So I blew a piston on my 09 JCW a couple weeks ago. We spent the afternoon doing this...


http://gallery.me.com/mrrjm/100368

 

Sorry to hear the bad news. Were you tuned? Also, was it piston 3 or 4? More of these R56 blown piston threads are popping up which is bad news for us Gen 2 owners.

 

i wanna hear this~

 

wow. mrjim, can you give us a list of your mods?

 

I think I'm going to refuse to use sport mode from now on. Not in the mood to pay for repairs like this.

 

Apparently the answer is yes.

Alta "Stage 3" tune, capable of a 13.8 on the quarter mile.

References:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...827-post9.html

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...9-post289.html

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...5-post104.html

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Lol, this is the second straight post where you have said something less than intelligent..lol

Sport button doesn't have anything to do with boost, or increased performance. It does make the throttle opening more linear, and it does make the power steering heavier.

 

Hey - I fixed that for ya...

 

Looks like all of the other failures that we have been seeing pictures of.

 

Are we really surprised when a stage 3 car blows up? You play, you pay!!

 

Man that sucks.

Interesting to see the fail point here is the same as most of the MCS pistons. The lower C/R alows higher boost, but at peak it fails in the same spot since they both share the same design flaw.

 

Thanks, I suspected it might be tuned. Any engine will blow if pushed too hard but these engines have a propensity to blow even though the limits aren't too far from what they are in stock form. This engine was being pushed VERY hard but some of these engines have blown in stock form. In general it sounds like a design defect to me more than limits operating too far outside the envelope. Very disappointing.

 

It always sucks to read all of this, especially since there have been several of these threads recently. Good luck putting it all back together.

I have a feeling I won't be keeping this car past warranty!

 

The surprise is ~ tune it ~ break it ~ then build it. Why not upgrade the pistons first.

 

This is no surprise unless you count the surprise that it lasted as long as it did.

28lbs of boost?

 

Does anyone even make upgraded pistons for the R56 yet?

 

I've seen them talked about on here - someone is making them but I don't remember who.

 

Anyone have any idea of what new pistons might cost and what the labor might be to install them would be, or at least the labor alone?

 

http://eshop.kanteres.gr/en/virtuema...=28&TreeId=112

here we go... got another web site thats sells these stuff but that link is in my desktop...

 

Pistons themselves are not that much, the labor is kinda a ***** but I can assure you this....you can build your motor a whole lot cheaper than MINI would charge you for a new motor ~$8500....you could build something for probably half that...and it would stay together and be a monster

Only reason I went with another stock motor is because the price was right.....aka free ;-)

 

Agreed, and exactly what I'm hoping to avoid. I've already spent a ton of cash on my car and I'm in the high risk group for a blown piston, basically I've modded myself into a corner.

I'm guessing it's a good investment at this point if upgraded pistons do indeed exist somewhere for the R56.

I better get used to eating ramen for a while...

 

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-and-rods.html

 

Thank cmt, good info. Mike@Tech Division, keep us posted!

 

It doesn't matter what aftermarket pistons you purchase and replace, for your OEM factory stock pistons, uncontrolled thermal stress detonation will kill your aftermarket pistons too!

The only way is to find out just what in each individual case, causes the detonation problem in the first place, I don't have a problem with my pistons and I'm using Mahle, albeit with more static compression ratio!

 

Is it different in each case or do you think it's mainly the result of the R56 carbon buildup problem combined with higher boost/temps from a tuned engine as well the quality/octane level of the gas?

I plan to add a water/meth injection system to reduce the chances of it happening.