!.6 murena questions

[Ols]

Hi , recently i decided to restore my murena 1.6 , i have few question,  car was in the barnyard for almost 11 years, now its on it feet ,but i have a problem with engine , on higher RPM there is a black smoke coming out from exhaust pipe ? Is this a serious problem ? What is  about economy of this car , how much fuel it will consumpt on 100 km ? Experiences ?

[krede]

Well.. black smoke usually indicates that its running too rich a mixture.. or..getting too much fuel...
Having spend 11 years in a barn however, it cold be anything.
My advice would be to replace all ignition components.. plugs, coil, distributer,leads etc,
Check all hoses for leaks!!
Then you should defiantly get the oil and all the filters changed!!.. oil,air fuel.
Finally have the carb cleaned and adjusted.. that should be a good start

[michaltalbot]

Black smoke = lot of petrol, mixture is too rich. And also question is if You cleaned the fuel tank from 11 years old fuel...
At first, I would try to change the spark plugs.
Or if You let the choke switched on for long time, it could do the same. My Murena needs choke only for start, after 5 seconds I must to switch off the choke otherwise it starts to produce black smoke, too.
But after 11 years... hope that You have changed the engine oil at first!!!

[michaltalbot]

He he  ...while I wrote my answer, new reply was posted... Krede, You were faster

[Ols]

I have changed the oil , oil filter , air filter , cleaned the tank ,it is probably the carburator

[michaltalbot]

Hm, check the fuel level in carburetor. There is a litle valve which could stay open...

[Lennart Sorth]

What is  about economy of this car , how much fuel it will consumpt on 100 km ? Experiences ?

When my car still had its original 1.6 engine, I regularly did 8l/100km. Particularly enthusiastic driving could increase it to 9l/100km.

/Lennart

[Ols]

well , thats ok ,  how powerfull is it while driving , everybody says that 1.6 is weak engine ,  i am not a racer but does it run beter than ordinary cars  with this power , it is still a sport car , 90 ps , and wheels directlly on engine , what is max speed ?

[krede]

I would not even describe my 2.2 "s" cam'ed twin dellorto Murena as "Fast"
Quick... maybe..... Noisy...... definitely!!  .. But most current hot hatches will outrun it, and its 140-something hp, easily.
I can't imagine a 1.6 with 50 hp less will be much of a sprinter.
After all.... Murenas are heavy cars... thats the price you pay for their unusually long lifespan

[michaltalbot]

...But most current hot hatches will outrun it, and its 140-something hp, easily...

Hmm... maybe at topspeed, but on traffic lights and corners it must be much stronger car than Murena (2,2 S) to beat it. 

[krede]

Im sorry Michel.. But I wager an ice cold brewsky, that a kadett gsi 16 valve or Honda crx v-tec will absolutely obliterate even an "s" murena.. on ANY stretch of road....  twisting ones in particular.(of cause both of the mentioned cars suffer greatly from corrosion by now.. even thought they are some 10 years younger ) 

One thing that I think really let the Murena down is that awful Citroen "tractor" gearbox.... the gearing is far to low (especially in 1'st and 5'th) and the shifting is "knuckley" and slow.
I know many people blame the linkage for this, but Lennarts peugeot engine/gearbox uses the same linkage as before, but is in an entirely different league then they crude lump the murena was born with.
Of cause keeping the linkage in good condition will make a big difference, but the bottom line is that the gearbox was lifted out of an everyday saloon car, to fit an engine that never made it into the murena  anyway!!.... It was never meant to be "raced".... though rumor has it that its quite tough.     

[Lennart Sorth]

how powerfull is it while driving , everybody says that 1.6 is weak engine

93hp is ,maybe not a lot, especially when the weight is almost a tonne anyway. But since the engine is on top of the rear wheels, it means that nothing is wasted in acceleration.

I have a close friend who owns a Corvette 1978 with a tuned 420hp engine, and when I let him drive my 1.6 engined car, he was bloody impressed. He was used to most of his power being transformed into wheel-spin and smoke, while at the same time limiting stability. Here he had what seemed like a lot better acceleration (through 1st gear at least) and this gocart-feel when you change lanes. He still talks about that drive.

The way it accelerates from 0 to ... well to 30km/h surprises most people, and since you are sitting so low and near the road, most passengers think you are driving a lot faster that you really are.:-)

First time I had my brother in-law as a passenger, he directed me to some nice roads around the place he lived, but at one point he exclaimed "oh! careful, slow down there is a corner ahead".  We weren't going fast at all, and of course I just went around the corner, while I reminded him we were only doing 60km/h - to which he remarked: "oh! - I normally do 80 there in my Audi A6".

It simply *feels* like it's going a lot faster than normal (tall) cars, which IMO is a good thing, because then you can have fun even BELOW the speed limits :-)


The 1.6 runs out of steam a lot before the 2.2, but the initial feel is very much the same.

But really, the real-world Murena was never intended to be a fast car, - its a SPORTS car, which gives you a great driving-experience (maybe bar the somewhat agricultural gear change), and add to that the shear rarity, which makes it feel as you were driving something very exotic.

well, it IS exotic.


/Lennart

[michaltalbot]

Im sorry Michel.. But I wager an ice cold brewsky, that a kadett gsi 16 valve or Honda crx v-tec will absolutely obliterate even an "s" murena.. on ANY stretch of road....     

Are You joking? Check Your handbrake if isn't up    If there will be time tomorrow, I will scan my photos from Tuning meeting in 2003 where I was with my ordinary silver 2,2. When there was acceleration match for 400m I got the lane with VW Corrado VR6, two Honda CRX and Nissan 200SX. My girlfriend made photos step by step and on first 100m Murena was 20m ahead!!! Of course, after 200m Corrado VR6 and Nissan with 1,8 Turbo beats me, but not those CRXs!
And this April I was in Most where is regular race circuit. Any common car was able to catch me (but yes, I have a Spax susp.), one guy with Octavia RS tried, but after 3 or 4 curves, he was fast too much and went to the bad track and I overtook him easilly. One friend of mine with tuned Chevy Camaro 300PS was absolutely without chance, of course. Also as one guy with tuned Peugeot 406, etc. I have something from this day on VHS.
When You hold the throttle all the corner and You have good tires, Murena is absolutely excellent and it is very hard to find a real rival. Kadet GSi, Golf GTi or CRX... I don't accept them as rivals for my Matra.

[lewisman]

When there was acceleration match for 400m I got the lane with VW Corrado VR6, two Honda CRX and Nissan 200SX. My girlfriend made photos step by step and on first 100m Murena was 20m ahead!!!

Proof (if any were needed) that chavs can't drive . While your mid engined murena was taking advantage of the weight transfer to the driving wheels and getting good traction, the chav boys in their hot hatches were making smoke.  In the hands of a decent driver they should win in a straight line.  On the twisty bits it would be much closer because Matra chassis design is usually well balanced even is a bit soft for track use.

I was at my sister-in-law's wedding when I had my Bagheera and just before the reception they discovered that they had left the telegrams (it was 20 years ago!) at home.  It was 23 miles each way on windy roads, some of them single track, but I made it there and back in 40 minutes in plenty time for the speeches.

The Baggy was standard apart from a 1.6 Solara engine fitted with the twin DCNF webbers and a stainless steel exhaust so it wasn't that fast.  What it was able to do better than every car that I have owned since (apart from maybe an Alfa 33P4 and hopefully my murena) was keep the average speed up without thinking about having to slow down for bends.  On bumpy roads all fast front wheel drive hatches will try to oversteer through bends no matter how good the suspension is.  I had a 1.9 205 GTi which would try to snap from oversteer to understeer at almost every tight bend. Fast but scary:o  Sideways is not good on the public road!!

[Ols]

well thanks, nice reviews i hope that i will bbe happy with acceleration and especially handlig , because untill now i drowe big cars like citroen XM 2.0 , it has 150 ps but it is a very lazy car , i am goin going to test my murena soon so we will see , what is consumption in the city and , how fast have you runned with your 1.6 ?