I've got the engine in my 02 (95k miles) torn most of the way apart to fix a problem. While I'm this far into it I am wondering about what mods or preventative maintenance I should be considering. Its my wife's car and she really doesn't care about performance that much so I'm not looking at spending a bunch on mods but any cheap easy things I will consider.

The car has always had a bad stumble as the RPMs come down right after start-up and sometimes just at idle. A few times it has actually died and its worsened with the use of the A/C, as one would expect. Also with the old tensioner and belt the stumble would initiate terrible squealing. A new belt and tensioner fixed the squeal but the stumble remains and when it is doing this the car falls completely on its face of course, so we have to be careful about pulling out into traffic w/o plenty of RPMs. Any suggestions on what to look for there?

This engine has way more carbon build-up in it than I am used to seeing in other engines. This makes me think about deleting the EGR system and checking that the PCV system is clean and functional.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give. I figure its better to do things now while everything is accessible.

 

What was the initial problem that caused the tear down?

Is this a supercharged or justa Cooper?

 

non-supercharged.... I hydroloked the engine with Seafoam and apparently bent a rod: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...r-seafoam.html

 

I would think about what your goals are with your setup. I would think that a cam would be a good p[lace to start. Since the car is broken apart, you could just re-build it to OEM spec, add a cam, add a tune, maybe add some bolt-ons if you haven't done that already (header, cat-back, intake) and make that little guy roar! hahah

Call Steve at http://www.vacmotorsports.com/. The number is on the front page and they have some cool cam options. I just ordered mine from him and I can't wait to put that thing in!

 

I found an extra cylinder head and I planned to do some porting/polishing and possibly an aftermarket street cam. I have been looking at Kent Cams; Catcams and Newman cams based on what I have read on this site.

I haven't decided on which cam yet but Catcams seems to have the most complete information listed including information on the stock cam.

http://www.catcams.be/
http://www.kentcams.com/
http://www.newman-cams.com/