So I thought I would shove an endoscope down my plug holes to see what condition the pistons are in after having a problem with intermittent pinging due to excessive carbon build up. Unfortunately I was too late in addressing the carbon issue as the pistons show signs of detonation and two of the four are quite oily.

As a result, I'm going to rebuild the engine, but have noticed there are a lot of options.

I'm going to go through the various forums and gather some intel, but I would like to get feedback from anyone else that's rebuilt or had their FJCW rebuilt, if there is anything to look out for, what pistons/rings you used etc?

I also noticed there are a lot of piston options for Cooper S's, but none that say they work with the FJCW as well. I know the FJCW has different pistons, is it just a case that the uprated Cooper S pistons are just as good or better than the factory FJCW pistons?

Thanks in advance.

 

*Apologies, I seem to have posted in the wrong section. I cant see where I can delete my post so could someone either remove it or move it to the 2nd Gen JCW area?

 

You could shoot down to autobahn and get some Nylon foaming intake cleaner and spray it down the pcv pipe running to the intake manifold and down the spark plug holes on top of the pistons. How many k's on the car.

 

Thanks but I had the intake clean done professionally with a walnut blaster but it was too late :( There is visible damage to the pistons so they need replacing (and whatever else they find)

 

That's a shame, not sure if you can get after market pistons as the ones from the factory are forged.

After getting the engine sorted I'd get a remap the good thing with the N14 you can get your file emailed to you and flash it yourself should get to around 275hp up from about 230.

 

Yeah :(, that's what I thought. I'll just continue to do some digging.

So many references to people having engines replaced under warranty but I'm well out of that and sourcing an N14B16D engine in Australia is not an easy exercise. I'd also rather a rebuild than a refurb as I'll know what's in the rebuilt engine.

 

Shared part #'s with the Cooper S will have other options.

On the pistons N14 JCW I just see the Genuine MINI / Mahle version.

11257576973

Good luck on the rebuild.