new owner in kent

[tonyz59]

Just thought I'd say Hi,  just recently bought a 2.2 murena in silver with grey  buttoned velour interior ! going to be  a running and hopefully !! only a tinkering project. It has the usual slow electric windows, especially the passenger side. Also the 2nd speed on the wipers is not much faster than no 1.  managed to source the passenger door mirror off of ebay that was broken, so a few little jobs done already. This is not my 1st matra as I had a orange bagheera  s  37 years ago, funnily enough the age of the murena . Tony

[Anders Dinsen]

Hi Tony, congratulations on your Murena - I hope you'll have many years of fun with tinkering and driving. It would be lovely if you could share some pictures of it. Welcome here!

/Anders

[tonyz59]

Some photos maybe ! car is up on ramps and stands due to cooling issues. At first thought it was the pump but after further investigating turns out there is a new pump on the car. the problem was a faulty stat a seeping hose on the cooling pipe at the engine end and a completely worn out fan belt. Having ordered some new hoses for the engine to coolant pipes, I started to replace them, unfortunately it turns out the pipes that run down the engine are corroded and holed where the hose clamps to them. Also the front to rear are in a similar state and the heater pipes had been replaced with 15mm copper tube at some point in the past ! so my cheap fix of a new stat and 2 new hoses has escalated into ordering new pipes !

On reading previous posts on this subject removing the front wheel/ battery molding will give me better access to fit the pipes ? I guess with so much rust in the system it will pay to do this and remove the rad and give it a thorough flush through.

[tonyz59]

better photos resized hopefully !  

[tonyz59]

looks like i have not mastered the uploading o photos  

[Anders Dinsen]

Some photos maybe ! car is up on ramps and stands due to cooling issues. At first thought it was the pump but after further investigating turns out there is a new pump on the car. the problem was a faulty stat a seeping hose on the cooling pipe at the engine end and a completely worn out fan belt. Having ordered some new hoses for the engine to coolant pipes, I started to replace them, unfortunately it turns out the pipes that run down the engine are corroded and holed where the hose clamps to them. Also the front to rear are in a similar state and the heater pipes had been replaced with 15mm copper tube at some point in the past ! so my cheap fix of a new stat and 2 new hoses has escalated into ordering new pipes !

On reading previous posts on this subject removing the front wheel/ battery molding will give me better access to fit the pipes ? I guess with so much rust in the system it will pay to do this and remove the rad and give it a thorough flush through.

Hi Tony

Yes, removing the tub for the spare wheel will give you good access. Remove the battery and the ground and plus wires, drill out the rivets (don't forget the small brackets underneath on each side), remove the vacuum actuator and the two connected vacuum pipes, and disconnect the fan (underneath) and unfasten the connector housing from the tub.  You should then have the tub free and should be able to carefully pull it out.

New pipework under the car is a good investment, so don't feel too sorry for having to replace them. Cooling is so important on mid-engined cars, the Murena included. Flushing the rad sounds like a good idea as there will likely be some rust collected in the system.

On your photo of the enigne, I noticed that your reservoir only has two connections, a 16 mm at the bottom and what appears to be a 6 mm on the top. The rad vent looks like it's connected to the top, which is incorrect and can cause problems with air getting being sucked into the rad. A T-piece inserted in the bottom hose should do the job.

https://www.carbuilder.com/uk/black-nylon-stepped-t-piece-1512mm-108mm

About picture uploading. The forum software will not resize your pictures, but display them as uploaded - pixel by pixel. So you need to resize them before uploading. 800 px is a good width. We like the software for many other good reasons and have never gotten around to fix this

I've taken the liberty to resize your photos

Best,
Anders

[Oetker]

Removing give the workspot much better acces.
It's a simple job to get it out.

[tonyz59]

 nice pic mate well  after removing all the rusted cooling engine pipes and various botched hoses ! I will be fitting this lot !

[Anders Dinsen]

nice pic mate well  after removing all the rusted cooling engine pipes and various botched hoses ! I will be fitting this lot !

Looks great!!

[tonyz59]

thought i would do an update  well after fitting all the new cooling pipes and replaced every hose, the cooling system was still playing up with overheating problems. So I ended up replacing the pump which cured it in driving conditions but i was wary in traffic with the temperature rising whilst ticking over. I have an over ride switch fitted which obviously turned on the fan but still did not do much, the new pump had an identical impeller as the old one , so if you revved the engine a little faster it did help. ( I know Roy has a write up about this ) Anyway today I fitted a Davies Craig EWP 80 electric pump as a booster and wired it in with the rad switch and the over ride switch. I have fitted it in the orientation as per page 5 of  Anders thread. Hopefully I will load some pictures at sometime, unfortunately my phone is playing up at the moment so cannot at the moment.

[tonyz59]

some pics of pump and the installed position on the car.  have fitted a warning light in the console for the pump and fan so it comes on with either over ride switch or the rad switch. also fitted a digital volt meter. As the console is not standard due to the choke cable I didn't mind inflicting some mods to it ! the gator is torn anyway and needs replacing.

[tonyz59]

I recently replaced the rear cluster lamp holder reflectors as the MOT history kept showing problems with the rear lights. they were badly corroded and bodged jumper wiring had been attached  anyway old and new 

[roy4matra]

nice pic mate well  after removing all the rusted cooling engine pipes and various botched hoses ! I will be fitting this lot !

It looks like you have a wrong hose in that photo Tony.  Your car has a single down-draught carb. on a water heated manifold, but that hose at the bottom of the picture, the one shaped a bit like a question mark, is for the 'S' model without inlet manifold heating.

Roy

[tonyz59]

Hi Roy, i think I got carried away when ordering all the hoses  I've managed to make use of it for another project anyway, so not a total waste of money !

[Anders Dinsen]

some pics of pump and the installed position on the car.  have fitted a warning light in the console for the pump and fan so it comes on with either over ride switch or the rad switch. also fitted a digital volt meter. As the console is not standard due to the choke cable I didn't mind inflicting some mods to it ! the gator is torn anyway and needs replacing.

Your installation looks good. I only finished the installation of mine a few days ago, it looks similar. Mine has plastic connectors.

I still think it's strange that you can't keep the engine cool with the mechanical water pump with the correct straight-bladed impeller. You might want to check if there's something wrong somewhere. I'll be interested to hear if your EWP-as-a-booster improves the situation.