Rally Mini base car purchased

[Rally370]

Looks like we will have a Mini Cooper by the end of this week! BMW Panama did not come through with a car so we opted to buy a Cooper in the states, semi prep it and ship it down to Costa Rica to have the cage welded in.

The car we got off the net which looks OK(2004 Red Cooper) Only issue is a slight miss on number 3 cylinder when pulling off. At normal speeds the car is fine, the dude told me the scan says miss on cylinder 3. Any clues?

thanks

[mab01uk]

Good news that you have got a Mini to start work on!

[Rally370]

The Mini is here! Body is good, interior needs a clean and it seems to be running on 3 cylinders. Looking forward ripping out the interior. If anyone wants some parts I'll be selling stuff soon. Has a nice kenwood stero.

I need to fix the engine issue and resister it...photos coming soon.

[Rally370]

Found out number 2 cylinder has a striped spark plug hole and there is a dent in the bonnet to prove it! Anyone got any quick fix solutions?

[mab01uk]

This thread should help:
http://www.mini2.com/forum/first-gen...eads-help.html

Wrth UK Ltd. - the world's number one supplier of assembly products and consumables

TIME-SERT Spark Plug Thread Repair - YouTube

[Rally370]

Thanks for the info but I found out this morning the plug thread has a Heli-coil fitted which has also stripped the threads! so I need a heli-coil for the Heli-coil! hahaha Most likely I'll JB weld it in so I can drive to work and then fit another head when I rebuild the motor in the near future.

[Rally370]

I thought I would post the progress of the rally Mini build as I slowly put this car into rally mode. The donor car is a 2004 base Mini Cooper which was an ex rental car so the interior was not great but as a rally car this is not important plus it was cheap. I got the car off Ebay with the seller saying the car ran ok apart from a rough idle. After investigation I found #2 had a stripped thread for the spark plug. Worse still was in had already had an insert fitted so I used a big sert kit to fix the problem but to my surprise the engine still ran rough. So I pulled off the cam cover and removed the rockers. Then hooked up the air line to #2 cylinder and put some pressure in. Checking the intake and tail pipe revealed the tail pipe had an healthy blast of air coming out. Then I made a tool to remove the valve springs with the head on so I could push the valves down to see any damage. One exhaust valve had a burnt seat so game over. Next I'm going to get a Cooper S head as the gas flow is 30% better than the Cooper plus the valves are stronger.

Next work will be done in 3 weeks as I'm off the Costa Rica!

[mab01uk]

Thanks for the update, thought it most likely to be an exhaust valve, keep us posted on any progress after your return from Costa Rica!

[edwardallene]

Mini Cooper is exciting. I wanted to join if there's an upcoming event again. Willing to wait again. Thanks for the post and I will update as possible.

[richard1988]

nice

[john13]

The Mini is here! Body is good, interior needs a clean and it seems to be running on 3 cylinders. Looking forward ripping out the interior. If anyone wants some parts I'll be selling stuff soon. Has a nice kenwood stero.

I need to fix the engine issue and resister it...photos coming soon.