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so what was the verdict, any obvious headgasket issues?
Pressurizing the cooling system.
didn't mix coolant + oil, but, you can see the coolant was getting "dirty".
I lost my fluid for my exhaust gas tester that can detect it in coolant. I am not worried, pretty sure its a gasket. If it's not the gasket I would be disappointed, but it was cheap and not hard.
didn't mix coolant + oil, but, you can see the coolant was getting "dirty".
I lost my fluid for my exhaust gas tester that can detect it in coolant. I am not worried, pretty sure its a gasket. If it's not the gasket I would be disappointed, but it was cheap and not hard.
Spent the day cleaning up the head - left a bunch of brake clean sitting in the valve pockets, nothing leaked down as far as I can tell. Can't see any cracks in any of the chambers. I think I will install it back on the car.
Glad to hear there weren’t any obvious issues with the head.
How did you determine engine compression was pressurizing the coolant system?
It started pushing coolant out of the top of the bottle at a rapid pace if the lid was open :p - got MUCH worse as soon as it got around 200F.
Thermostat was new and opening, coolant wasn't boiling, it was being forced out.
Still waiting for a headgasket, the USPS delays are murdering me.
It started pushing coolant out of the top of the bottle at a rapid pace if the lid was open :p - got MUCH worse as soon as it got around 200F.
Thermostat was new and opening, coolant wasn't boiling, it was being forced out.
Still waiting for a headgasket, the USPS delays are murdering me.
Headgasket says it is out for delivery today!
Heres hoping. If I have it, I can throw everything back together, might even have it started tonight.
Heres hoping. If I have it, I can throw everything back together, might even have it started tonight.
Started the car last night.
Bled the coolant
Let it get up to 230f with the fan unplugged, not pushing air past the gasket anymore, cooling system is nice and bled.
Manually powered on the fan (because it isn't working right now, which I will figure out later) and it went all the way down to 180f and sat there. For some reason the OEM GATES thermostat is a 180f stat. I don't know that I care enough to fix that right now.
Car runs great. I started working on the suspension, snapped one of the bolts in a knuckle holding the front strut on, gave up. Need to get one from the junk yard to put my Manzo springs onto my cheapie struts.
Let it get up to 230f with the fan unplugged, not pushing air past the gasket anymore, cooling system is nice and bled.
Manually powered on the fan (because it isn't working right now, which I will figure out later) and it went all the way down to 180f and sat there. For some reason the OEM GATES thermostat is a 180f stat. I don't know that I care enough to fix that right now.
Car runs great. I started working on the suspension, snapped one of the bolts in a knuckle holding the front strut on, gave up. Need to get one from the junk yard to put my Manzo springs onto my cheapie struts.
Ripped apart the X15 connector. Cut and spliced a new one inline.
HVAC functional
Instrument cluster backlighting functional
Cooling fan still not functional. hmph. Will investigate later.
later.
Car has HOT heat. Sits right at 180F with heater on max. Opened the bleeder at the front radiator hose and ONLY got coolant out of it. No more blown headgasket!!!
Ripped apart the X15 connector. Cut and spliced a new one inline.
HVAC functional
Instrument cluster backlighting functional
Cooling fan still not functional. hmph. Will investigate later.
later.
Car has HOT heat. Sits right at 180F with heater on max. Opened the bleeder at the front radiator hose and ONLY got coolant out of it. No more blown headgasket!!!
Did some diagnosing last night at like 1AM lol
The low speed fan is triggering as on - but, the high speed is NOT. Obviously, the low speed resistor is burned out, just R53 things.. so I am going to slap a resistor in it.
The low speed fan should be enough to cool the car, since its average 40 degrees in Maryland right now. Car sits nice and steady with just the fan running across the heater core, so it should be fine.
All relays confirmed good in under hood fusebox and interior. All fuses good as well. I probed across the relay terminals when it should have been running and it had weird readings. I see two relays, one with a fan symbol with "I" and one with "II" so I assume "II" is high speed fan.
More diagnosing later tonight - need to change the oil on my wagon so I can drive down to South Carolina this weekend and look at some houses.
The low speed fan is triggering as on - but, the high speed is NOT. Obviously, the low speed resistor is burned out, just R53 things.. so I am going to slap a resistor in it.
The low speed fan should be enough to cool the car, since its average 40 degrees in Maryland right now. Car sits nice and steady with just the fan running across the heater core, so it should be fine.
All relays confirmed good in under hood fusebox and interior. All fuses good as well. I probed across the relay terminals when it should have been running and it had weird readings. I see two relays, one with a fan symbol with "I" and one with "II" so I assume "II" is high speed fan.
More diagnosing later tonight - need to change the oil on my wagon so I can drive down to South Carolina this weekend and look at some houses.
Trip to SC for houses canceled since everything I wanted to look at is sold.
Did more diagnosing. Turns out I am stupid, it works fine. I forgot the high speed turns on at 234, not 224 like I thought. High speed works fine and I can see it sending 12v for low speed at 224, just needs a low speed resistor.
Installed the Megan intake with a random pod I had laying around.
Wiring repair was successful - everything works inside now.
Trip to SC for houses canceled since everything I wanted to look at is sold.
Did more diagnosing. Turns out I am stupid, it works fine. I forgot the high speed turns on at 234, not 224 like I thought. High speed works fine and I can see it sending 12v for low speed at 224, just needs a low speed resistor.
Installed the Megan intake with a random pod I had laying around.
Wiring repair was successful - everything works inside now.
Put the car together.
Has 3 lowering springs on it - I broke a bolt off in one of the front knuckles.
Somehow managed to rip an axle boot while the car was running up in the air, not super happy about that, will get another axle.
Car sits pretty good - however, one of the front springs I installed isn't sitting right, so, I think I am going to just go back to OEM, or a cheap set of coilovers, like Solo-werks, which are well known in the VAG community.
LESSON LEARNED - Manzo lowering springs, good for the rear, misshaped for the front, AVOID! They pop and bang going over bumps for obvious reasons.
eBay exhaust showed up today.
225 dollars shipped.
The hangars will need to be heated and rotated 180 degrees, since its designed for 02-03, not 04+. No big deal.
Hit the car with a scan tool. Cleared out my Airbag lights, so we are all good there. It was from someone disconnecting the seats while the battery was still plugged in. *eyeroll*
New tail lights will be here next week - got my cheap Ceramic coating in (I didn't want to waste my Fireball Coatings on it).
Both axles are in - should be installing the R56 JCW brakes on it soonish! Maybe Sunday.
Installed my junk yard knuckle and broke off my wheel speed sensor, so one of those is here as well.
8 dollar AUX input is here as well.
New spark plugs, colder range OEM JCW plugs
Installed the wheel studs on all 4 corners. No video of that - I have like 4 other R53s to install these on.
Put the cheapest wiper blades I could on it. 10 dollars for the rear WITH a new arm, and 16 for the two front wipers.
They are exquisite lol and work great.
To do:
R56 brakes
New rear brakes
New parking brake cables (one is broken..)
eBay exhaust
low speed fan resistor
Recharge the AC. It has a slow leak. Still has pressure, but, no AC.
Redo the headliner
New LED interior lights
New tail lights
Drivers door pull handle needs a new cable. It is ultra stretched.
Passenger door needs a new lock actuator. It will LOCK, but wont unlock, on its own. Wtf.
repaint front and rear calipers between doing the brakes
Really good detail
2 stage paint correction
restore the trims with a heat gun
ceramic coat paint and trims
polish the glass and coat the glass as well
wheels off the car and see how clean I can make them
Seats need to come out
Entire carpet needs to be carpet solutioned. Might need to get a new rear half section.
All trim panels need to be sprayed in HEAVY degreaser and heavily agitated
Seats need a real good clean.
Will be doing some basic PDR on flat panels. Someone yanked a bunch of dents out incorrectly and so they are borked. They need a good bit of help...
Items still left in the air:
Maybe a smaller pulley?
Maybe a 100 dollar eBay header?
Maybe 380cc injectors and ECU tune from Adrian?
Maybe dirt cheap headlight retrofit? (likely)
Maybe repaint the rear bumper since it is HAMMERED?
I need to hurry up and finish this. I need to yank the head off of my Z4M and I need the garage space.
One projector of two that I have laying around for my budget retrofit.
We will see - these will be hard to fit since they are massive, so I might switch to this.
If anyone cares about retrofitting
Top one is a Hella G5 projector base - with E60/E61 style cut off with a clear lens swap and tuning
Bottom is a generic, cheapie Mini H1 projector
Retrofit I finished up a few weeks ago for my GF's JCW
Again if anyone cares
Hella Gen3 ballast integrated into the light (boosted to 45watt)
Q5-R projector
Osram Nightbreaker bulbs
Totally plug and play with an OEM xenon car. Used the last of my DEPO housings with auto leveling built in.
(I used to build retrofits exclusively for the MINI market until I got screwed over and didnt bother anymore) so if anyone wants to spend their stimulus money so they can see, let me know! lol
Output picture of my wagon with the G5-BRT variant and Philips Xtreme D1s bulbs in it (slightly uphill)
I'll keep everyone posted on what I end up doing. I might just leave the OEM HID pre-facelifts as they are, but man are they JUNK. I put in new bulbs and re-cleared and they are STILL junk..
Car = quickly washed
Trims = quickly IPA wiped and cheap ceramic applied
Antenna = cheapest one on Amazon
Shifter Cables = lubed
eBay exhaust = installed
Drivers axle = installed
New Tail lights = installed
New ABS sensor = installed
New brake pad sensor = installed
No lights on the dash anymore.
Shifter is SMOOTH now.
Has radio reception
Looks OK so the neighbors don't complain.
eBay exhaust is LOUD from the outside, very boomey inside with a hint of drone. It is very weird. It is louder than any of my other MINIs but interior wise is the quietest but has drone. I suspect the drone is making it sound weird.
Next up more cosmetics. Mechanical is all sorted besides for the brakes and new parking brake cable.
To do:
Mechanical
Brakes + repaint calipers red
Parking Brake Cable
Alignment
Exterior
1 Step Polish the car
Polish the glass
Coat in cheap ceramic
Either fix or find a rear bumper
Interior
Headliner
3 spoke wheel conversion
DEEP detail. Seats out, interior taken apart, detail.
Find a new dead pedal as this car is missing it...
Parking Brake boot
I think that is about it. I was hoping to have videos of me highlighting certain items but I really need to get this car done so I can start on my Z4M before I move.
Thanks for the people who have been following along!
As always if there are any questions let me know.
alwat
I like this build. Don't know where ya'all are finding these $250 R53's! I think you should pull the trigger on the eBay header and tell me how it go's.
