Ok some of you have heard the issues regarding my Twincharged MCS. For those of you who don't know, I kept having exhaust leaks and suddenly one night i noticed oil smelling smoke coming through the exhaust. This made my mind click. At first I thought it would be the PCV as it was only running through a filter rather than being correctly plumbed. Nope, one of my worst nightmares was about to unfold. I took the car to Wheel 2 Wheel Powertrain to have it looked at since these guys know quite abit about engines. I called them just this morning after having them hold onto it for the weekend and asked the current situation. Now prepare yourselves, take a deep breath. What was about to be revealed took my breath away and made me go silent for a while. On the other end of the phone the exact words,"Zak, I'm afraid we have bad news. Cylinder number 2 has a compression loss of 70%." Now I thought,"Crap, ok,breathe, relax, it's not the end of the world." The statement made above from the mechanic brought me to think there could be one, two, or three things wrong. The first was a Piston ring has broke, the second being the piston blew, and the third being the block of the engine is cracked. Now here is my theory, guess number one couldn't be true, if there piston ring broke it would be about a 20% compression loss not 70. Guess number two is most likely accurate. Guess number three, while being a possibility I would like to sway my thoughts from this one as it would require a brand new engine.. This brings me to two decisions. But before those decisions, I want to express that I have not been able to enjoy my MINI aka Vader more than it has been in constant repair. So now the decisions, A: go back to stock or B; keep the twincharger and beef up the internals more and also the transmission. My question to you is; Based on the information provided, what would you do?


For photos of the kit itself and Vader please visit :

http://photobucket.com/albums/b278/maximusmini/

 

Ouch. Poor Vader. . If it's a piston/ring problem, I would change em all (to stronger/race), since you will have to go there anyway to fix your problem. (Assuming your block not screwed).

 

Indeed, i will replace them all

 

build it up!!

( do i hear SRT swap? )

:smile:

 

how much boost were you running? the usual high boost piston failure in the Mini is from too much stress on the edges above the ring lands.

 

i was running the norm of 22 lbs of combined boost. i was told by Hubie that this was a very conservative setting.

 

Well... since you have gone this far already with expenses, time and planning. I would do what it takes to make it handle the power.
Speed without reliability is worthless. You will have a very unique and fast car.

That being said... Aren't you asking too much of a FWD car by putting that much power to the fronts. It seems it would seriously affect the balance and predictive handling of the mini.
The mini is a great little car. It has a great handling and balance for a FWD car in stock form. Since I never drove a 300hp FWD mini, I can't fully comment on its ability to put the power down, stop and corner.
If it were me, I would go for an AWD or RWD car that was designed from the get go to handle the power.
But thats just my old school of thought...

As they say. "to finish first, first you must finish"

Good luck to you on whatever you decide... there is no right or wrong... whatever works for you is the way to go...
mike

 

This car handles great with Ryephiles Suspension setup, I just want a good engine base before i continue my project. basically the engine performance determines what route i should take for the rest of the MINI

 

Really sorry to hear, man. When will you know what is wrong? Have you had any previous failures with it [you say it's been off for a while?]? Best of luck.

 

Max-

I guess it all depends on whether your wallet supports your desire for potentially unreliable ($$$) power, or it supports a more conservative approach.

Don't over extend yourself financially, that's the first thing.

If $$$ is not the issue, then I'd say do what makes you happy as a mini owner. If a 210 HP mini is not enough, then you won't be happy with a stock or even JCW (or equivalent) setup.

Either way, I admire that you ran the twincharged setup! I'm jealous! :smile:

 

The car was fun while it lasted, in the end it is your decision and you already know my opinion in the situation, build the motor and make it reliable, but also not recomend the kit to somebody who is considering it because of the problems you have had.
Ben

 

Doesn't sound like a burnt valve, easy enough to check if its intake, exhaust valve or piston though.

keep it twincharged, add forged pistons, coat the pistons. Its $35 or $36 each to coat the tops with a ceramic & the skirts with a dry film lubricant.

 

Umm you know the pistons are already forged, right?

 

Actually, yes. Better forged pistons etc.

 

The stock piston heads are forged, but the rods are cast, right? There has been a lot of discussion about this, but I thought that was the consensus.

 

I was told the whole bottom end it forged.. But back on topic....

 

I'm a bit shocked to see you're having problems with the whole ordeal. I knew there would be a teething time period, but the CONSTANT self-disassembly of the exhaust and turbo is totally head-scratching. While the system is straight up FAST when it works, it doesn't seem to keep itself together long enough to enjoy it more than a day or two at a time.

I have a feeling one big area of annoyance is the engine mounts aren't stiff enough to keep engine movement down enough to keep the exhaust, even with its flex pipe, to stop putting tons of force on the fasteners.

I think it would be tragic to return the car to stock, especially after all the money you've put into it [ouch]. I have NO idea why the bottom end would go awry, only 22PSIg and the ccccold IAT's the Twincharge provides doesn't make sense to put a hole in a piston. I'm confused on that one; we'll have to see what the teardown shows.

 

Ouch! That's one expensive whiff of oil. Looks like the power v. reliability curve has been met. A bit like McLaren F1. Rebuild with less boost for more reliability, or lower your compression ratio to avoid future discomfort.
Sorry to hear about your pain.

 

Zak,
Sorry to hear about your issues
Until you break it apart you won't really know what has happened. You have
major bucks in this project and have reached an expensive crossroad. While it is your money, I have to agree with Ryan "I think it would be tragic to return the car to stock." Use this opportunity (sad as it may be) to strengthen the bottom end. Learn from your mistakes and press on to complete the car you want. Since others are running this set-up without these issues it seems that you might have a weak link that you have missed.
Best,
Ric

You know this could have happened at Fontana

 

Could it be a blown head gasket? Any pieces of metal or coolant in the oil? If a piston was blown I'm surprised it would run at all.

 

I thought the crank and con rods were forged but not the pistons?

 

I was also under the understanding that the pistons are NOT forged but hyperutectic?

I have been wrong before though

Regardless, get a set of pistons from hubie and put her back together and you should be fiine as long as you dont keep trying to reach the next level. 22psi and hubies pistons and you should be fine to run the heck out of it and have tons of fun.

Let us know what you find when they pull the head and know for sure what broke ( ring land, detonation to the top of the piston )

 

A problem noted in a Twincharged setup! Oh my this is a shock. Man they even tested it for 30,000 miles with no problem.


Seriously though, I would just rebuild it. Like everyone said you spent the money, you want the power, just build it up better this time.

You could also take off the Twincharge setup, take it back to the dealer and tell them that something just happened.

 

Lol. Well, aren't a ton of things like hoses and such changed in a TwinC car? If the dealer would buy that, I would lmao.

 

a ton of hoses is the least of the changes.. Don't let them reflash the ecu.. they'll **** their pants..