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Thanks Mike I will keep an eye out, need to give it a good run now

 

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I just replaced the timing chain over the last few days, it took a lot longer than expected about 2 full days in total. I struggled on a few bits, the sump bolt under the exhaust was a pain. The crank locking tool required a lot of sanding before it fit, removing the crank bolt was difficult but doable with just a breaker bar. Once I took the valve cover off I could see the top guide was broken, the chain was quite loose. When I took the sump off I was shocked how much plastic was in the bottom of the oil pump. All the fragments in the photo attached were inside the bottom of the oil pump! When I took the chain cassette out the guides were in very bad shape, broken and chipped, the tensioner came apart when I removed it. The whole timing system was bad basically. I eventually got it all back together and it started fine, it now runs perfectly, very smooth and best of all the rough idle has gone! I am very surprised the chain didn't skip a tooth and bend the valves, or seize from oil starvation, if I had known the condition inside I wouldn't have driven it.

Many thanks Mike for all your helpful advice and guidance. Next step is to fix an oil leak near the turbo and get a new tyre.

 

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I ordered the crankshaft bolt, turns out there was already one in the oil pump chain kit! I'm waiting for the FAI kit to arrive so I can see if the tensioner is the correct type. I went to jayar to see if they had the tensioner but they only sold the kit.
A few questions:
Do I need to remove the sump to change the oil pump chain? If yes, how can I support the engine if I have removed the sump?
Will a breaker bar and putting the car in 6th with the brake on, plus screwdriver in the calliper be enough to hold the crank to undo the the crankshaft bolt?
Is it essential to replace the bolts that hold the guides in place? I can't find replacements separately online. Can I just replace the o rings themselves with generic ones?

Cheers

 

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factory fitment is produced by febi bilsteen after market ones are around FAI do a complete kit around £230 ish but comes with earlier adjuster ie short throw one, its worth putting a genuine chain adjuster in from mini if after market chain kit used,febi branded chain kits are tad cheaper than factory parts, on a 100k engine i woud do the vanos sprockets as well but if on a 50-70k one just do chain and guides and genuine tensioner ie updated longer one, ie n18 engine tensioner will fit all the early cars as well and is better, as for special tools ho yes this is the main in arse for diy the cheap lock kit are hit and miss ie can time engine wrongly must buy the kit with the tensioner preload tool and know how to use it, cams and crank bolts MUST BE RENEWED as stretch bolts genuine they are cheap must do bottom oil seal as well on 100k engines do the oil pump chain as well,

and or below

all prince engines have same chain process to replace turbo car early have 1 or no vanos sprockets the n18 has two but locking etc is all same game as such,

Pardon our interruption...

or

Pardon our interruption...

Thanks again for all the help and information.

I've ordered the following parts:
Timing tools: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/123485606524
Timing chain kit: https://www.autodoc.co.uk/fai-autoparts/7814768
Oil pump chain kit: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/173878678472

You mentioned about the chain adjuster in the FAI kit, do you mean the tensioner? Im guessing that means I need to buy updated genuine mini chain tensioner?
The FAI kit appears to come with 2 bolts, are these for the cam shafts? if so will I need to buy the crank bolt also, and the timing cover bolts with the rubber seal?

 

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Do you have a recommendation for a kit with everything I need?
I have done a mk4 golf timing belt before so I think I can manage it myself, is there a guide anywhere? Do I need specialised locking tools, or can I use an Allen key etc?

Cheers

 

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I got the seafoam a few days ago and ran it through the engine, I struggled with the spray nozzle as it took ages to empty but I got most of it in. There was some white smoke but not tonnes, probably because it had already been walnut blasted. I poured some seafoam into the pipe on top of the valve cover as I saw it in a youtube video, this resulted in more white smoke but none of this has improved the rough running.

I still need to have a look at the AFR and I'm starting to suspect that there could be a vacuum or boost leak as I don't know what else could be wrong! I'll see if I can identify anything

 

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could be air leak somewhere best way to find it is by a cheap smoke machine tell you what its a must have bit of kit for finding these breather and boost pipe work faults or to rule it out etc, piece of pipe from machine to the inlet of pipe system use some duct tape to seal it some how all i do works a treat, also can add ultra violet dye in the stuff you add to the tank shows up every leak in dark with a light
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fog-Mach...e-Control-DJ-Disco-Party-UK/143271471566?hash=item215ba529ce:g:VM4AAOSwP3Jc8e15
you do need to know the timing chain is right as this will flag up all kinds of inlet and exhaust faults from over lap of valves bleeding of the pressures and adding to them either side of the engine as such

Thanks mike I will look into that. Funnily enough this morning there was a quite a rattle when starting from cold. I instantly thought it could be the timing chain. It stopped after about 15 seconds and didn't return when I restarted the engine. I've topped up the oil to the max line also. Could the chain be causing all the issues?

 

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Have you checked AFR at Idle and at low revs?

I tried looking at the parameters using my scan tool and took a video, I'm not sure what to look for. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ayuabqNDz1OWbAMMrbzvs-O2mhu8ov_n

 

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I've ordered that seafoam pack so will use it this week and see if it makes any difference.

The car seemed lacking in power the other day so I plugged in the code reader and it came up with a code 2786 Additional Mixture adaptation. What does this mean? After turning the car off and on again the power seems to have returned.

I carried out a compression test and it all seems fine, got 170,160,160,165 PSI.

 

[grifff]

I’ve ordered that sea foam kit, hopefully it’ll make a difference.
I did a compression test and got 170,160,160,165 PSI.
The car seemed lacking in power so I scanned for codes again and got 2786 additional mixture adaptation.
I’ve since driven it a fair way and it isn’t lacking in power anymore but the original problem remains.

 

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Thanks again, I did a brief test checking the coolant temperature as the engine warmed up, it climbed fairly steadily to 80c where it stayed.
I decided to pop into a mini specialist to see if they could help with diagnosis, they plugged in with their tool and confirmed fuel pump ok, no error codes, all lambda sensor and general running variables ok. Funnily enough their tool didn't show any misfires, so I'm wondering how reliable my tool is. The chap said he thought it was just running rough as it revs and accelerates ok.
He suggested a fuel system cleaner in the petrol which I did with a 1/4 tank left, drove it for about an hour making sure to rev it well and it has helped settle the idle down. However there still is some hesitation.
I have got a compression tester now so will test compression this weekend to ensure there are no other issues there.
So at this point it appears its nots misfiring but just running rough for some reason.

 

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Hi Mike, thanks for your reply, that's some useful information. I think I'll start out with a compression test to rule out head gasket, in terms of normal running temperatures what shall I be looking for? How would I go about testing the sensors, do I need to test on the sensor terminals with the connector off? Any way that I can check the thermostat?
Many thanks