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mini cooper s N18 engine refresh burning oil over heated at some point,

5K views 48 replies 8 participants last post by  mike1967 
#1 ·
latest cooper s in and started today , history behind it the thermostat to water pump plastic pipe had cracked very common fail point north of 8 years old it seems as plastic goes brittle from heat over time and the plastic where the O-ring sits in rear of water pump pops into the water pump and then starts leaking coolant,, as its nearly the lowest point of coolant system about 30mm above the oil filter hosing and bottom of cylinder block its really not good when do fail,, as with this car the piston rings over heat loose tensile and the valve stem seals get meted hard as well and add to the oil burning after effect, I did notice the coolant header tank after a 350 mile trip to me was under the min mark so will be digging in to it and check through it all see where we might have leaks from head gasket and turbo chamber as well,, i suspect the oil filter housing seals will need replacing easy job with head off nightmare job when not so worth doing ,, within the refresh I fit new oil rings in to the camshafts end journals for vanos system ,, i also fit the master kit timing chain kit will everything full kit on all of them for piece of mind not cheap but rather give it the best chance going forward,, I've also got to have a look at suspension on this one as its very hard might be down to springs fitted wrong way around or just cheapy china ones dont know yet but time will tell get engine sorted first then get in to that, this one had a timing chain 8 months ago i put locks tools on found it was slightly out maybe not done right the first time or chain as stretched already ,, anyway I always fit all new on refresh, also this will mapped from 184bhp to 228nhp so real treat for owner when its run in, and drops the hammer in anger lol these n18 engines are just so much more torque mid range ,
below pic of the brass rods i use to find when all 4 pistons are at same height to help find the locking pin hole in flywheel, it also helps me tell if timing out from the top with out pinning the crank ie when they are both at same then cam locks should drop on,, this one is 2 teeth out crank to camshafts,
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below pic bonnet up covered over ready to go
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more tomorrow think I got half day on it tomorrow should have head off at least
 
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Discussion starter · #3 ·
motor parts direct do full kit from ultra parts source from psa, conrod bolts from main dealer and yes replace as stretch bolts
 
Discussion starter · #5 ·
yesterday forgot my phone grrr then spent most of evening catching up with people trying to keep my plates all up and rolling, also never done any pics or videos of this job,, today i'm back in there later and will take some pics and post them up later,, so this car got very hot at some point i can always tell from the pistons that are crispy carbon best explains how they go, I've checked the valve seats and all are tight and good, camshafts have no wear so head will go again as it drove 300 plus miles down ok would say lucky got away with not cracking the head ,, I also noticed in keeping with over heated the head bolts on a normal prince engine they will all need a fair bit of force to undo them these were very easy,, ie the over heated causes the stretch bolts to give and not hold head down correctly in worst cases,, I believe this one would of had seeping gasket right on a point of failure,, few extras we are doing to give it best chance , oil control solonoids and oil pump and water pumps ie both , cat and lamda sensors are bright white so oil damaged and coolant damaged , it will live again and be a good motor bores are all very good and crankcase very clean in keeping with had low miles oil changes in its life,,
 
Discussion starter · #8 ·
like i said on phone with you earlier main dealers are just silly money with anything like that, i find the after market cats i use they are a 1/4 the price of genuine ones and i see cars back after 3 years and still go through mot with them, as long as fuelling correctly ie if exhaust flexi cracks its kills the cat if keep driving like it ,, i'm banging along with yours some pics below,
some parts arrive two pics below full timing chain kit and hubs and oil pump chain and seals etc ie full kit
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stems seals and gasket victor Heinz glass ie factory and best gasket on these engines , also work really well with a slight coat of wellseal ,in 10 years not had one back for head gasket using these and wellseal,
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below head off and still got the pistons to pull and sump off tomorrow hopefully in between work and other stuff,
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below pic ecu pulled out ready for remap on these the ecu must be opened and eprom to write to them,
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below pic valves out and on first part of cleaning , checked valve guides and all good and valve seats all good as well,, really lucky as this one over heated and common to crap the valve seats out if pushed to hot,, did find stem seals are rock hard have no residence on the valves so totally nailed,, also found one valve very slightly bent so replaced that one, a part from that head is good and using a laser light and metal rule checked for distortion and all good, happy days, i also found when removed the head bolts all had lost tensile easy to undo sign of cooked at some point,,, bores are really good no lip or wear so will hone and re-ring well ,, one thing did find was the camshaft follower posts were heat damaged so having a new set will sound lovely when back together ,

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two valves and how they go below pics and what clean up like etc
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more to follow,
 
Discussion starter · #9 ·
below pic shows using valve spring compressor and putting collets in i use vasiline to stick collet to spike tool and valve top
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below head all valves out
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below half the valves in
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more tomorrow,,
 
Discussion starter · #10 ·
so today got all pistons out sump off oil pump out,, found like many where they replaced the oil solenoid on it without doing job correctly, ie you should remove the driver side drive shaft and the harness to it is held with a single torx screw and plate bung ,, i'm replacing the oil pump with a pierburg one , fitted many over the years and found them to give good pressure even on worn cranks,
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above pic piston with plastic metal coated oil rings as can see they are level with piston wall all way around heat damage adds to this effect,

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above pic all 4 pistons out ready to be cleaned and bores honed ,, bores look very good

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above pic piston cleaned and ready for new rings

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above is ring set i use for anyone doing one of these SM RS1600, as you can see by above pics the oil rings are 3 piece and by far the best on a refreshed bores

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see the black middle ring notice ^TOP^ wrote on it and the rounded edge is always at the bottom, the top ring also has same on it, little tip lightly rub some scotchbrite over the ring helps to prevent the Sharpe edges from digging in the bores ,
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all 4 pistons ready to go
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above pic in middle of hone the bores i have two hone tools one has 180mm grit stones ie course i use first to remove any lips ,, then I slowly use 240mm grit stones in and out the bores to leave 45 degrees lines this helps new rings to glide over the bores and helps bedding in without bad edges ,

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all 4 pistons in , i use loads of oil in bores and on crank , i also use engine builders grease on end caps , i fit new conrod bolts and add high strength thread lock as a further insurance will never work loose,, should say never had one do it yet
 
Discussion starter · #12 ·
I, and my car, are living the dream. 😁
Can't believe the shoddy workmanship of my local "specialists".
really poor the very limited timing chain kit they fitted and even used the non tensile bottom sprockets for oil pump on the chain ,, the kits i get have hardened teeth can see the heat treated to make harder ,, that bottom sprocket of yours after 10k was well worn ,, also they never done the oil pump chain at same time time,, even the oil seal was not changed , I could not live with myself if i treated someone's car like it then charged them a load of money for it as well, i get parts prices are not cheap to be honest they are going up all the time its getting harder all round ,
 
Discussion starter · #13 ·
today got head all built back up and fitted new oil rings in end journals , I soak these rings in oil over night , and when fitting them i very carefully use a pic tool to run them in to the grooves, always fit the inner one first ,, be aware they can stretch , and be aware that on first start up before to crank engine over and over until oil gets to the top before starting,, then once started no not rev it just leave on idle let get hot with not stress to it,, these rings will reshape with heat to camshafts when they get hot and will grip the camshaft as made of some kind of plastic ptfe stuff,, sometimes find on first starts get codes for jammed vanos common until these seal ,, or if rev engine to soon can damage them ,,, I got head back on today torqued down 30nm plus 90 plus 90 on main head bolts, I also always lock crank shaft off and set camshafts to locking points before dropping head on block,,
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above pics soaking oil control rings over night helps to make them go soft ,

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above pic shows what I do, I put the upright lifter closest to cam chain end in before dropping the inlet camshaft on the head, i also cover the parts where cam shaft posts bolt to head with well seal as have oil ways ,,

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fitted new oil rings to inlet camshaft lagged in oil then lagged in engine builders grease to prevent them drying out on first start up and destroying them,,

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inlet camshaft in place and all spring fingers pushed back on their uprights with my home made tool ,, cheaper than the £300 for special tool to do same thing,,
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above pic exhaust camshaft end journal ,, notice i have lightly rubbed where rings sit with scotch brite and you can see the surface is perfect zero ridges,, on early engine they used metal rings these rings would wear away this surface on the head ,, ie new head needed when do this,, another trick was when timing chain was so stretched the chain would lash and when did would impact the first two camshaft journals and wear them through the head,, when done this would end up when engine get hot oil pressure would be so low on idle oil light comes on,, only fix then is change head and camshafts , also above pic shows wellseal on head surface helps seals oil way to rings
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above pic head with draper pro lock tool fitted ready to drop on block


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above pic of head all ready and cleaned surfaces with brake cleaner just before fitting , i also use wellseal as a added insurance when used with the metal gasket i use in over 10 years i have never had a head gasket failure back,, i also used it once on a toyota supra twin turbo i had years ago and we forged and hybrid and ran single shot NOS through it,, we kelp doing head gaskets ,, old engine builder we use said he always uses welseal on every engine he builds and dont get them back again,, try'd it on my toy I kept that car for 15 years and sold it just before covid and its still being beaten today, the old engine builder swears by it so last ten years all my builds get it ,, if don use it only put a very light coving ,, I also torque head down and plan to not run engine for 24 hours or more ,,

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head back on car torqued down and stretch bolts done,, notice the white marks i do this to ensure i stretch each bolt 2 times and no more so cant get it wrong and maybe torque one more times or less times etc,, think my next day on this is Sunday or Monday this week ,, i'm also fitting a new oil pump and new turbo chra when it arrives so will strip turbo fit that saves a few quid, the oil pump to fit it correctly i need to remove drivers side drive shaft to get at harness correctly ,, so will change gearbox oil at same time as when pull drive shaft oil comes out will add a additive to gear oil that makes it slippery reduces wear
 
Discussion starter · #14 ·
another part day today on it , got all timing chain and oil pump chains on all timed up , fitted new oil pump and dealt with the bodge some fool try'd on oil pump solonoid ,,, the correct way to change these pumps or the control solonoid is remove driver side drive shaft and bottom engine mount to gain access to single torx bolt that holds the wiring harness plug through base plate,
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above pic of bottom sprockets i use notice the blacken teeth ie they have been hardened, there are some cheap kits around where the oil pump sprockets are not tensile ,, i use these kits with both sprockets are tensile'd ie less wear over time,
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above pic timing chain cassette ready to drop in the top of engine, notice the pivot point you must clip them in correctly
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oil pump chain and sprocket once again hardened teeth type ,
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both the vanos hubs soaking in oil over night, chain in the bottom etc and tensioner
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above pic i always clean with brake cleaner these timing chain guide posts and coat with sealant helps reduce risk of oil leaks going forward,
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timing chain mounted bolts done notice the brass rods i use in plug holes for a reference point to find the locking hole in flywheel, ie when both are same height the locking point is close,

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cleaned and painted the sump and exhaust heat shields just to tidy it up a bit, i also clean the surface on sump to cylinder block so when i use the grey sealant i use that goes hard you get no leaks
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above pic shows part of the bodge someone had done in its past when fitted a new oil pump solonoid , they broken the part that goes through the base plate and soldered a plug on to the exposed wires,, rather than just take a hour and pull drive shaft out,, really is my pet hate this one just bone idle ,, i've fitted correctly now and used a light cover of sealant on the sleeve and plug part,, one tip here is do not over tight the torx screw can break the plastic plug ,
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above new oil fitted and wiring harness done as it should be..
new turbo chra mellet brand turned up today so will be fitting that to turbo,, also got new oil filter housing and cooler and aux water pump to fit ,, heads up there is a known issue with oil filter housings on these cars , the non return valve can fail and oil pressure fails and takes out the engine,, in the US i believe there is a law suit from owners with such outcomes against bmw and due to these housings,
 
Discussion starter · #16 ·
Awesome work Mike cleaning it up nicely. That about the oil filter non return valve, mine on most start ups but not all will show the red oil can for around a second straight away and won’t do it again till the car is turned off and cooled down for around an hour.
I would suspect yours is on its way also the non return valves for vanos system ie single torx under the oil control solenoids can also have effect on oil pressure,, the oil pressure sensor in the head on pre 2010 prince engines ,, and post 2010 n16 and n18 engines it was moved to oil filter housings ,, theres also a in the filter housing valve with a spring on it that is more of a bypass system that can also fail cause pressure issues, I only ever fit cooper filters with zigzag look to them as these are designed with main dealer and vag group and bmw group with cooper fram filters and are the best in my view dont crush stay solid,
 
Discussion starter · #18 ·
you know where I am bud, I do them all same way and get same results that way, got a slot first week December , last year i was doing them all over Christmas and new year ,, think I had new years day off and xmas day and boxing day lol,
 
Discussion starter · #26 ·
I cant recommend Mike highly enough.
He has kept me informed with videos everyday of progress and any problems encountered.
Followed up by, sometimes expensive, phone calls, messages etc.
Doing a top job.

Hopefully, 🤞 pickup this Saturday.
Dacia can keep their Sandero.
thanks for nice review etc , I do my best to be right by owners and their cars ,, you sure you dont want a Sandero as well lol
 
Discussion starter · #27 ·
Awesome stuff. Was the hire car direct with Dacia or somewhere else? Been thinking about how to get back and then back down again lol
I can drop or collect to train or bus stations or to car hire outlet etc i do try and make things easy as I can
 
Discussion starter · #29 ·
Ohoooh! I haven't even got started yet.

Is today first start day? Or is that tomorrow.
This week is going so slooooooow.
I want it to be Saturday NOW.
tomorrow afternoon had to wait for a gasket today before could fit turbo back slowed things, nearly there just inlet manifold to do . and fill with coolant and then it will be running ,,
 
Discussion starter · #30 ·
so today finally fitted cat and turbo i fitted new chra on turbo cheaper than new turbo, etc,
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above pic new filter housing ,
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above pic is part numbers for N18 184bhp turbo chra melett good brand,
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above pic new aux water pump fitted old one was noisy these can crack when fail as well and take engine out of not careful
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above pic the old chra still on the turbo
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above pic is the waste gate part of exhaust side of turbo after i removed the compressor side and chra,

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new chra these come with a new rubber seal that must be fitted to compressor side,

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exhaust manifold before vht painting
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just painted still wet with vht paint
below pic of vht used,

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Discussion starter · #31 ·
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above pic of turbo built back up ready to fit .
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above pic brand new febi water pump jockey wheel this is piloted type with servo,
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oil filter houing and aux pump fitted i also add sealant on the to block seals extra insurance from future leaks etc,
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above pic turbo fitted ready for cat and tins etc,
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above pic of I put oil in top of turbo before fitting the banjo bolt and rotate the turbo with fingers reduces risk of turbo damage on first start ups ,, i also before try to start these crank engine over untill oil comes out of the union
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new after market cat

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above pic cat fitted ready for tins

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above pics of 02 sensors ,,on N18 engines ntk do not do a pre cat sensor to fit only bosch these are genuine over counter sensors ,,
tomorrow will be first start end of day tomorrow will have run for at least a hour ,, is the plan
 
Discussion starter · #32 ·
finally today its back to life I primed oil system a few times put plugs in and one press of button it started and just went straight to a perfect idle no misfires sounds really nice, before first start i run diagnostics autocom cdp plus delphi reset adaptions,,, then I reset and relearn the vvt dog stops , then i reset adaption for vanos system this tends to take around 30 minutes by time jump[ through some hoops ie ignitions on and off etc, failure to this correctly can causes problems, as this has had a new cat and both sensors and turbo rebuilt and new oil pump ,, it also has had a stage one map so 228bhp at wheels and hole bag of mid range torque,, i so love the n18 engines mapped they go really well for it,,,
i also changed the gearbox oil as running the extra power i always use wyns additive for gearboxes it does a couple useful things one is makes oil more slippery,, and it softens the rubber seals so prevents oil leaks ,,, below pic is how i refill gearbox on them i use a hold plastic bottle cut to a funnel then added pipe that fits in to gearbox filler hole and a bungy cord to the bonnet,, then i just fill from top really easy ... I also have a catch bowl under the hole when full it over flows and that is it easy,,
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so its had its first bedding in run today ,, tomorrow will stick wheels back on and run it for a hour warm it up and then give it 20 minutes at 2500 finish off bed in of rings,, then its going home then I carry on with my problem child cooper s I have in a mo with the mother of wiring issues ,,,
 
Discussion starter · #33 ·
taken this for mot today after a 5 ,mile round the block if that, emissions passed C0 0.00 and HC 1 to fail HC would need to be over 200 and C0 0.20 is last pass point , so supper clean and proves the job done and oil burning has gone away for sure,
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Discussion starter · #36 ·
Hi Mike,

Have followed a number of your builds, very impressed. I have a 2010 1.6 Cooper (not S) that has 115000 miles and has started mis-firing (again). I have replaced cam chain and guides and also valve stem seals myself at about 110000k. Have to admit I was on a budget and used cheap ebay parts.
I noticed a slight rattle for about 5-8 secs on start up about 3 weeks ago, now it has full-on misfire cyl 4. Going to check basics tomorrow, plugs and coil packs and have valve cover off to look around . I suspect it will not anything simple as I replaced plugs at 11k as 2 of the plugs were covered in hard black deposit so no gap. Can you PM me about your refresh service?

Thanks.
have messaged you
 
Discussion starter · #38 ·
Absolutely top job 😇 👍
thank you I do try and keep a balance between costs and time and parts etc, I also totally stand by the work I do and any part I source
 
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