My Murena 1.6 (S)

Yep, since july '99 this black devil is completely mine. I must say I never ever heard of Murena just until one week before I bought the car. Actually, I was very surprised "discovering" this piece of art which completely matched my idea of the perfect sportscar ! By the way: how about telling you the story of a sad and lonely Murena standing in a showroom waiting for a guy like me to buy it and taking care of it no matter what?

If you could choose between a red Hyundai Scoupe, a white VW Golf GTI and a black and shining Murena, which one would you choose? Hmmm, I can't read your mind but that question never even crossed mine for a second. I had just made a 250km trip to take a closer look at the car which in real life turned out to be a hundred times more impressive than I could possibly figure out from the little photo from the "for sale" advertisement. So I bought the car..

First things to do now, was to visit Carjoy in Herwijnen for a free check-up system of the typical Murena items in which other garages lack knowledge.

Within the next week I made an appointment for the inspection. After driving and searching eagerly to find Carjoy somewhere in Herwijnen I finally discovered a small town called Gellicum which turned out the place to be. It was rather busy at Carjoy at that moment but it didn't matter to me at all. I had never seen that much Murena's and parts together in my whole life so the idea of having a big problem finding parts in case I might need them was completely solved since then. After one hour or so ("huh that quick? I just saw a Ferrari styled back!") my Murena was ready to be scanned bij Ruud Jong, owner of Carjoy. There were some small defects which turned out to be fixed easily, for example the heatingstrips of the rearglass didn't work which was caused by a loose contact in the wiring of the enginebay. Finally the most exiting moment... checking the trailing arms for rust from within. Those were some exiting minutes but the conclusion was that they are o.k. so lucky me!

The engine also turned out to be a very good one so lucky me, only 146.000 real km after almost 20 years. The only big problem was the gearbox of which the synchromesh for the second gear was end of life. Repair wasn't really a good option because the overall performance of the gearbox wasn't that much anymore. Best option was to save money for a reconditioned one.

This was the next repair: complete gearbox and clutch were replaced by a reconditioned/new one.

 

Murena 1.6 S twin Weber 36 DCNFA

Next project was gaining extra power out of the 1600cc engine. I bought the Webers at Carjoy's together with all neccesary parts to try and place them with my best friend Ruben van Hettema. Within an afternoon the job was finished but not without problems. Four times we had to change the coolantfluid because of leakage in the system. When all was assumed to be ready a little dissaster occurred... The housing of the thermostat broke, probably caused by too much pressure from the coolantsystem. After I fixed it (replaced it with another one) no further problems occured, the engine temperature stayed pretty cool so we finally finished the job!
Now I was ready for testing the twin Webers.

 

Murena 1.6 S Powertrain

First of all I certainly would recommend installing the twin set because the increase of power is incredible. Although I have to admit that during the first weeks the fuel consumption was very high ( 1 ltr : 8km at 120km/h ) and the engine wasn't running very smooth which I also wasn't satisfied with. The only solution to both problems was to check the sprinklers inside the carbs.
The size of the sprinklers turned out to be 210 - F46 - 150 which are definately not the smallest ones available: the car was choking in it's own fuel so I exchanged them with size 170 - F36 - 130 and bought a bigger power air filter for optimal fuel-air conditioning. Also new airsprinklers were inserted and both problems are completely solved! The engine now runs very smoothly, fuelconsumption changed to 1 ltr : 12 km at 120km/h and even more HP is available with huge torgue quickly reaching 6000 rpm if necessary. Fuelconsumption of the engine with use of the original carburettor was 1 ltr : 13.6 km at 120km/h so considered all improvements I am really satisfied with this power train of mine. Also due to the double Webers the sound of the car while accellerating gives a real adrinaline kick: very agressive and much more mature than ever before.

 

Some specifications... (updated)

  Max. HP at 5600rpm Fuelconsumption at 120km/h 0 - 100km/h Topspeed in km/h
1.6 92 HP 1Litre : 13.6 km's 11.8 seconds

185

1.6S 115 HP* 1Litre : 12.0 km's 9.3 seconds still not tested

* The 115 PK is just the theoretical value 92 PK x 11.8 sec / 9.3 sec.

 

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"Plastic Fantastic"

Murena now is in good technical condition so I finally found the time to start with some body work repairs. Car really needed a face lift...

 

 

 

 

 

DAlso a brand new radiator installed by the way.

 

A very strong inner side base was establised... also fixed all cracks but no picture available...

It was even more difficult to create natural shape of this part again, since it was badly damaged.

 

 

 

Repairs of all cracks and damages completed succesfully.

Paintjob finished and also 2 brand new rubber strips applied !!!

 

Own design: 3 window engine-bay.

My latest little project has just finished it's concept stage. Very often when I'm thinking about what kind of specific details I like on for example Maserati Bora it certainly is the visibility of the mid engine. Well: V12, V8 or just a 1.6S 4-stroke engine, I decided that this concept would also look very well on Murena so I designed the 3 window engine bay cover which is shown on the picures below.

KPower Air filter very well visible. I think that the original filter would not look that nice this way. However the H-shaped rubber strips which I used can do the job, I am still looking for a kind of (black) strip which is even more flexible to be able to create the perfect curve in the round shaped corners of each window. Also a little bit bigger strip would be desirable so the top filt then can be covered also by the strip, which now just isn't possible.

PPpPPlexi-glass (4mm) applied between 3pcs of H-shaped strips. The 3 glasses remain very clean.

My opinion is that 3 windows instead of 1 big one do look much better, especially when keeping in mind the 3 seats in front of them, but most of all this concept is easier to accomplish because I could keep the original structure and therefore the strength of the metal panel intact.

Great, finally owning a garage to hide from the Dutch weather, eventhough Murena is weather resistant.

My opinion of this concept is that it fits the natural sportive looks of the car very well without damaging the original concept of the Murena. I had many positive reactions already, including from the guys at Carjoy's. When I showed my concept to them we were thinking about how a nice Neon light mounted into the engine bay would look like. Perhaps an interesting thought for driving your car during the Christmas time ? ;-)

= To be Continued =