The Mini's have been a truly fun time and the maintenance is costly if you don't turn your own wrenches, in the recent months;
--have done brakes (EBC pads & Slotted rotors) on both Mini's
--turbo oil line and return line from WayMotorWorks, used his braided, very nice
--and now the Water pump
--leaking valve cover and timing chain inspection while in there
--upgraded to longer Cam Chain Tentioner
--Walnut blasted both Mini's in the same day turned out great.

Saved myself a bundle doing this stuff myself and can thank many on this forum for the help which was not found in the Bentley Manual, which absolutely sucks if you ask me, I've googled to get better guidance than it has to offer, a Haynes or Chilton could do better, IMO.

Glad to see the Mini is somewhat DIY friendly for someone willing to invest some time, my neighbors must think this car is an absolute lemon considering all the under hood work they see with me over the last several weeks, something is getting tweaked or modded, all looks the same to non enthusiasts!!

It helps I was an ASE certified tech for many years, the routine maintenance is something many should be able to do, it surprises me how many car owners cannot even change their own oil, or argue about doing that too soon, it's cheap insurance and never too soon, just often not checked enough.

Great forum, wouldn't have been the same without members like;
Boosted_Mini
Everyday I'm Motoring

 

The MINI is a great car for DIYers - fun to drive, modify, maintain ....and NAM is a great community to converse with! Win/Win

 

I'm about to walnut blast mine as well! I can't wait to get some power back. I have changed shocks, springs, body work, oil changes, sway bar, BOV, intercooler, break pads and rotors as well. A Huge chunk of money was saved! I'm not even a mechanic.

 

JayBleez, it's owners just like yourself that grow forums and bring new life into various types of cars and other things we all just do cause we love it... Sounds like your having fun!

 

How'd you do your own walnut blasting? I did a spray-n-scrape instead. I would have liked to have had a blasting machine.

 

In my quest to do this myself I ordered these parts from ESC Tuning

Blasting Wand #2166078. $24.65
Extraction Adapter #2166079. $71.08

Along with a cheap blasting unit from Harbor Freight where you can also get 25# box of fine walnut for the blasting, about $100 then make sure you have an air compressor and you may need some adapters for the blaster to go from 1/4 NPT fittings to 3/8 NPT fitting sizes. A little trial and error and it worked great. The adapter fits like a glove and makes the whole job very clean.
You have to spray a bit more air to get the remaining walnut media out but it's fairly simple, then rotate the crank with an extention through the wheel well to close remaining cylinders. Amazing results compared to 50k miles of zero cleaning.