I have a 2006 Mini Cooper S with 95k on it. It has a 15% pulley, Alta CAI, Detroit Tuned BPV which I installed 2 weeks ago only to figure out the real problem was the crankshaft pulley which had seperated and now that is new. It had the header and cat in the picture on it untill yesterday. I have never felt comfortable with the header on my car being that it has no flex joint so I was going to remove it and have one welded in. Since I was replacing the crankshaft sensor O ring and coolant I went ahead and removed the header as well, only to find what you see in the picture. If you haven't figured out what I am referring to it would be the orange/red color inside the header and cat. What is that all about? The car has ran perfect except for the 3k stumble which is driving me nuts. It has not over heated and actually runs damn fine considering the paces I've put it through.

Since I installed the header and cat I have had one code pop up which was p 0420 which refers to : Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold (Bank 1) meaning the cat isn't doing it job. It turned itself off a couple days later.

BTW the other side of the cat or the exit side is not this color so the cat is doing something.

Last but not least, over the past week I have been running to Santa Fe, NM which is about 60 miles 1 way with the elevation increasing by another 2k ft to 7k give or take a couple hundred. These runs average a speed well over the stated 75 which is the traffic flow, generally at 3:00 pm with ambient temps hoovering around 100F and the A/C blowing out a nice 45f inside the car.

Who's got the answer?

 

fLUX cAPACITOR....

 

It looks like rust or excessive heat buildup. Your cat is probably clogged for one but who knows without looking at it up close..... I would go with a high flow cat but IDK what setup you want, etc

 

Funny, supposedly it is a high flow cat. Lol I bought them from a cat on NAM and I should've known better when he couldn't tell me who manufactured the header. Live and learn.

 

I can't tell if that is normal or not. If you take lots of short trips, the moisture in the exhaust will not evaportate and it can effect the life of exhaust parts. A short 3 mile drive every day may effect things like that, I just don't know for sure.

 

My subaru head/exhaust looked like that from running octane booster (to help fight detonation on hot track days) but that's the only idea I have

 

yes, it's fuel additives

 

That's it. Wow, I can't believe I forgot about that. I was at a station in Santa Fe and the highest octane they had was 90. I put in some octane booster for s**** and giggles. I'm sure I would have never noticed any difference from 90 to 91 octane which is the highest I can find in Albuquerque.

Thank you for your post. I'm off to the Doc to get a work up done for my C.R.S.. (Can't Remember S***) I was hoping it skipped a generation but apparently not. lol

Thanks again!!!

 

no prob.

 

Oh my Gosh...that is what is wrong with me too!!! LOL I have C.R.S. Thanks for the laugh. I have to share that one!

 

That's it - specifically, it's the MMT (methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl) that's used as an anti-knock additive. MMT is an orange liquid in bulk form, and leaves behind that reddish-orange deposit on spark plugs, exhaust pipes, etcetera.