I like how the horizontal ones are white and the vertical ones are blue.
They're all black now.
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Been chatting with some very knowledgeable folks in the mini community about my car and the issues I saw on track. Car was pulling 7+ degrees of timing due to IAT correction and another 4 due to knock correction past 6k rpm. Car has a 7.5k limiter so the car was severely down on power most of the time on track plus the recovery period in the ecu after seeing excessive IATs.
Decided to do a standalone PCV setup using improved racing components. Their new CCS high efficiency catch cans are really free flowing and effective. Dual catch cans, remote check valve and two restrictor valves will be put in place of the stock PCV valve to prevent any oil from entering the intake tract and to ensure smooth idle with the restrictor valves while maintaining a free-flowing system. I'm assuming my new PCV has failed which is causing the excessive blow by. Best to just go to a more efficient and effective system.
Stock intercooler will be removed and coated with Cerakote thermal transfer and will add a diverter to help airflow to see how that affects the IATs. While apart, the entire intake tract will be deep cleaned as well as the header and exhaust to clear out all of the oil residue coating everything.
Lastly, I'll be swapping to a EWP and controller, Davies Craig 115 to relieve the SC and further reduce IATs and generally improve the system and free up the SC.
When everything is blown apart I'll see what else can be done to improve the IATs.
Once I address these issues, I'll log the car again to see how these have hopefully reduced the IATs drastically. Car will be back on track next season!
Had the header ceramic coated and I wrapped it with some DEI titanium wrap. During this latest teardown, I also added an improved racing catch can and PCV valve. From some initial small pulls, it looks like there's a 40-60* decrease in IATs at 85* ambient which was the goal so I'm happy to see that. Hoping to get the car out for some logging and longer pulls soon to get some side by side data comparisons.
Upon first start up after sitting, car ran for ~4-5 minutes while I was burping the cooling system and a horrific induction noise started and a clacking. After a moment of panic I started diagnosing and thinking it through. I narrowed it down to most likely be the SC given the induction noise and pulled it to confirm my suspicions. Sure enough, it had a ton of play in the rotors. Can't decide if it was coincidental that it failed after sitting for 6 months or if there was an underlying issue that finally was catastrophic. Also wondering if it may have caused some of my higher IATs like bad/seized bearings. I'll look into having it rebuilt since it's a ported M45 but need to do some research on vendors. Luckily, I pulled a low mile M45 out of a 2006 MCS parts car I bought a while ago and had it on the shelf. This one is nice and tight. Nice teflon coated M45 went back on the car and the noise was gone and all is well once more!
Other new things done.
1. New stainless brake lines
2. New rear calipers as one of my old ones was dragging
3. Finally welded in my Wideband bung to the x-force header instead of running it in the rear o2 port.
4. Added new foam to the hood to mate against the intercooler diverter as my old one was 1/2" gap. This should help direct air through the IC. Used some dense HVAC foam from Home Depot.
5. Put my spare M45 with teflon rotors on the car.
I've been battling calipers for the past couple of weeks. First one of my rear calipers I bought from RA had a stripped bleed screw, then one of the fronts came with the wrong bracket so pads wouldn't fit. Now, another front one is leaking air around the bleeder causing a soft pedal and fluid coming out around the bleeder while trying to bleed. I've bought maybe 20-24 calipers from RA over the years with zero issues and now suddenly it's like one after another is bad. Going to see if I can replace the bleed screw on this one instead of trying to get yet another new one. If that doesn't work, I'll buy new Napa calipers. Frustrating!
Been chasing coolant leaks the past couple days. With the new OEM thermostat the car is actually getting to temp compared to the 185* mishimoto thermostat that was in there where the car never got over 180-185 even on track. With the higher temps comes more pressure so had a couple leaks that have been swiftly resolved. Car is running great.
I signed up for VIR North in June for the 2-day Tarheel & Toe HPDS with BMW CCA which I'm excited for.
Looking forward to seeing you and the car in June. Missed you a couple of weeks ago. Funny, you lost a passenger CV axle in September and I cracked a boot on mine the last session that I ran on Sunday.
Looking forward to seeing you and the car in June. Missed you a couple of weeks ago. Funny, you lost a passenger CV axle in September and I cracked a boot on mine the last session that I ran on Sunday.
Look forward to seeing you as well, Stan!
Oh man, hopefully your experience wasn't as catastrophic as mine. Luckily it sounds like yours went late Sunday so you made it through the weekend. I still have that Autozone axle in my car oddly enough. Granted, I've only put maybe 30 miles on the car since it's been installed.
Newly coated intercooler on that was cleaned and coated with Cerakote heat dissipant coating. Also had a slight tune revision from Adrian since the AFRs were super rich up top in the rev range.
Other than that I've just been trying to put miles on it.
TLDR:
Went to VIR North track for a weekend with BMW CCA and made it through 3 sessions before having to withdraw. I put 3 new wheel bearings in the car (NSK/SKF) which failed during the last track weekend after being NEW. After 3 sessions the other weekend, both rear bearings had play in them. This ended my weekend as I didn't have spares on hand.
Longer version:
The Tuesday before the event I went to tech the car and the shop called out 3 bad wheel bearings. Huh?? I put brand new ones in <1000 miles ago and they only had 2 track days on them. I went out to the shop floor and sure enough, 3 of them were loose. Both rear and driver front. With no time for a warranty claim from the original vendor, I had to overnight 3 new ones from FCP (they had the ones I wanted on hand) which showed up Wednesday night. Threw them in the car and went back to tech Thursday and passed. My first couple sessions of the day on Saturday, the car felt good overall but had a few things that felt...off.
As we progressed through each session, I would notice the rear end was MUCH looser than early in the sessions and braking ability was diminished requiring me to brake earlier and earlier throughout the session. The fronts felt solid but I could tell the rears were overheating. After the 3rd session, I noted a very slight but odd feeling in the rear end that didn't sit right with me. Instead of staying the night, I opted to drive an hour home and give the car a good once over before Sunday. Got the car in the air and, sure enough, both rear bearings were loose and had thrown their grease.
My thinking here is that the e-brake or brakes are dragging, overheating the brakes and causing the bearings to overheat. The calipers and e-brake cables are new but obviously something is dragging. I confirmed this as whenever I adjust the e-brake, the wheels spin freely. Then, I go out for a drive and come back and jack the car up after actuating the e-brake a couple times and the rear wheels barely or don't really spin freely when pushed. This would explain the diminished brake feel later on in each session and the rapidly failing wheel bearings. In the meantime, I warrantied the original bearings and new ones showed up today. I still need to return the 3 I bought from FCP for new ones as well so I'll at least have an extra set laying around now.
Another disappointing thing was my IAT's. I had ceramic coated and titanium wrapped my X-force header hoping it would help reduce underhood temps but, alas, it did not. Temps never dropped below 150F on track and on the back straight by the tower, IAT's went from 155F coming out of hogpen to 190+F by T1. My car did not come with a intake cowl piece that is supposed to mate to the end of the JCW box so I sourced one of those as well as some intake cowl scoops to replace the vents and we'll see if that makes any kind of difference by stopping the constant drawing of hot air from the ending bay through the back of the box. Fingers crossed! Maybe turbo'ing the car is the way to go...
Things that have been added to the never-ending to-do list on this car:
1. Remove e-brake entirely.
2. New brake master and maybe (?) delete the booster. I've never liked the brake feel in this car and this may help bring a more consistent pedal feel. I'm still looking into this and deciding if it's the right move or not...
3. Install intake cowl plastic piece behind JCW air box and cowl scoops to try to get more cool air into the intake.
4. Look more seriously at hood vents
I'm going to try to make another event this year but with work travel and a new baby coming in September, that may not happen. Either way, the car is immensely fun to drive on track, I just need to get the bearing failures addressed and keep working towards lowering my IATs.
I think I found my culprit. Pulled the ebrake cables the other day and noted one of the fittings going into the cabin was broken/deformed and pressing on the cable pretty hard. It did not move through the sheathing smoothly at all which was likely causing my driver ebrake cable to not release fully and also hanging up the passenger side cable. This was an installation error on my part given the failure.
Oh well, the Ebrake is now out of the car and fully disconnected and the wheels spin freely so hopefully no more bearing issues!
Agreed, that's why I dismissed the ebrake cable last time because it was all new but clearly this was my doing.
Ebrake is permanently removed now so no more issues with it going forward.
I also got my new intake cowl piece fitted with my existing JCW box and am in process of putting on some cowl scoops to feed more air into the box hopefully dropping my IATs. I'm beating around the bush of doing a BVH and water injection to keep IATs in check to see if I can get them in a reasonable range with some other, cheaper mods first. We shall see!
Took the car for a drive today with the intake cowl installed and ebrake removed. I must say, the car is definitely more spunky with the ebrake cables removed. I can now see that it was definitely dragging!
The intake temps are MUCH more consistent now with the cowl. I also added some intake scoops on the cowl. During acceleration, the temps still climb but a lot slower and they stay much more consistent around town whereas before they jumped all around depending if I was on throttle or off. I call this a win on both accounts!
Picked up a set of wheels really cheap yesterday. 6UL 15x8 ET36 wheels. I've been wanting 15s and only a few wheels will fit over the R56 front brakes. They aren't perfect but will be excellent track wheels.
Yes, 949racing makes them. They are great track wheels as they're 11.9lbs per wheel making them the lightest 550kg rated 15" wheel on the market. That combined with the lifetime warranty which makes them excellent track wheels.
With another baby joining our family in October, I'm been giving some thought to my car stable. I had the thought of selling the Mini in favor of something I can drive around with the 2 kiddos but also take to the track if desired for the 1-2x per year I can get to the track. Will likely list it in a few months unless someone is interested in it and pings me.
Looking at E46 ZHP's (I had one years ago and miss it), E46 wagons (swap in a ZHP drivetrain), E91. Can you say wagon track build???
The mini has been an awesome project and I had a blast building it but may be time to move on. TBD. It's in a good place now and is a monster on track.
Well, right as I thought I may be getting out of the Mini game, I went to visit a buddy who owns a shop/towing company and we were chatting about my R53 and he mentioned he had one that he wants to get out of his lot. Long story short, I left with a free 2006 JCW 6MT in BRG/Cordoba with 113k miles. Besides the bad tint and fender dent in the hood, the car is in nice shape but needs a little mechanical love, nothing major. Interior looks mint. Hope to have it running and driving soon but knowing me, I'll have to resist tearing this one down for a full refresh. Pretty stoked except for the fact that my wife seems to have taken an interest in it...we'll have to see how that plays out.
This was frustrating but I never ended up putting new guides in the head when I had the motor done as I couldn't find any at the time (supply issues from Covid) and so I rolled with the valve guides that were in the head already (likely stock). Well, for a while now, the car has had a puff of smoke at startup after sitting and slowly has been getting more and more oil smoke during operation until it turned into a misfire the other week when I went to start it up after a couple months of sitting. So I took the head off and sent it back out for new supertech valve guides and seals and valve/seat grind. Got the head back on and the engine mounts back mounted tonight and just need to finish assembling the engine and put it back together. This should fix my issue and bring the car back to 100%.
I'm also thinking of re-routing my oil cooler lines to be low instead of going up and over the engine. Will see what I come up with...
First annoyance was one of the heads of the timing guide bolt plug (?) stripped. Ordered another from FCP to replace it.
Head off and at the machine shop. Cometic head gasket looked great. Ordered another to go on as I don't re-use them.
The head has been back on the car for a while now and it's running strong! However, due to coming across another vehicle that I've been wanting for a while now, this car is going to go up for sale in the coming weeks. With the infant and toddler, I'm just not getting to the track much anymore and likely not for the coming years so this doesn't make sense to keep right now. If anyone is interested, feel free to reach out via PM.
