Hi all, I’ve been lurking on these forums for years as I’ve done maintenance on my bluey, but now I am likely faced with the biggest job I’ve ever done on a car: Rebuild.

some vehicle history:
-I am quite poor and most times have a hard time affording some of the maintenance.
-I have been somewhat lacking on oil checkups which has most certainly caused this
-I recently replaced the timing chain, about 40k miles ago
-I tend to drive long distances and am often low on oil because I am awful when it comes to checking things link that (yes I will get better)

yesterday on my 100 mile drive to a music store I got a blinking engine light, misfires on 1 and 3. Opened up the intake, to find it covered in carbon and oil. Used our camera to look in the cylinders and they’re filled with oil. (Even the good ones)

my guess\hypothesis is that the piston rings went and the pistons have been burning oil for over 10k, and either damaged the head gasket, melted a valve or two or both.

im curious as to what other R55 owners think of this information and what else it could be and what steps I might take to fix it.

i intend to keep this car running for way longer than it should because I’m attached to it.
thank you for reading.

Cylinder 2

This was on the clean cylinder 2 and I have no idea what it is

Cylinder 3

2

2

Cylinder 3

2

 

The N14 engine is not user friendly for those who aren't regimented in maintenance habits.

Generally, the bottom end of these engines is very sound and you don't see many cases of ring/piston failure, even with low oil/poor maintenance. It's usually the top end of the motor - valves and the drive mechanism for it (chain, etc) that gives out first.

Either way, you're looking at a minimum of $2K to repair this.

Best of luck to you.

 

So I’ve found that the issue is actually a melted valve, would doing a valve job and head gasket replacement be a sound enough fix for this? You mentioned the bottom end is sound most likely so piston rings and pistons would be excessive. Obviously I’ll be doing a timing chain again, that’s a no brainer, but what else should I investigate?

also, $2k? In parts alone? That’s a surprise actually, what does all that entail?

new valves: $200-$400
timing chain kit $200-$250
head gasket: $200
some new bolts: $200
at most I’m seeing $1000, so I must be missing something.

also yeah, I uh… need to get better about maintenance, I am now more aware than ever haha.

 

If you're taking it off and doing the work, you should replace all the exhaust valves and all of the guides (intake and exhaust). Unless you're doing the work yourself, you'll need engine machine shop service for this; that will add somewhere between $400 and $800 to the bill depending on where you are and how competent they are.

I recently reached out to Way Motor Works in Atlanta about this same sort of project. They recommend budgeting $1500 minimum for the rebuild process of the cylinder head alone.

You price a head gasket, but not the head gasket kit which includes valve stem seals and other necessary gaskets. You're also not addressing the valve cover/integrated PCV system, a prime cause of carbon buildup and contributing to valve failure.

Last, I'm going to recommend you replace the cooling system components while you're in there - water pump, drive pulley, water pump pulley, coolant crossover pipe, and thermostat. I'd also recommend the oil feed lines and coolant hoses to the turbo, as well as the oil filter housing/cooler gaskets. They're all components that will fail sooner or later, and if you've been negligent on oil changes they deteriorate faster. You're removing most of these items as part of this job anyhow, it's somewhat pointless to not replace them.

You can certainly shop most of this stuff and install cheap Amazon/Ebay/Chinese components, and save some coin on the front end. Personally not what I do for a car that's a daily driver, and while this motor can be reliable it operates at high temperatures - which places a premium on fluid circulation and components.

Again, good luck.