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Many thanks to Mod Mini again, I followed his suggestions for bleeding and it went well. I used the Power Bleeder that Mod Mini recommended (shown in the photo below) and I made a tool just like Mod Mini's to compress the Slave Cylinder (shown in photo 2).
Several hours of bleeding on day 1 were unsuccessful. But on bleeding day 2 I may have made a useful discovery. (My brother tells me "Bench Bleeding" has already been discovered ). I took the Slave Cylinder off the car and thought it was a good idea to Pre-Bleed the Slave Cylinder. By Pre-Bleed I mean with the Slave Cylinder off the car and compressed by the tool I slowly filled it with fluid and worked the bubbles out of the unit by pushing on the plunger with my thumb and other times by tapping the plunger with a wrench. Sometimes I could hold the unit vertically during the process which of course you can't do when it is on the car. I could only add a few cc's of fluid at a time and then I worked that into the unit mostly by pushing and tapping on the plunger while it was compressed already. There was enough play left in the plunger that I could move it slightly and in this way I was able to fill it up with no bubbles inside - I think. Then with as much fluid as it could hold I carefully carried it over to the car and installed it without spilling any fluid from the unit. Seemed to work very well. Maybe Pre-bleeding this Clutch Slave Cylinder is a good thing.
Day 2 was very smooth bleeding the Clutch Slave Cylinder. As is my way, it took many hours but it all seemed to go really well. I was surprised. I was ready to fail and come back tomorrow.
Last edited by Corkus; Aug 20, 2021 at 07:18 PM.
Reason: basic sentence editing
After bleeding the Clutch Slave Cylinder I drove the car for an hour. At the 15 minute mark I decided to pull into my driveway and check for leaks. I had a major leak. Coolant was beginning to go everywhere, all over the exhaust side of the engine. As the coolant hit the exhaust manifold it created steam that looked a lot like a blown engine. This was a classic Noob moment. I forgot to tighten down the coolant reservoir cap because I wanted to take some fluid out of the reservoir, but forgot to do that too. I topped off the coolant and tightened the cap and went back out for more test drive. Everything was fine. More than fine. This car runs so good! It's a really nice car!
I'm not surprised that all my work seems good so far. But I didn't expect it. I was and am ready to fix whatever I have to. If the Clutch Slave Cylinder didn't fix the shifting problem I was having I was ready to pull the transmission. On the test drive I was ready for any problem I could imagine. When coolant started leaking I didn't know it was a loose cap on the coolant reservoir. I was ready to fix any sort of leak. When this or that, or everything worked I thought it was cool. But I didn't expect it.
I'm happy the car seems fine and all my work seems good so far. But I'll fix whatever I have to.
Drove the car for 7 days in a row including a 275 mile day trip across some very empty parts of Oregon. This car is so fun! Everything seems fine. So far...
Takeaways for this project:
1. Taking the engine out of the car was totally worth it. Super glad I did this. This is one thing checked off on my Bucket List. (Painting a car is still on the list)
2. This was a good deal more expensive than I thought it would be. Ballpark numbers $2500 for tools because I didn't even have a wrench, $2500 for parts, and $500 for consumables. I wouldn't want to try this on a tight budget especially being a Noob. There is a certain level of inexperienced mistakes and poor efficiency that caused the price to be maybe $1000 more than it needed to be. So the car was $5000 and this job was more than that. For that money I have a cool car in top shape! That was the goal.
3. 90% of my difficulties surrounded parts: learning about this car's parts, learning the right parts to order, were to find the information, learning which companies to buy from, the ordering, tracking, waiting, solving things other ways when a part is not available, not to mention the information gathering on YouTube and this forum.
4. One part in particular deserves special mention, the ATI Super Damper crankshaft pulley from Way Motorsports. That was maybe the only part I thought was silly overpriced but now, maybe not. It made the motor spin so smooth! The idle is so smooth there's almost nothing to feel from the motor. And the motor spins up smoother too, quite a bit smoother. This car ran very well when I bought it but it is much better now. At first I was a bit confused by this. I didn't know what I did that could make that kind of difference, then I realized it is the crankshaft pulley. Now I see on the forum that others have had similar experience.
5. ModMini, YouTube, this forum, Google were invaluable. Could not have done without these resources. The Bentley Manual too I guess, but I'm not crazy about that manual. I've seen a lot better manuals (for motorcycles).
6. I LOVE the way this car is put together! LOVE it! My favorite motorcycles from my past are BMW motorcycles. The R53 design and build is one small step different from what I'm used to. Loved figuring out how BMW designed this car. Really, really like it. One demerit to BMW for not doing better on the crankshaft pulley, but overall I give BMW design an A+. (I don't feel much of an English feel to this car. To me the car looks and feels BMW, not English. Of course the styling is an homage to the original MINI but that's not the way the car feels to me.)
7. There's no duplicating this Noob experience with the R53. I know this car now and feel capable of tackling any job that doesn't require specialized equipment or tooling like machining, etc. I would love to do this first-time-learning thing again on another car if I ever get the chance.
Hopefully there is nothing that goes wrong and there is nothing else to say about this project.
That’s awesome it all came together without any major issues.
For #6, the MINI was originally a Rover project/design and has a Chrysler based engine so BMW worked with what they acquired. It would definitely be a different car if it was all BMW, but I’m not sure it would have been a better car in terms of overall fun, or had the success and cult following that came with it.
That’s awesome it all came together without any major issues.
For #6, the MINI was originally a Rover project/design and has a Chrysler based engine so BMW worked with what they acquired. It would definitely be a different car if it was all BMW, but I’m not sure it would have been a better car in terms of overall fun, or had the success and cult following that came with it.
That's very interesting. I had no idea. Much appreciated post.
Unfortunately, I don’t think part three was ever written, at least not here on NAM. I think Unbreakable Lump ended up on a Facebook group and maybe the story is over there somewhere. https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-part-3-a.html
Unfortunately, I don’t think part three was ever written, at least not here on NAM. I think Unbreakable Lump ended up on a Facebook group and maybe the story is over there somewhere. https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-part-3-a.html
Good on you for diving in. It's absolutely the best way to learn. Because you're driving a BMW-designed Mini you'll find parts prices are ridiculously high. Partsgeek.com and Rockauto.com are two competitively priced sources for Mini parts. Partsgeek, in particular, sells both OEM and aftermarket Mini parts. I've used them for years and have never been disappointed.
Try FCP Euro for good deals on OEM parts and replacement alternatives...
). I took the Slave Cylinder off the car and thought it was a good idea to Pre-Bleed the Slave Cylinder. By Pre-Bleed I mean with the Slave Cylinder off the car and compressed by the tool I slowly filled it with fluid and worked the bubbles out of the unit by pushing on the plunger with my thumb and other times by tapping the plunger with a wrench. Sometimes I could hold the unit vertically during the process which of course you can't do when it is on the car. I could only add a few cc's of fluid at a time and then I worked that into the unit mostly by pushing and tapping on the plunger while it was compressed already. There was enough play left in the plunger that I could move it slightly and in this way I was able to fill it up with no bubbles inside - I think. Then with as much fluid as it could hold I carefully carried it over to the car and installed it without spilling any fluid from the unit. Seemed to work very well. Maybe Pre-bleeding this Clutch Slave Cylinder is a good thing.
