Those pics are dramatic! I took a few pics when I did mine, while I'll share below. The close-up but fuzzy ones were taken with a cheap-o $25 USB cam that only counts as a borescope on a technicality. The better ones were taken with my iPhone.

Good tip! I didn't want to make a hole when I did mine, so I used a utility knife to cut a cross through the fender and could put my socket extension through it. When done, pull socket out, no hole.

Before, borescope photo:



Before, iPhone photo:



After. (After taking this photo, I washed down the sides with brake parts cleaner, then blew out any last liquid with compressed air. My car did not explode.)

 

started working on this last night, spent about 3 hours. I cannot find that damn 10mm bolt underneath. I think I might try to blast without completely removing it. I see some seeping of oil around the intake cover so going to change that as well. I like the idea of shining the flashlight to make sure valve is closed. Wish me luck (and point me closer to that bolt if you have done this yourself!)

 

So is higher skewers open or closed? First time I've tried this and nervous as hell. Right now outer cylinder skewers are higher than inner skewers. Can't see anything with flashlight its so coked up.

 

If you remove the passenger wheel you can have a better view but you have to lie down on the ground in order to see it, trust me that 10mm bolt is there.

 

How can you determine if the valves are completely closed or not? Is it really something that you can see with just a mirror and flashlight or is there another, more accurate way to tell?

Thanks in advance!

 

I removed the spark plugs, inserted straws into the cylinders (straws were too short, so I taped two together for each cylinder) and cranked the engine with a wrench through the wheel well and watched the straws go up and down (cylinders one and four in unison, and two and three in unison). Then I blew into the intake (through the port adapter with my thumb over the hole for the wand) to make sure it was closed. Might be overkill, but it worked for me.

A professionally trained BMW tech told me that i shouldn't have worried so much about it because the shells will burn up in the cylinders.....

 

Good info, thank you!

And good to know that if I do c**k it up somehow that the shells will just burn up haha

 

The MINI is a Four Stroke/Cycle Engine. In the illustration below you'll notice that the intake valves are open on the intake cycle and will remain open ~until the piston reaches the bottom of the cylinder bore.
You don't want to blast during this portion of the engine cycle.

During the compression stroke, all the valves need to be closed in order to compress the air/fuel mixture as the piston travels up the cylinder to Top Dead Center, or TDC.
Ideally, this is where you want the piston to be when you're walnut blasting that particular cylinder.

A long screwdriver, or wooden dowel works great for this. Make sure the dowel is WAY longer that you might think you'll need because you'll take the spark plug out and insert it into the cylinder, resting on the piston. The last thing you want is a dowel that too short and goes down inside the cylinder.

After you remove ALL of the spark plugs, insert the dowel into the first cylinder.
Watch and listen as the dowel moves up and down while you crank the engine over BY HAND!!! DO NOT USE THE STARTER FOR THIS!

You'll noticed that, as it rises, you will either feel/hear air being pushed out of the spark plug tube (compression stroke) or the dowel will rise with little to no air coming out of the spark plug tube (exhaust stroke).

When the dowel is moving up during the compression stroke, and it gets near the top of travel, then you can begin blasting that intake port.

Repeat until you're finished with all four intake ports.

You can shorten the job by following the firing order, but I'm not going to get into that. Just do them one after the other working from one side of the car to the other.

 

Question has anyone used anything else other than walnut shells? and why not?
Like a spark plug cleaner Media?

 

Walnut shells are hard, but they will burn up and go out the exhaust without scoring any metal parts, if they happen to get into the combustion space.

 

I've seen one too many blocks with scored walls! AND shipped valves.

 

DneprDave...ok...
MiniToBe....thanks

 

Ok..well the blaster from Harbor Freight keep getting clogged then once I did get it right the shells were stuck or sticking to the valves...I'm thinking way to much humidity which is why the shells were sticking to the valves...
So I went old school Brake cleaner a and a pick...
Time consuming But got it done...Runs better!! No more blue smoke...So if anyone want to buy a cheap blaster let me know...$30 I will never use it again..

 

I use the heck out of my Harbor Freight pressure blaster! I haven't had any problems with walnut shells sticking to anything. I agree you must have a humidity problem.

Did you put a dryer on the air in line?

 

no I know nothing about a dryer on the air line...

 

http://www.harborfreight.com/inline-...ter-68215.html

 

Well walnut shells stuck to my valves. So I blew all that out and went old school brake cleaner and scrape and cleaner and scrape and blew it all out...



sticky walnut shells



Walnut shells stuck on valves



After cleaning



After cleaning



Before cleaning 115,000 miles

 

pics came out a little large not to computer savvy....I can tear this engine apart and rebuild but can't screw with a laptop...

 

Been reading heavily into this walnut media blasting after having my dealer tell me it's time to carbon clean. I thought to myself - oh crap, another thing to spend exuberant amounts of money on. The car was consisting running rough and at idle the engine sounded as if it was eventually going to cut out. The operating temps for the coolant are suppose to reach and sit at 222 degrees F, but when driving it would fluctuate from 183 to 225 degrees F. Good thing it never over heated, but knew this wasn't accurate. Time for the dealer to check. Here are a few of things I did in hope of correctly the issue.

Replaced the MAF sensor from a salvaged 2013 as the dealer suggested that over buying a brand new for $600. Was about to replace the spark plugs as they seem to go every 25k-35k mi. Did seafoam between oil changes just because - who knows if it does anything - put it in the gas tank and PCV Valve. But couldn't get rid of this P0115 (don't have the car with me currently so it could be P0115C as well) code.

Anyway, I said the hell with it and had the dealer do the cleaning. Yep, I spent an exuberant amount of money - My rep told me it was $910 + tax. Wanted to do it myself, but being that I don't have a second car or a weekend free where I wouldn't be driving somewhere I had the dealer perform the job. Is that price crazy? Yes of course. But, it is, what it is! Also, no one has mentioned that they reprogrammed the car or reset the timing. According to third-party mechanics and the dealer they say that the car has to be reprogrammed and timing reconfigured so that it runs at optimal level (is that bs from the dealer, who knows?). Did anyone do anything of this nature when they did their own DIY? Granted, maybe that was a special circumstance being that the compression is off and it was not maintaining time. But anyway, the reason for my post is to share the pictures before and after the Walnut Media Blasting. [Current Miles: 147k - has never been blasted before and I bought the car back in 2009 with 13 mi.]
















Get the car back soon. I will update everyone after a few hundred miles and then again after a couple thousand. The code should not creep back up and her being sluggish should be no more.

 

Honestly, that looks better than I expected for having that many miles and never been blasted before.
You should notice a major difference. Mine only had ~62k miles on it. I did mine myself and didn't reset anything afterwards. But I did change the Accessport tune and made a bunch of changes while it was apart, so that could've taken care of resetting things.


#4 cylinder before


#4 cylinder after

 

You mentioned you have a Accessport and changed the program, what did you change and why?

 

While I had the car down I installed a 3" catless downpipe and made a custom 3" catless midpipe. I was only running the stage 1 with intercooler and 93 octane tune before. I installed the stage 3 93 octane tune after.

 

I was thinking that maybe there was a connection between it and the oil use. Did the change do much?

 

A change in oil consumption? Not that I've noticed. But I was just so happy to have it back together that I haven't kept track this oil change.
I also switched to Mobile 1 0w40, put a BSH OCC on, and blocked PCV with the BSH boost tap.
Of course, after I got it back together I noticed an oil leak, so I had to replace the valve cover because it was cracked and leaking.

Now that it's running and I have no other issues I'll track oil consumption after the next oil change.

All the changes did make a noticeable increase in power and enjoyment in driving though. The car idles smooth and pulls all the way to red-line now.

Now it's time to sell the Accessport for another tune.

 

I have the same BSH CC setup with the block off and I been having second thoughts about it. I am looking into upgrading to this, but I gotta dig up some dough first



http://www.gtt.uk.com/product/mini-g...boost-circuit/


http://www.gtt.uk.com/product/mini-g...acuum-circuit/