Follow-Up:
Im living an 84 TD le'sharo and writing this from it now. I tore out all the wini...stuff and built a nice little apartment out of it. It seems the Renault and winni folks were not on speaking terms when this bumblebee of a frankenstein was created. I was shocked at the sheer weight of all the useless "decor" it was no wonder it came to me with a spun rod berring. Winnebago's interior choices seem almost to spite the idea of a micro economy RV. After i got done with it she didnt sag in the back so bad. Im having the engine rebuilt top to bottom and having the crank rebuilt with stainless steel by a shop that does mining equipment (10 foot cranks). the removal of the renault engine (in fact a peugeot engine) was easyer than any VW or volvo ive worked on. This thing sat for 3 years and every bolt, once broken loose was able to be removed with fingers!! the french must do mechanics with a glass of wine in one hand and a wrench in the other. Euro truck tips, Replace the oil cooler after any internal engine failure. The stock cooler is crap and should be replaced with a large cooler and a filter with plenty of flow. If you call your stock Renault gutless some simple configs will help ... look at your oil filter... if it dosnt say renault on it you made the first mistake in owning an exotic engine in america. The renault filters have internal flow propertys that an STP or other correct sized filters dont have. Buy a renault filter for $10 from mobilityRV and you will remove the bottleneck in your oil curcuit. Also cooler air intake will help alot. the stock configuration is downright spiteful and to use a hood scoop for an AC unit leaving your turbo to suck in dirty hot air from the street is simply typical... Every bad bit of gossip ive heard about this tried and true euro workhorse is totaly explainable. As far as the 125HP (after turbo) engine is concerned the lesharo is overloaded right off the showroom floor. After you load up all the kids and gear.... if you listen close you can hear the french laughter.... Basicly the only thing winnebago about these rigs is right on the surface and is heavy. Add that with a traditionaly neglectful american motorist and you get 80,000 miles out of a motor that under the right conditions could give you over 400,000. If you like the way the lesharo looks but would never buy a VW bus.... Get a chinook/toyota -=luck=-