How to reinstall your cylinder head bearing bracket
 

Greetings everyone. They say that necessity is the mother of invention, so here's how I solved my cylinder head problem. The machine shop removed the bearing bracket after I gave them the technical data that says not to remove it. See the back story here. https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...toast-why.html. I thought I was going to have to buy a new cylinder head.

Since I didn't receive any responses to that post. I packed up they cylinder head and took it to my local MINI dealer. The shop foreman said they remove the bearing bracket all the time without any issues, and he didn't know why the TIS authors put the warning about removing the bearing bracket in the camshaft removal procedures. He also told me the bracket is doweled, so the will help with alignment when reinstalling it. When I got my head back from the machine shop, one of the dowels was dinged up (out of round). Consequently, the alignment for the vacuum pump bore looked like this:

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...ee57b17c75.jpg
Bearing Bracket Misalignment

This misalignment makes it very hard to install the vacuum pump.

To fix things and ensure you don't have any oil leaks here is a list of steps I developed.

1. Remove the four bolts and remove the bracket.
2. Thoroughly clean both mounting surfaces. There is an RTV groove in the head; make sure you get all the old RTV out of the groove.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...6929044d5c.jpg
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3. Ensure both of the dowels are in good shape. If they are out of round, use an alignment tool to correct any deformation.
4. Install the vacuum pump so it is fully seated against the head and install one bolt at the 8 o'clock position (on the head not the bracket). I used the vacuum pump to pull the bearing bracket into alignment with the cylinder head while I tightened the bolts.
5. Run a bead of RTV where indicated, and use a credit card to spread it so you have a layer about .020" thick.
6, Install the four bolts, and torque them from the centerline of the head (front to back) toward the edge. Torque the two bolts on either side of the vacuum pump first, and then tighten the two bolts on the intake camshaft side. Torque value is 88 in lbs. You will see some RTV squeeze out of the joint.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...229bef4708.jpg
7. Remove the vacuum pump. You should have a very nice alignment between the bearing bracket and the cylinder head. Notice how I eliminated the misalignment problem from the first picture.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...993a47579a.jpg
8. Reassemble the rest of the cylinder head components.

You might have saved my day! Did you run RTV along the groove or just put some blobs where your arrows are and then spread with the card?

I've gone with blobs and spread them out. Fingers crossed. Thanks for the tip to use the vacuum pump to pull the bracket into place.

Run a small bead along the groove, and then spread it out so you have a uniform thickness. Essentially, your making your own gasket.

Thanks. I got there in the end, and RTV squished out nicely right along the bracket.

Thanks for the feedback, I updated step 5.

Oh! When you get it all back together, watch out for an oil leak at the bottom of the eccentric shaft sensor. I replaced that o-ring twice, and finally had to use Permatex to get a good seal.

Will keep an eye on it.