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Re: BMW 2003 Mini Cooper S

Posted: August 11th, 2014, 11:50 am
by Will01
So before doing any extra work we decided to run the car a little to see if it was still running and whether or not the bubbling over issue had sorted itself out. After doing all the hydrocarbon tests etc it appears coolant was not escaping into the coolant.
Therefore i gave the car a good bleed and decided to run. I ran it into town and got stuck in some traffic and then noticed pockets of steam coming from the front and the fans were on, but the temp warning light was not on. Parked the car eventually in a space and got out, only to notice a waterfall from the radiator. Uh oh! Something has gone seriously wrong here, and no coolant left.
Managed to fill her up with water and get her home, funnily enough i did not lose much more coolant. Seems to be fine if the car is moving forward but can't handle not moving e.g. traffic.

Anyway new Radiator has also been purchased, so a new Mishimoto Aluminimum radiator is on its way with lifetime warranty. Also we should expect to have all parts in my hands by end of the week so i will be busy this weekend hopefully taking it all apart. I can't believe it has just cost me and absolute bomb, but hopefully it is worth it. Still haven't taken the head off so we will wait and see what we find. I really hope it is just a dodgy gasket and we have got away from any other damage.
Local machine shop are also willing to skim head so this will be done also alongside a full proper service.

Can't wait to get this done as i need this fixed so i can move on to get the engine out of the Alfa and change the clutch and diff over with new exhaust manifolds. Baby due date only few weeks away now so got alot to do.

Re: BMW 2003 Mini Cooper S

Posted: August 11th, 2014, 12:27 pm
by Guy Croft
I suspect you may have corrosion betw liners and block Will.

When you have checked everything else and the engine is still losing coolant and you cannot see why this is the cause. I had this on my Range Rover, old engine was scrap. A top-hat liner V8 engine from Turner Engineering is now installed.

When the heads were off I could not see any leakage path - but it showed up on hot pressure test of the crankcase.

G

Re: BMW 2003 Mini Cooper S

Posted: August 15th, 2014, 11:28 am
by Will01
Hi Guy, i am really hoping it is not the case but i have as much crossed as possible. I not going to know really until the car is back together again.

Yesterday alot more parts arrived in the post, so now we have everything so i can get started stripping her down and then trying to find the cause of low compression and check to see where all the leaks are coming from.
So new Aluminimum radiator, head gasket, intake gasket, exhaust gasket, thermostat, head bolts (upgraded ARP items), supercharger oil replacement kit, new auxillary shortened belt to suit, 15% reduced supercharger pulley, cooler NGK spark plugs, oil filter and oil ready to go.
Still need a few other parts e.g. the camshaft stretch bolt etc
But i can at least now start to strip the car down, the cylinder head will then go to a local machinist where the head will be skimmed.
I will take plenty of photos and make up a sort of strip down and rebuild procedure, it maybe of interest to someone.
See pictures of car before starting and parts

Re: BMW 2003 Mini Cooper S

Posted: August 16th, 2014, 6:20 pm
by Will01
Been very busy today stripping down the Mini. It is a big job, but i did eventually get the head off.
Got a few more parts to buy due to condition of parts coming off. Everything is going to get a good clean up aswell.
I will post pictures up during the week, but the compactness of the Mini makes everything very difficult to get into a rhythm. Some of the bolts are very difficult to get a good grip on so they take a little bit of thinking.
Taken plenty of pictures of wiring routing aswell as that is going to be tricky to get everything back where it should be.
Tomorrow job is to strip the cylinder head ready for machining etc

Re: BMW 2003 Mini Cooper S

Posted: August 18th, 2014, 11:18 am
by Will01
Here's some step by step pictures
Jack up car, remove wheels
Remove front bumper, take care and unplug wires as you go along
Remove front aluminium crash bar, pull wiring clear of crash bar

Re: BMW 2003 Mini Cooper S

Posted: August 18th, 2014, 11:24 am
by Will01
Once bumper and crash bar removed, now remove radiator assembly. Pretty tricky!
Remove front frame rail attachments
Pull wiring clear of plastic assembly, take note of where wires route
You can seperate a/c rad clear and you don't need to unplug
Strip down radiator assembly to remove radiator ready for repalcement

Re: BMW 2003 Mini Cooper S

Posted: August 18th, 2014, 11:32 am
by Will01
Now start taking other parts off top of engine
First start with Intercooler
Remove airbox and pipe-work etc along with ECU and housing. Unclip and lift up ECU, then unplug wires and pull out, store carefully!
Remove spark plug coil, be careful
Lots of wires and plugs to remove and pipes, take note where everything goes and where it routes
Remove injector rail, unclip from top of injectors, carefully! You have to unclip fuel line so be carefull, it may still be under pressure and fuel will come out.
Remove drivers side engine steady, support engine with axle stand and jack

Now it really starts to get tricky with hard to reach bolts and nuts etc!

Re: BMW 2003 Mini Cooper S

Posted: August 18th, 2014, 11:43 am
by Will01
Need to remove intake manifold
Lots of pipewrork and bolts and wiring to remove and keep clear!
You have to undo the throttle body housing mounts and connections and have to pop off a few hoses. You need the engine mount clear so you can get
Intake manifold once removed, plu port to prevent poor getting in there.
Now remove thermostat located to right of head below cylinder head
Remove rocker cover, take care as these bolts seem to be soft and corrode easily!

Now start to take even more time, turn engine so arrow on cam sprocket is at 12 o'clock remembering that engine is slanted backwards so it will not point straight up!
Mark arrow with sprocket and chain, mark crank anti vibration pulley.
Remove tensioner for chain.
Hold crank sprocket whilst undo the cam bolt. do not remove yet.
Remove cam sensor as we are replacing anyway

Undo the exhaust manifold, be carefull as access is limited and do not round off the bolts, they are small and ease to slip off!
Remove heat shield first and push back to get access to bolts

Re: BMW 2003 Mini Cooper S

Posted: August 18th, 2014, 11:50 am
by Will01
Now unbolt cam sprocket, tie chain up out the way, do not drop inside engine!
Once removed then pull chain guides up out the way.
Now unbolt cylinder head bolts in sequence as per manual. Start with two bolts located inside timing chain housing.
Then do main head bolts, remember go opposite starting from outside to inside bolts, little turn at a time until torque is released to prevent warping.
Pull up out the way, these bolts will be discarded! So buy new ones. We have gone for ARP upgraded stud and nuts which are re-useable.
Pull off head carefully.
Before leaving vehicle, plug all holes to prevent stuff getting in engine.
Note position of valves etc for rebuild later

Re: BMW 2003 Mini Cooper S

Posted: August 18th, 2014, 11:59 am
by Will01
Now the fun begins
Stripping down the head for skimming and pressure testing. We found the cylinder head gasket to be in good condition and no signs of anywhere where we could lose compression. Just a suspect valve.
I think possibly dodgy valve seat burnt or similar so we will see.

I stripped the head on a bench.
Take care not to put cylinder head flat on mating face as you will bend or damage a valve.
Undo camshaft and rocker cover bolts. do this little by little to prevent damage. Same method as removing cylinder head bolts
Lay parts out logically so you know exactly where they came from e.g. cardboard with rough sketch of where they came from.
Lift off rockers first as one piece with shaft
Then remove camshaft
Inspect all parts for wear or damage
Use valve remover, so you have to compress springs and pop off the collets and then release pressure to remove springs and retainers etc.
Check valve for wear in valve guides
Inspect seats, all exhaust seats look like the need a good grinding
Inspect head for cracks around spark plugs holes etc etc
I made two seperate cardboard organisers to keep valves and srpings together correctly. I will measure length of springs etc. In the past when i had access i also inspected valve springs on a dyno, but i don't have access anymore.
Next job is to send head off for work

Re: BMW 2003 Mini Cooper S

Posted: August 20th, 2014, 11:14 am
by Will01
So cylinder head is off to Stanwood Engineering today to get pressure tested & sorted etc ready for top end rebuild.
Thanks to Guy for the recommendation.
After speaking with Stanwood over the phone i am more than happy to send the cylinder head down to them to do the required work. Fingers crossed that the pressure test does not highlight any issues.
I will add pictures once i have a cylinder head back and start rebuilding it

Re: BMW 2003 Mini Cooper S

Posted: September 9th, 2014, 1:52 pm
by Will01
So we got the confirmation last week that the cylinder head pressure tested ok. However the valve guides etc showed to be worn and needed to be replaced. Amazingly, these valve guides are only available from a US source and with shipping etc and cost of the guides etc they were going to cost too much. Then after factoring in the other machining work which is required w.g. head skim and recutting the valves into new raised valve seats the cost was prohibitive. I have actually sourced a completely re-conditioned cylinder head from Minitech spares which is a cheaper option than reconditioning my own cylinder head.
Stanwood Engineering have been very helpful and very professional in their service and i will use again. Just this time due to poor parts availbility it was not a viable option.

After receiving the new cylinder head it looks very good and clean ready to fit. I am going to carry out a few checks before i do fit the head just for my own peace of mind also, but i feel this was a much better option. I could in fact chosen to upgrade to a John Cooper Works cylinder head for the same price it was going to cost to recondiition my own cylinder head, but since the modifications made to the John Cooper Works head are very minimal (only exhaust ports have revised design) i decided that it was not worth the extra expense. Its a daily use road car anyway and we just want something that works well and reliably.

It is believed that the engines used in the BMW Cooper S are Chrysler engines. I haven't been able to 100% confirm this, but it does seem to be well talked about online. I have to admit i do believe this as more and more manufacturers buy parts(e.g. engines) from other manufacturers.

I think we will just put the old head back together again to keep in one pieace and either keep as a spare and use in the future as a project head, or i may indeed sell the head to try and re-coop some of the extreme cost involved in fixing the car.

Re: BMW 2003 Mini Cooper S

Posted: September 11th, 2014, 12:13 pm
by Will01
So last night i decided to get to work to get this car fixed and back on the road for the end of the month.

Before re-fitting the head i decided to give the supercharger oil a service, so using a syringe i pulled the old oil out(of which very little remained) and refilled with correct Eaton charger oil.
140ml in front of charger and 40ml in back (water pump side).

Also i started work cleaning up the block mating surface for the cylinder head, this will be finished off tonight and hopefully i can start fitting the head back on.
Still need to clean up the threads in the block ready for fitting the ARP head studs, then we can start getting everything fitting back down.

Re: BMW 2003 Mini Cooper S

Posted: September 12th, 2014, 11:49 am
by Will01
I am having to do little by little at the moment after work in the evening. Last night i gave the black and cylinder head a final clean before starting to refit.
Once cleaned up, i then installed the ARP head studs, making sure that the threads were clean and free of oil or water(more difficult than you think!)
These were then installed hand tight with a small allen key.
Once these were locked in the headgasket was then fitted (brand new!), then the head was carefully installed making sure it did not bind on anything. It was quite difficult to line up because the exhaust manifold kept getting in the way and i had to try and feed the timing chain up through the head at the same time, but i did eventually manage it on my own(somehow).
Next job was then to line up head and make sure it was sitting flush on the dowels and gasket.
Then was on to placing in the washers and before fitting the nuts make sure to use assembly lubricant. This is quite important to make sure you get accurate torque readings for the fasteners and helps prevent any binding during assembly.

Unfortunately i ran out of time after this, so it will continue hopefully tonight and over the weekend.

Job tonight is to refit Inlet manifold and accessories etc and get exhaust manifold connected and then move on to servicing the auxillary belt drive with new belt, smaller reduced supercharger pulley. Replace tensioner damper bushes with PU versions and fit a safety stop on the damper to prvent damage if the belt breaks.
I want to make sure the car is a little more fun but still remain practical and reliable. Time wil tell.

Re: BMW 2003 Mini Cooper S

Posted: September 15th, 2014, 11:57 am
by Will01
So managed to carry a bit more work on the Mini over the weekend in between juggling nappy changes and family visits etc.

So the new cylinder head went back on the top of the engine and re-time the cams & crank.
This was relatively simple since you just have to line up the markings. Once the head was installed i also replaced the thermostat housing and thermostat as they are very difficult to get to and repalce, so i thought it was worth changing even though there wasn't an issue with it. The car has done over 100k miles so it makes sense.
I also purchased new rocker cover bolts which cost an absolute fortune from BMW as they have rubber seals which prevent oil leaks. Also the old botls that came off were in appaling condition and had rusted badly(reduced in socket size!)

Once the head and rocker cover was installed i then took the time to service the auxillary belt drive. After removal of the belt with the correct tool(which is highly recommended, as it makes it much easier etc) i checked the condition of the idler bearings etc. In the end we just replaced the belt and fitted new PU bushes to the aux belt damper.
I also fitted a tensioner stop on the damper as this prevents failure to other components if the belt breaks. This is more of damage prevention.

Obviously i also took the time to fit the new smaller SC pulley. We may aswell try to improve the driveability and fun factor also. We only went with a 15% reduction pulley as i have no real wants to upgrade the intercooler or SC at the moment. If you rev the SC faster it will produce more heat, from many others experience the standard cars can cope with 15-17% ok.
At a later date i intend changing the crank pulley for a larger item so this would be a good combo with the current pulley and then we will look at upgrading the Intercooler. These tend to need changing at higher mileages anyway so i also go with 'if you are replacing something, why not upgrade'.

A new timing chain tensioner was purchased as you should never re use the old one, this was fitted and once ready the car was cranked and turned off 3-4 times to allow the tensioner to click into place and tension the chain.
At this stage the engine was not ready to run constantly because of no coolant system, but the engine was run very briefly to get the oil pressure up and make sure no fault codes showed up, which involved a little revving.
All fault codes have now dissappeared and the engine starts much easier and sounds completely different. The throttle response on idle is also much better and caught me un-aware as it revved very quickly and made a lovely supercharger screaming noise.
It is important to note cooler NGK plugs were fitted as well due to higher temperatures being created by the SC now.
Once the car is back together and run up to temperature etc the oil and filter will also be changed. This is always good practice after carrying out major surgery, just in case some poor has got in somewhere.

Next upgrades really will just be to help keep an eye on things e.g. Oil pressure & Water temperature gauges being fitted. There is no such gauges in the car whatsoever which i am not a fan of.