Hi all,

I'm very new to the R56 N14 world. I recently purchased a high mileage mini with around 172,xxx on it. The car overall runs good, trans was rebuilt, the timing chain did, etc... I believe the car needs valve stem seals, but I'm not sure. On start-up, you can see a little smoke from the leaky exhaust manifold that needs to be replaced. Smells like burned oil for a second. (it needs a gasket or has cracks) Also, when I open the oil fill cap, I can see some smoke in a faint white. The car does not overheat and has normal colored oil. Is it a valve stem seal? Or will eventually be a head gasket? Does anyone know how much a stem seal job costs? Or know any mechanics in Long Island, NY, that are affordable?
Thank you kindly, everyone.

-Max

 

Now, one problem with the Prince engine (all of them across all brands) is that they suffer from oil control ring failure/accelerated wear - typically around the 50,000 mile mark if used sensibly, less if used hard or more if used lite. Anyway, if your engine is sucking 1 litre of oil from the sump into the cylinders every 800/1000 miles then you need to re-ring the engine and therefore the head will have to come off. You will need to replace the one piece oil control ring with a 2 or 3 piece version, which will give you better performance.




snaptube vidmate

 

Blue smoke on start or on coast is usually valve seals or guides. If you see smoke coming out of the oil filler, that's blowby, which means rings are not sealing well. Compression and/or leakdown test will let you know if it's ring wear or not.

Valve seals had a rep on these engine of going bad prematurely due to excessive engine heat.

Have some tests done before you spring for a rebuild. It wil save you money in the long run.

 

+1 ^^