Currently sitting wit the head off of my Mini and waiting to get the new TPR-1 head and NS1 cam on. I was looking at the new head, cam and adjustable cam gear last night, and realized that when the adjustable cam gear is put on the new cam, the triangle mark on the adjustable cam gear that I purchased with the head does not line up with the mark that I made on the timing chain based on the stock cam gear.

My question here is whether I can put the new head together and spin the adjustable cam gear and cam so that the mark on the chain lines up with the mark on the gear. Am I able to do that safely as long as the chain is not on the new adjustable cam gear?

If that is not able to happen, I'm not so sure how I will be able to have the new adjustable cam gear and the mark on the chain to line up. Any help would be appreciated. I did call Mike from Thumper and left a message but have yet to hear back. I'm looking to finish this project up tonight after work, so I'm hoping some of you are around to provide some answers. Thanks a lot.

 

I would take the two sprockets and position them as they would be installed. Then transfer the mark from the stock cam sprocket to the new one. Please see advanced MS paint diagram below...

 

Disregard the above post. After re-reading your OP it seems as though I answered a question you didn't ask :P To answer your question, yes, you will have to clock the cam sprocket and cam so that the mark lines up with the chain. That will ensure the cam is in time with the crank and no damage will be caused. Just double check that the timing mark on the adjustable cam is in the same spot that it is on the stock sprocket.

 

Thanks for the help. I ended up getting a hold of Mike later in the afternoon and got the answer from him. Turned out I could move the cam just as I had suspected. I has just wanted to make sure.

As of now, the Mini is back together and it runs. But there is a sound that I'm not so sure is normal coming from the motor. My buddy thinks it may be the new valve springs breaking in. Any idea on what it could be?

 

It could be a number of things. First off, bigger cams will tick to a certain extent so it may just be the lifters dealing with the new cam. Lifters ticking will be spread across the head and generally not in one localised area. That's normal and to be expected. If its a loud chatter, in one spot that increases intensity with revs, that could be a stuck lifter and it may or may not go away on its own. Try a heavier oil and it should go away. If you completely removed the chain tensioner it may not have bled properly and the noise could be the chain. That's not a big issue, mostly just an annoyance. If possible post a vid, that will help diagnose the noise.

 

As of right now I believe I have narrowed it down to either a stuck lifter or the timing chain tensioner. I have heard that the tensioner can go bad if taken out and re-used. I sent a video to Mike at Thumper and he thinks it is the timing chain tensioner. I'm going to get one from the dealership tomorrow and install it on Friday. I'm away at school all week so that is the only time I'll get the chance to put the new one in. I will not be driving the car during that time. If the new tensioner doesn't work, I'm going to assume it is the lifter and explore options there. Mike mentioned lash caps as an option for fixing the problem, so that may be the route I take if necessary. I do have a video of the motor running, so I'll try to get that up on here. Thanks for the help.

 

Replace the tensioner. Even if it's not bad, it's cheap insurance. The tensioner will make a loud diesel like clattering sound mostly on the passenger side of the engine. Use an automotive stethoscope or long screwdriver held up to your ear and you'll know for sure.

Not fixing the tensioner and running the car at high RPM could cause the chain to skip teeth and also damage the chain guides or the oil pump cover. Don't ask me how I know...

 

Definitely replacing it. I picked the part up Monday on my way to school and will replace it Friday after work when I'm back home. I did not drive the car to school and will not run it anymore until the plug is fixed. I did take it for a very short (5 minute at most) drive post head install to see how it ran and see if the sound was something that went away or not, but I did not take the rpm very high during that drive.

The car does sound like a bit of a diesel, and myself and two others all agreed that the sound seemed to be coming from the passenger side of the motor. I looked up a few videos of bad tensioner plugs and those cars sound the same as mine does now. Here's to hoping this is the problem and it will be this easy of a fix!

 

03EmCeeS......The new tensioner must have fixed the noise and you must be enjoying the new power since you haven't posted in a few weeks. Love to hear your impressions of the Thumper TPR1 Head, Ported Intake and Adjustable Cam gear.

 

Sorry about not posting an update! Well, it turns out somewhere along the way I blew it with the timing and that was off. So, after a nice bill from the shop, the Mini is back on the road. It still would have been more expensive for me to pay for the head install than it was to have this problem fixed, so I guess I got the better of a bad situation there.

As for the impressions, I don't have any yet. My stock exhaust manifold cracked about two months ago, so I have a terrible leak and rattle at the moment. Messing with the manifold during the head install made it worse. Hopefully that will be fixed this weekend. I'm also suspecting that I have a bad belt tensioner. I get a squeal when its cold out that usually goes away after a little driving. I may replace that soon, or I may let the weather warm up. We'll see what I choose.

At the moment, what's holding me back the most is that I'm still on the stock tune and injectors. I haven't been over 4 grand since I got the car back Friday night. With everything that's not right with the car I didn't want to push anything. Hopefully the exhaust will be finished this weekend, and it looks like the weather is going to be a bit nicer. At that point, I'll give it a little gas and see what's there. I'm still trying to figure out what tuning solution to go with, though I'm leaning towards one over the others.

 

Thanks 03EmCeeS, Sorry about your troubles. I have a stock exhaust manifold if you need it. I ordered my TPR2 and ported intake today and also plan on installing it myself when it arrives in a few weeks. I've read where the timing chain will not slip on the drive sprocket as long as the crank isn't rotated. Looking at pictures, I don't see what would keep the chain from falling off the lower sproket if tension was removed. Anyway, I plan on tie wrapping the chain to the timming gear and keeping the chain pulled tight when I slip it off the old head and onto the new. I currently have the GIAC flash tune for 380 injectors and 17% pulley. Hopefully that will get me by until I can get a dyno tune. Best of luck to you...

 

I have an OBXr header sitting in the garage, I've just been waiting to install it until I figured out what I was doing about running a cat/test pipe. I decided on a high flow cat, which will hopefully go in this weekend and solve those issues.

During the install, we did not let the chain drop at all. Tension was on it at all times. The only place I can figure that we might have slipped up was when we were trying to get the cam bolt loosened. I did not have the tool from BMW and was therefore left to having someone hold the brake and cranking it. Well, being the idiots that we are, the first time we tried it the car was off the ground. Needless to say the brake did not do much. I didn't turn much at all, but the very little bit I did could have thrown it off. That's my guess. Looking back, I tried to save $200 by not buying the tool and potentially had that cause me to spend almost $600. So, I'd get the tool, or borrow one, or even make one if you have the capability to do so.

If you're interested in hearing anything else about the install, let me know. Although it sounds like I screwed it up, everything went together without issue and it ran (just not well) so I guess it wasn't too much of a hack job!

 

I also didn't want to spend $200 on the special tool so when I installed my NS1 CAM, I used a big screwdriver through a cam gear hole with vicegrips to keep it from moving. Seemed to work OK so I'll take a chance again. I also have an OBX header with the OEM CAT and Stratmosphere exhaust. I heard that the high flow CATs make the exhaust louder. My car is about as loud as I ever want (but I'm an older guy . I'll let you know how it goes and may check back if I run into problems.

 

Sounds good! I have the Stratmosphere exhaust as well, so hopefully this will be a good combination. I was a little worried about the aftermarket cat because I had heard that they burn out easily. But something didn't seem right to me about having the header and the cat back flow better and not improving the flow of the cat. So we'll see what happens.

 

I understand that, I've often thought about installing a high flow CAT and may yet if the OEM CAT weld joint I made ever fails. My car '06 just has such loud Blurps/Pops when I let off the gas and I don't really want them any louder.

 

Makes perfect sense. I wasn't trying to trash your setup at all. :9 please don't take it as that. I thought about the stock cat myself to save money. I'm not too concerned with sound since I grew up around muscle cars, so that wasn't a huge concern for me. So I figured if I'm doing it I might as well go all the way. Hopefully it works out and I'm not replacing the cat anytime soon.

 

No worries, just sharing thoughts.

 

Well, noise is back. This car is pushing my patience. Picked it up from the shop last Friday night and all was good. No more ticking or anything like that. All seemed to be going well.

This weekend, took the car to the shop to get the exhaust finished, got it finished, and it sounds great. Could not get the smile off my face on the way home from the shop.

Then, boom, sound is back. Its not as loud as it was before, but its definitely the same sound that I had when the timing was off. I'm thinking its the chain tensioner plug, and here's why...After the head install I had the noise that everyone associates with a bad tensioner plug. So, I replaced the plug, but the sound did not go away. Found out timing was off, and according to the guy at the shop, what was happening was that the "slack" in the timing chain, which should occur at the back side of the motor where the tensioner is, was happening at a different point. This was causing the chain to become tight on the tensioner and push the tensioner in completely. Once that tight spot passed, the tensioner would pop back out. My guess it that all of that ruined the new tensioner.

So, I'm picking one up on Wednesday and replacing it yet again. Hopefully it works. Really just needed a place to vent about it. Its frustrating when the car really has not all been together and running right in over two months.

 

If you suspect timing is off, you will need to pull the timing chain cover to re-align. The gold teeth on the chain must align with the arrows on the cam and crank sprockets (2 on the crank, 1 on the cam sprocket).

 

The timing was off, but that has been resolved. I'm thinking that the tensioner may have suffered as a result of the timing being off.

 

Certainly a possibility. Those chain tensioners are built to fail.

 

Unless I'm missing something, the design is nothing short of stupid. Any idea if anyone has looked into a way to design a piece that would eliminate the current design and just make it a fixed piece? Or is there an advantage to the current design that I'm not seeing?

 

Hope the new chain tensioner works. Any chance that the two chain tentioner guides could have been swapped when they were reinstalled? I don't know if they will fit swapped, but they are a little different between them.

 

I'm pretty sure the guides cannot be installed the wrong way. Unless someone is a real hack that is. The guide that sits towards the front of the motor rests on a pin. The other guide is a different shape and does not have the cutout for that pin.

 

Good, I've never seen them, but hope to tackle the job soon. I agree, that chain tensioner plug seems like a poor design.