Well as some of you know , I worked my way into a 2003 mini Cooper s 6spd, India blue. The car was a no crank issue when I found it. And we'll found the problem to be tosiezed up motor. So now it is time to prepare the Cooper for a engine transplant.so I figured I'd open up a separate thread for everyone to follow. This is my first mini and my first time doing the operation on one. So bare with me.any insight or tips are greatly appreciated. It may be a slow build since I'm out of town all week and only get weekends. So here we go.

Here are the first few pics of the mini up until the front end service mode where it sits now.

Now into the garage we go!

 

Well I'm continuing to tear the car down. And found Tue motor to not be locked up but the supercharger and I'm assuming when they push started it or what not it bent the drive shaft in The charger.so now The question is do I keep this motor and replace the charger or just replace it all.. Here is the pic of the charger

 

S/C pulley swap gone wrong? If it was me, I'd crank the engine with no belt and check the compression, if it's good, just replace the s/c. I mean, those engines aren't really known to fail, it's worth spending 15 minutes that might save you some money for other parts and maintenance.

 

maybe so...the owne before who i got it from had the pulley and all mods done. theres atleast 5k on mods that i know of. ill compression test mext weekend. trying to get supercharger off tonight. before i head back out of town.

the only thing is the owner who i got the car from had mini of louisville ky do an oil change, then 1k later had a oil pressure light come on, they found sludge and flushed the engine. that was 4k ago and no problem until this. the whole front of the engine is covered in oil. they found a valve cover leak and the sensor on front is leaking. so hope change those and supercharger and all be good.

 

There is a guy named Davey Knoppen in the Netherlands who sells new OEM chargers for $1100 and no core charge. I got one from him and he's legit.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...brand-new.html

 

wonder if the pulley is usable. its a 15%

 

Wow...interesting failure....
Maybe it siezed..guess the bearing failed and it jammed up...
You should be able to run it without the belt....just take of the intercooler...
You will have no WATERPUMP...so don't expect more than a couple minutes max...but you can see if it runs OK. Might be worth yanking the valve cover to look at the cam...knowing the car ran a bit with low oil psi makes me wonder.
Good looking car...good luck.

 

Very true..I will have to put a few things back on but be well worth it.. there is a local foreign salvage yard that has one with 112k supercharger with it for 1350. May be able to get it a little cheaper, but there is also a local guy with a good charger for a couple hundred.

I did ask the previous owner about the light. He said he didn't drive the car but briefly when it came on . Basically to the mini shop to have them look at it/repair. That was 4k miles ago and since no problem.

They found sludge in the oil filter housing cleaned it all, flushed the engine a few times with oil, pulled oil pan to check for sludge and everything checked out.

I currently have the valve cover off and everything is looking like is should.. I look a bit more detailed when I get back home this weekend.

So either gonna swap charger with possibly new pulley, new belt, new plugs, valve cover gasket, crank sensor o ring and clean the engine up a bit or gonna throw a new swap in. But if motor sounds good. I'll go with the charger for now and save the money for later. I'm just wondering with the drive shaft for the charger being bent if the pulley is ok to use or do I need to get another..if so I may step to the 17%

 

Also I did find this under the valve cover its hardened.any idea what or why

 

That's just the manufacturing epoxy. I remember the older design valve covers have it. I think the original color was gray. 11128658461

https://www.ecstuning.com/News/MINI_R50_R53_Valve_Cover_Kits_25285/

 

Good deal. Nothing to worry about then..
now just to determine if motor is good n 15%pulley is reusable

 

Good luck! I've got an Indi Blue 2003 I bought suspecting it had a bad rod bearing. It did. All fixed now.

Still remember something someone said as I was going through the car.
People with well maintained cars don't sell them cheap with a bad engine. These are mostly cars with -much- deferred maintenance.

Laughed it off at first, but found it to be very true. So, be prepared for lots of little things...

 

It wasnt for sale for too cheap. I started with fishing gear and traded around and ended up with a really nice dortbike and a quad and traded for it. But money wise I'm not much into it. Just worked my way up to it. I have a portfolio of maintenance records with it

 

Suggest that, depending on whose make, removing the 15% pulley may well distort it. You can't use a standard size puller because is smaller in dia. If you buy that used s/c, hopefully, it will still have a std. pulley on it. Use it to diagnose the engine health before you go any further.

 

Yea I was thinking it was distorted since the drive shaft to the charger was bent.. you can somewhat see the bend in the pic of the pulley. Looks like I'll be ordering a 17%. Depending on what his price is on the used charger I may end up getting a low mile swap 1300 with charger. Then keep the other engine around for a build or sell to make some of the money back

 

Looking for a used a charger.if that's the route needed to go

 

Well got back home for the weekend. Motor has good compression level across all cylinders. Threw a few things back on and fired it up. Sounds really healthy. So moved on a pulled the supercharger. And here are a few more detailed pics of what I found on the locked up charger.

 

does anyone recognize the pulley. it doesnt have any markings on it. gonna attempt to pull it and lay it on a level surface to see if it is in usable shape

 

Not sure, but it looks like my helix.

 

Yes that is a Helix pulley. The pulleys don't go bad so you should be able to reuse it as long as you don't damage it getting it off.

 

Yea just wondering with the charger shaft being bent iifit affected the pulley or now .

I just picked up the new supercharger for the car. So have to pull tht pulley and the helix pulley. Any easy methods with both chargers off the car

 

Well here is the new charger vs the old. Waiting on a valve cover gasket and crank sensor o ring along with fluid for the charger before 're install. I would also like to swap the pulley before installing the charger.

 

Aftermarket pulleys come off with an Allen wrench...
If some locktight (well advised) was used on the nuts, you might need some heat to soften them..
The aftermarket pulleys DO NOT NEED a pulley puller...they use a Allen wrench and licking collar arrangement.
Only the OEM (all) and the VERY EARLY (only A HUNDREND or so) reduced pullies pulies needed a puller....these pulies have zero bolt holes, and were heat set.

 

And be 100% sure to change the green SC gasket...or it WILL LEAK...and you WILL have to do it all over again...

 

If the SC is off the car...you can carefully CUT the OEM pulley off...a couple cuts with a cutoff wheel...two or three cuts...go shallow...avoid nicking the shaft...
Using heat risks taking the out (hurting) snount bearings on the SC....or the plastic sheer coupler...
Alternate method usually used on the car us a SPECFIC PULLER that is a perfect copy of the negative of the factory pulley...usually in a half moon shape...a generic one DOES NOT WORK AND WILL MAKE A MESS...the arms do not grip a wide enough area...
The stock pulley is destroyed either way, but a generic puller will distort it, break off, and leave it still on, and messed up.don't even bother trying it.