Back story: Pulled into my driveway one day, tapped the gas and watched the temp gauge spike. Shut the car off, came out 2 minutes later, turned the key to on and the gauge was back to normal. Checked the overflow tank and it was dry. Filled it and watched it, and I kept losing coolant. I replaced the thermostat, thermostat gasket and the housing...still losing coolant. Replaced the overflow tank because it was splitting at the seam...still losing coolant. During this entire process I had checked the oil to see if it looked bad, but nothing was showing up. I finally pulled the cap off the valve cover and found green sludge built up, which finally solved the issue of where is all my coolant going.

That brings me to where I am now. I pulled the cylinder head (Thumper TPR-1) and it is currently getting cleaned and checked by a local shop. Based on what I saw when I ripped the motor apart, I am going to attribute the issue to me dropping the ball when torquing the head studs down. The gasket looks fine, as does the block. I am going to get a new head gasket just to be safe, but I do not think that was the problem. The valves looked good, as did the pistons and cylinder walls.

Here is my plan, or what I have of one right now. I'll get a new head gasket, get the head, cam and lifters cleaned, new valve cover gasket, clean the oil pan and get a new oil pump. Also thinking about new timing chain guides and a new timing chain. Then the plan would be to put it back together and run it, doing a few oil changes in short intervals to make sure all of the oil/coolant mix is out of the system.

All that being said, I'm looking for some advice for what else to do, if anything. I've been thinking about rebuilding the bottom end, but I'm not sure if that's the way to go. The motor has 87,000 miles on it. And the issue is that I'm not sure how long I actually ran the motor with the oil/coolant mix. Which is why I'm thinking a rebuild would be a good idea. At the same time, I'm not sure if I want to go down that road. I'm also thinking that this is a good time to handle some maintenance items that are probably a bit overdue. And, to improve the power setup even more, I've been toying with the idea of a Sprintex supercharger.

I'll list my mods below so there's an idea of what I have going on. Also, I'm in the process of purchasing a daily driver to get me through the winter while the Mini is down. So time is not a huge issue. I'm figuring this would be a winter project, with the majority of the work happening between now and the end of my winter break. Thanks in advance for any advice anyone has.

Mods: TPR-1 head, NS1 cam, Adjustable cam gear, 16% pulley, OBXr header with test pipe, Stratmosphere catback exhaust, 550cc injectors, FA-53 tuning software, port matched intake manifold.