You stated being in Sport Mode is healthier, that's completely untrue. If you want to high rev your MCS it doesn't matter if it's in Sport Mode or not.

 

I will add my details to this thread.

2010 MCSa, owned since new, 43k + miles so far, mostly highway when driven, 93 octane, added Chevron techron prior to every oil change, oil changed every 3 to 5k.

Slightly rough idle with no codes thrown so I decided to take the intake manifold off to see significant carbon deposits on and around the valves.

Took to dealer and had them perform the walnut blasting service which cost $350.00.

Experienced a noticeable difference.

Cheers!
~Matt

 

Wow my dealer charged me $800, put a few bottles of BG 44K because your pistons look exactly like your valves did! You probably got carbon buildup around where the piston rings are located and on the valve faces. The BG 44K should clean the rest of the carbon out through the tail pipe.

 

I was shown some before and after pictures of the pistons on another owners car after they had added the Chevron to the gas. It certainly did its job and I was told to continue adding it every 3 to 5k.

 

The Chevron additive is for cleaning the fuel system, this BG 44K cleans up the combustion chambers much better than the Chevron additive. The Chevron additive was design to remove fuel based deposits, not oily deposits. Oil based deposits are tougher to get rid of than fuel based, for our oil drinking Mini's the BG 44K stuff is way better for the oily deposits.

 

Excellent, thanks for the info! I will look into getting this.

 

very interesting, thanks for your input.

Did the $350.00 cover complete labor (un-install/install of intake manifold, head assy, etc.,..) and walnut blasting?

 

They performed the walnut blasting with the head on, but yes that covered disassembly and reassembly and the walnut blasting. It did not include a new intake gasket.

 

thanks for your response. I ask this because I was gonna plan to inquire about this issue in-general next time I'm at dealer for service.

 

Just for **** and giggles, I called two mini dealership local to me and wants >$1000 and the other one wants $1717.00 buko dolla. Talk about highway robbery. I'm glad i dont have to deal with this carbon cleaning.

 

Hi -

Just had them do a cleaning at our local MINI service station; I've got 76K on the car - 2010 Clubman S. Was dealing with (and still am) noticeable issues such as stalling on start up and a rough idle. They pumped some cleaner through the engine; I am thinking that maybe it needs the full walnut shell thing.

Not sure of the cost of this in particular as it was done as part of getting my timing chain replaced. Will look at the bill and post!

 

Has anyone who had walnut shell blasting also had to replace valves at a later date??? Valve on first or third cy had chip missing.
Walnut cleaning 43, at 47,000 same reduced engine light with valve destroyed.
Awaiting if more than one valve being replaced
2009 MCS
Always changed oil at 5,000 intervals
Cam tensioner checked okay last spring.

 

Curious how much $$$

 

Thing is the carbon sticks to the valves and as the carbon settles on the valve faces the carbon gets really hot and eventually burns the metal causing it to (become weak) break. A couple of bottles of BG 44K will remove lots of carbon from the combustion chambers, I've used a few bottles and the carbon is gone.

 

Lots
3,800$
They said they would install timing belt for cost since the engine is apart already.
That brings it to 4,000$ +

Obviously I found this too late.

 

71k miles loved a drink very well maintained had walnut blasting felt much better straight away within 2 days burnt a chuck out of no1 exhaust valve no other damage doing complete rebuild! in general engine very poor to modern standards

 

Seaswood -

So sorry I was offline for a few days! My carbon cleaning was only $32 - they used the 44K stuff that SystemLord mentions above. (Thanks, SystemLord for putting my mind at ease that this stuff will work properly. If you see this - should your pipes be really, really black inside after the 44k?? Is that the carbon working it's way out?)

As soon as I got the car back from the timing chain replacement and the 44K in the car, I ended up getting HUGE amounts of white smoke coming from the pipes and stalling on start up. Took it right back in. Ended up that the PCV valve malfunctioned/wore out and they didn't catch it while they were in there. Said it was a weird coincidence and that it shouldn't have worn out that quick. They charged me for the part only - no labor - as they felt like they should have caught it while they were in there.

I am really sorry that you are dealing with SO much money! I was ticked off that I had to spend $1400 on the timing chain/tensioner replacement and another $350 on the PCV valve on a 4-year-old car. I'd be really ticked off at $4000!!

I hope that it fixes your car, though...it's so frustrating to have such a great car having issues like these so early in their lives.

have a great day!

 

Nothing you add to the gas is going to remove the carbon from the intake valves. Being a direct injection engine means that the gas never sees the back of the intake valves. It may help clean the piston tops, but it won't help the carbon on the valves.

 

Incorrect. I never said that BG 44K would clean the intake valves. I said it will clean the carbon in the combustion chambers. The last time I checked the valves are in the combustion chambers so the valves get coated with carbon just like the top of the pistons. See that brownish valve right next to it, it also has carbon attached to the same area of where the other valve broke off a chunk. The other two valves look pretty clean compared to the black and brown valves.

 

The carbon that is most problematic is the carbon on the back side of the intake valves. No carbon is good, but it is the carbon on the backs of the intake valves that leads to real problems. Once enough is on there the valves will not close all the way, you will lose compression & in time you will burn the valves. Your picture does not show the back of the valves.

This is the back of the valves. The part BG 44 will not touch. You need walnut blasting for this.

 

I know that BG 44K will not clean the back of the valves and I never said it did, BG 44K is useful for cleaning the combustion chambers including the area of the valve that faces the pistons. I recommend using BG 44K after getting the back of the valves walnut blasted. I sure hope we are on the same page now.

 

Have to love these direct injection engines. MINI is not the only one having carbon issues. Pour in whatever snake oil makes you happy. Yep lets turn to the next page in the book of walnuts.

 

That's at least a 10-15 hp loss, even a 20 percent obstruction on the intake valves is bad. There's a DI engine out there (forget make and model, perhaps Audi) that loses 20 hp in just 10,000 miles, R56 MCS aren't nearly that bad, this is on at least a V8 engine from Audi.

I you think this is bad wait till you hear what I experienced yesterday cleaning carbon internally. Yesterday I drove on the freeway to reach full operating temperature, then drove home and added BG's EPR or Engine Performance Restoration to my oil. I started up my engine and revved it for 12 minutes at 1500 rpms in neutral, shut off engine and drained oil.

Blackest **** I ever seen, not even light could escape. My brother and forum members said this next step was overkill, this was far from overkill. I bought two 5 quarts jugs of Mobil 1 0W-40 (Walmart) and added 4.5 quarts and revved engine for several minutes, shut her down and drained oil for a second time. Holy ****, it was a very dark caramel color (almost black) with lots of streaks of black swirls in the oil as I poured it into an empty 5 quart jug.

After draining that **** I replaced the filter with a new one and added 4.5 quarts of a second jug of Mobil 1 0W-40, it took me quite awhile to be able to see the super clean fresh oil. At the end of the day I found out it was well worth it to flush that dark dirty oil with black swirls out of my engine a second time sacrificing a perfectly fresh 5 quart jug of oil. I only have 54,000 miles, the amount of **** that came out of the second drain was amazingly filthy!

I can only imagine what other MCS's look like after 100,000 miles!

 

It was expensive hard way to learn, but it runs really nice.
Car is just under five years they gave me a trade in value of 9.5k$ minus the 4350$ it is just better to keep drivin it.
They gave me contact info on someone who uses Seafoam & has has reasonable results.
I like the idea of the BK-44K in the oil method.
Seems you have to keep after it on a regular basis something I had not done.

 

This snake oil really does work (), it's the second product from BG that I can say really does what it says it does. I have attached pictures to show the oil in each cup and notice how filthy both are, the second cup (on right) are the results after pouring in the clean new oil after I initially drain the original oil+BG's EPR or Engine Performance Restoration.

I tipped both cups on the side for a moment so you can see through the oil because it's hard to see which is worse without some serious lighting power. It pours out of the 11 fl.oz. stainless steel can clear with no color whatsoever, I might as well state that you don't want to drive your car anywhere with BG's EPR in your crankcase! What I would like to do is grab a sample from the bottom of the oil jug.

I wish I had somebody to film while I was pouring the oil into their containers, it was there that I saw the black swirl marks in the dirty oil. You don't know black until you see these black swirls, who knows where that black crud came from, piston rings, turbo oil feed line and all the oil passageways. It reminded me of watching gold separating from the sand when it's in the machines that separates gold from the soil.