A Mini adventure!

[Rig Pig]

I have just bought a BMW Mini Cooper

Excuse the photo, it's raining and I'm indoors for the night!

It was cheap as it only runs on 3 cylinders, after the usual hopefull checks of it looks like a burnt out exhaust valve on no2 - zero compression wet or dry. So this afternoon I started removing the head between rain showers.

It's a bit further on than this now, but rain an the call of beer have stopped play for the night, I'll pull the head tomorrow.

 

[Spark plug]

Rather you than me, horrible things to work on.

Good look!

 

[pondy]

brings back horrible memories, done a head gasket on one, the springs on the second set of rockers was a pain

scrap that, looks a different engine

 

[DrDeAtH]

You have my sincerest condolences...

 

[Rig Pig]

I'm pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to
Work on, compared with the wife's old smart the access is brilliant and compared to mine it's amazing
It's no 3306 but it's certainly not the worst engine to work on. I'm looking forward to some Mario karting till the salt is off the road

 

[Crater Creator]

Great fun to drive, not so much to work on.
Here's hoping it's something simple like a head gasket.
Also I hope your starter motor doesn't need replaced. Done it once - never ever again.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Great fun to drive, not so much to work on.
Here's hoping it's something simple like a head gasket.
Also I hope your starter motor doesn't need replaced. Done it once - never ever again.

Me too.

Did you have the one with 2 different size bolt heads?

 

[Crater Creator]

@The_Yellow_Ardvark Can't remember the bolt sizes but the amount of gubbins that needed removing to get at it from the top, then you needed octopus arms to try to reach the bolts that you needed a mirror on a stick to see, while lying under the car. Horrible.

 

[Rig Pig]

that will do it!

 

[Woody.v8]

Whoops, is it piston and bore OK?

 

[Wendelspanswick]

My missus has a Cooper and she drives it like a go-kart!
I'm used to driving my van which handles like a wounded buffalo so when I get in with her driving I've got my butt clenched and the grab handle firmly in hand.

They certainly are fun to drive and there are enough early ones about to be able to pick them up cheaply, maybe there is a grass track category for them like the old mini stocks.

 

[Spark plug]

Are you mr tickle in disguise?

 

[pondy]

where is the rest of it?

 

[Rig Pig]

It looks like a gas axe has washed it away! Oddly enough the seat is undamaged.
There is no sign of the missing bit and the pistons and bores are mint, still cross hatched everywhere I can see.

Just waiting on parts now and a bit of valve grinding.

 

[arther dailey]

Victory! love it when some one takes a gamble and it pays off,fingers crossed,you will probably find offending piece in the exhaust system..

 

[Crater Creator]

Excellent result - very lucky it got expelled out and didn't get stuck in the bore.
Should be a cheap fix then.
I'm thinking it was maybe just a small chip originally, and the rest is erosion. Do you know if it ran for a long time slowly getting worse?

 

[Wendelspanswick]

I had the same on my Suzuki GSX400F, coming back from Stoke on Trent to Taunton late at night there was a loud pop and the bike suddenly went onto 3 cylinders. I limped the 50 odd miles back and when I stripped the engine down I found a third of the exhaust valve was missing with no damage to the bore or piston.

 

[Rig Pig]

Excellent result - very lucky it got expelled out and didn't get stuck in the bore.
Should be a cheap fix then.
I'm thinking it was maybe just a small chip originally, and the rest is erosion. Do you know if it ran for a long time slowly getting worse?

I don't know how long the last owner ran for, when I bought it it had zero compression on no2, I would guess it was used until it gave up.

 

[Rig Pig]

Getting there, all the exhaust valves were shot with massive carbon build up behind them, it must have been used for lots of short trips.

 

[octo0072000]

i was going to say change all the exhaust valve as a couple of the other one's didn't look happy
how are the inlets looking ?