go back in.

[Slowsilver]

2 hours ago, adey said:

Ledbury is very close to me! like 10/15 min close for the most part! so that would be great. If a set of shafts is all that's needed to make it fit that would be great, ideally without having to swap out to new hubs brakes and uprights at the same time. That said if i can confirm the old box is actually ok (did read of some towing escapades) then that can go back in.

When I failed to unseize the engine initially I decided to overhaul the brakes so that I could try towing it and dropping the clutch to see if it would free up. Needless to say I failed miserably but I did select all the gears and the clutch and all the gears appeared to engage properly. You obviously won't know for sure until it is running and can be driven properly, but initial signs were good. I do seem to remember that getting the driveshaft roll pins out required a great deal of scientifically-applied brute force and ignorance, along with much swearing and cursing.
The original block had two seized pistons so that is the one with two liners missing. 
I tried soaking them in various different potions but nothing seemed inclined to unstick them.
Great to see Bob being resurrected. I was beginning to think he was going to stay dead indefinitely. Well done so far.

[adey]

That's promising on the gearbox front to be fair, cheers 

Bank holiday weekend coming up with some nice weather so looking forward to some more tinker time. There are lots of gaskets and stuff in there but not fully sure what I need yet, I have ordered a full engine gasket set so I have every thing I need to hand. Will get a look at all the bearing faces and see if it needs a set of those too and need to pick the best crank and give that a clean up. Great thing is these old engines seemingly go on forever*

 

*(that said the original block ID tag suggests the car already had a service exchange unit and there is a receipt for a rebuild....)

[barefoot]

Bob?

[loserone]

3 minutes ago, barefoot said:

Bob?

Twat

[adey]

1 hour ago, barefoot said:

Bob?

?

1 hour ago, loserone said:

Twat

😅🤷‍♂️

[loserone]

2 minutes ago, adey said:

?

😅🤷‍♂️

Our friend without any shoes is amusingly agitated by people who name cars.

[EyesWeldedShut]

2 minutes ago, loserone said:

Our friend without any shoes is amusingly agitated by people who name cars.

Shame really. 
We drive Cilla, Lizzie, Lemmy and Black Bob.

We've also named both of our dogs  

[loserone]

On 15/02/2021 at 15:32, barefoot said:

Grump - People who give their cars names.

Get a fucking dog or something.

 

2 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

We've also named both of our dogs  

Think you are ok there

[tooSavvy]

Yes....

Dog#1.. Plop (lousy timing)

Dog#2.. Joiner (can be trusted to do *odd jobs about the house)

😶..gets coat..

🚙💨

[Brigsy]

In for updates. Fingers crossed for an easy recomission

[barefoot]

A good friend of mine owned a very similar 'bob' back in the early eighties, although for reasons unknown he used to refer to his as a Renault 6. He ran it whilst at Loughborough University, who at the time were amongst the few early adopters of what used to be called sleeping policemen. The example there was a good nine inches tall and if one had any mechanical sympathy really required a full-on stop followed by a hill start. My colleague used to fill his R6/bob with young, hormonal and particularly squealy blonde girls and drive at it, full fucking bollock. His course was only a year and his bob/r6 appeared to survive it. My other bob/r6 tale involves Graham Brown, my metalwork teacher who 7up, screeched it through a well-known bend with shocking adverse camber at 50mph. A speed I could only dream of achieving there, many years later in my 944. Which I fondly used to call, '944'.

Edit, although the r6/fucking bob was obviously far inferior dynamically to my first car, a Vauxhall Chevette, which you may be surprised to learn I called, Chevette. The bob/r6 had a vastly superior horn. Which GB/metalwork just wouldn't let drop.

Edited May 20 by barefoot
Hooter

[adey]

To be fair it was called Bob before my ownership, I've just continued with it. Not sure what I would call it though... My kids call them by names, I generally just go with what it is, "the 8" or "the 6" that said, as its triggers, I will endeavour to always use human names going forward 🤣

[tooSavvy]

I'm (*still... 🫣) running with AVAS....

Sort of *non ironic 'omage to other people's sentiment... 🤣🤣

🚙💨

[djoptix]

Yeah I agree, I'm actually not keen on Bob either, but it is his given name!

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, djoptix said:

Yeah I agree, I'm actually not keen on Bob either, but it is his given name!

Rusty shitbox, is an alternative 😀

[wuvvum]

6 hours ago, barefoot said:

A good friend of mine owned a very similar 'bob' back in the early eighties, although for reasons unknown he used to refer to his as a Renault 6. He ran it whilst at Loughborough University, who at the time were amongst the few early adopters of what used to be called sleeping policemen. The example there was a good nine inches tall and if one had any mechanical sympathy really required a full-on stop followed by a hill start. My colleague used to fill his R6/bob with young, hormonal and particularly squealy blonde girls and drive at it, full fucking bollock. His course was only a year and his bob/r6 appeared to survive it. My other bob/r6 tale involves Graham Brown, my metalwork teacher who 7up, screeched it through a well-known bend with shocking adverse camber at 50mph. A speed I could only dream of achieving there, many years later in my 944. Which I fondly used to call, '944'.

Edit, although the r6/fucking bob was obviously far inferior dynamically to my first car, a Vauxhall Chevette, which you may be surprised to learn I called, Chevette. The bob/r6 had a vastly superior horn. Which GB/metalwork just wouldn't let drop.

If it's any consolation, my Renault 6 is not named Bob.