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My r53 cooper s engine swapout

18K views 57 replies 7 participants last post by  Sasquatchuk 
#1 ·
Well today I thought I would start a new thread covering my engine swap out.
I have purchased a engine and I am eagerly awaiting delivery. Today a started to strip out the old engine my plan is to remove as much as possible from the top.head included as the head is recon and I plan to sell it.to recoup some needed cash to help.pay of the engine.

These engines are no cheap lol

Already I found out a need a radiator as mine had bulged exploded at the bottom. It's not leakimg but it deffo needs replacing.

As I was stripping the.engine I noticed my horesearch where dull so had a play of polishing themy.with my drill polisher lol I know I should have been getting on with stripping the engine but what they hey may.as well.put a nice clean engine in

Also ordered camshaft sensure seals and new valve cover etc. Hoping for a leak free freshly painted clean engine when I'm finished.
Well that's it for today have a couple of.days of work for.my birthday so will keep your posted with pics of. Course
Included some.below.






 
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#3 ·
Today finished removing front end. Discovered a split pipe on the air con bottom pipe.
Supercharger removed what a pig of a job that was lol. Oil has been ordered did think about putting a 15% pulley on but want to see how the engine runs first.
Anyway after 10k I'll be changing the supercharger oil.again lol.

Water pump also looks no play or strange noises.
Inlet removed and checked they bypass bake spring looks like it been replaced

My replacement engine arivied today. Looks ok oily around the crank shafts sensor but went to bmw today and ordered some seals for that and the o ring for the water pump. Will clean up this week and give it a lick of paint and start building it back up.
Also replacement radiator ordered.

Hopefully all being well engine will be fitted this weekend


Some more pics below.




 
#10 ·
Today I went out to do some more work mainly cleaning nipped to bmw to pick up.the fabled crank sensor seal.
Lick of paint on the block of the replacement engine.
Radiator arivied. Big box from my birthday lol.
Replacedo crank sensor seal carried on cleaning the supercharger still waiting for my oil to be delivered hopequally soon so I can crack on with building my engine up.
Back to work tomoz after my 4 day break so will be working on it a few hours at night. Plan is to have the engine in and running this weekend
Oh and found another problem my alternator has a crack in it.

What other mysteries does this car hide from me. Hopefully not much more

below are some pics one of my replacement engine ignore the funky rug it was reduced in ikea ideal for my garage floor lol

Thanks again for reading ando supporting me through these days of r53 ownership

:)







 
#14 ·
Red engine lol that's the days of.the mg metro blocks in the classic mini.
keeping it black after all you can't really see much under the bonnet
Not done anything today thanks to the storm Dora.
My oil arivied for the supercharger so tommorow I'll change that and start putting the engine together
All being well fingers crossed will be finished this weekend.
 
#20 ·
Well today I bring a warning about the so called kseal.
Engine is finally out job and half so more things need sorting replacing get both bolts snapped on my slave cylinder so.need to sort that.
I.noticed when I was taking of the oil cooler pipes I could see residue of the key seal stuff.

Once the engine was taken out I stripped down the oil cooler and removed the pipes the cooler and pipes where blocked solid.

I could scrape it out with a screwdriver . It's like sand.

I would not recommend anyone putting this stuff in there engines look at the damage it did to this one. I mean even after I fixed the cracked head the engine failed and I reckon this contributed to it failing.

I I've ordered a replacement housing and cooler.
Tommorow I'll set on removing the gearbox flywheel and clutch and building the other engine up.

Thanks again for your comments and reading.

Pics below for yourent enjoyment or horror which ever way you look at it.















 
#21 ·
Great work Sas! You will see me saying time and time again in here about the damage kseal does to engines, it's equivalent to giving a human a heart attack and the reason why I never recommend it as once that lethal cocktail is ingested by your engine then it's more or less game over!

All this blood and sweat will be worth it buddy [emoji6]

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk
 
#22 ·
Whilst I'm loving the thread and images, I really feel your pain mate. Hopefully this is the end of it all. Whilst you have the GB off and inspect the clutch unit, if you find its up for replacement I personally would put in the valeo single mass conversion in as its way cheaper than OEM stuff and works a treat.

I'm of the opinion this thread should be a sticky due to the fact that the origin was coolant in the oil and this is the result of a thorough investigation and the ramifications of using Kseal as well as neglect from prior ownership and the extent that one may be required to go to so that repairs may be correctly effected.
 
#23 ·
The last day of the weekend did I get my engine in and running ?

The answer is no. Yet more trouble lol.
This is turning out to be a horror story hahahhaba.

well it all started of well supercharger fitted new oring for water pump. Inlet manifold fitted.
Engine started to grow whilst the old one shrunk.
Of with the gearbox.
Now to drill those pesky studs out on the slave cylinder.
Started to drill. Then crack the mount snapped of lol. oh well this week will be spent fabricating a bracket to mount the slave cylinder on. I have down some research and found one for sale but £89 is a bit of a joke tbh. Removed the rear metal pipes that feed the oil cooller one of these where totally blocked.
Had to jet wash out whilst feeding wire through to unblock the pipe.Took about 20 mins but eventually unblocked this. Am trying to source the parts I need.
One more thing how do you guys lock the engine to torque the flywheel.

Well here they are the pics. Milpol your favourite part lol.








 
#24 ·
Not not done tonight as it cold wet and also walking dead night grrrr

Anyway removed the clutch and flywheel.
Ordered a replacement oil filter housing and cooler and also clutch slave cylinder and pipe.

So once they arrive in a couple of days can carry on building.the engine up






 
#26 · (Edited)
Ref the snapped clutch slave mounting, just get it welded back on from a competent alloy welder. That's what I did when I dropped my box 1" taking it out and snapped it off.

Get the Valeo single mass kit, mine is sensational and as I mentioned, way cheaper than the OEM DMF on its own.

To lock the flywheel, I used a length of steel and drilled two holes in it, one where I could pass a bolt through one of the GB mounting holes and the other hole to match up with a bolt hole for the pressure plate. This allowed me to lock the flywheel so I could torque up the flywheel bolts. Also, when you torque up the bolts, have the wrench turn inside the rotation (have the shaft as close as possible to the centre of the flywheel), if you have the leverage on the outer circumference you at using a fulcrum effect enabling turning the crank easily. I think Modmini shows this in one of his videos on clutches where he to keeps the wrench across the centre to reduce the fulcrum effect.

seh1, cant resurface a DMF plus you also need to check the springs so its easier to replace or use the valeo kit and go back to a conventional clutch setup where the springs are in the clutch plate.

Looking at the wear pattern on the clutch plate, the flywheel is naff so your up for a new flywheel and clutch unit. While your at it, replace the bearing and inspect the bearing sleeve for wear. Also consider replacing the 2 x plastic bushing on the clutch arm as they are simple to swap out.

When your ready to reinstall, Check the Modmini video as he shows you ho to lock the arm back to prevent the bearing slipping forward as its easy for it to slip off the fork and become mounted incorrectly and I can vouch for this. I used 2 zip ties to lock the clutch arm back when installing and once the box is bolted in, just a case of snipping the zip ties off.

Attached image of my clutch mount re-welded.


Forgot to add, my pressure plate bolts were destroyed when the prior owners bearing exploded in the box and the dealership just replaced the bearing instead of the clutch and flywheel but the workshop history showed it was replaced (really !!!) so I had to use a cutting wheel to remove the old pressure plate.
 

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#29 · (Edited)
As much as I would love to fit a new clutch it will haven to wait for a few months.
it would be easier to replace a lot parts at the moment but unfortunately I've thrown a lot of cash into it already.

I wil of course be replacing the clutch for a solid mass next time but will do the supercharger pulley at the same time.

But of course will see how the engine runs first.

Thanks all for reading..
 
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