Hello from the great white north...
New to NAM, but have been "stalking" the Mini market for quite some time looking for the right deal...
Picked up a 2009 R56 from a local dealer - car came in on a trade in as a mechanics special. As you can see it has the deluxe horizontal exhaust cam sprocket option.



This will be a driveway project - Bentley manual in hand...

Out of the frying pan....into the....

 

Welcome to NAM and congratulations! Be sure to check out our free tech articles on our site. They along with NAM and the Bentley Manual will be extremely useful while you work on your project. If you need anything or have any questions be sure to let me know. Cheers!

 

That head looks like a mess for an 09. At 365,000 miles my 03 was much cleaner. I'd be a little worried.

 

Agree...the discoloration has me wondering what would make the oil do that..
Overheating?? Some funky additives?? Engine flush gone bad?? Must admit, haven't seen anything like it before..
Will try a few relatively benign solvents to see the effect..

 

Yeah, kinda weird. I would say long oil change intervals. But I was doing 20k+ intervals.

Maybe possibly overhearing. Solvents should clean it up.

Nik

 

They can look like that on the R56+ with higher miles, The gen1 MINI tend to not have the darken oil residue on the head. My R52 looks like yours xsmini. My R58 JCW under the valve cover is not as dark at the one above, but when it was on at 19K , it was darker then my R52 which has 260K. I think the metal takes the oil a little more on gen 2 and then it being darker has to be the extended oil changes. Once i change the oil on the r58 it gets much darker , faster , then my R52.

I have seen Gen 2 MINI engines overheat and they get really dark, close to that but about two shades darker, if that makes sense.

Good luck on the rebuild, i am here for you.