Hi everyone my name is Sam. I'm 18 and I live in German, for my first car I decided to buy a r53. Being the cheap person I am I went for the cheapest example on the market and it kind of backfired on me. The car was sold to me with a TUV (TUV is the inspection that every car has to go through here in Germany every two years), however the TUV was faked from the last owner. Long story short couldn't return the car and getting a lawyer that costs 1000-1500 euros for a car that cost me about that price just didn't make sense so I accepted my loss and decided to fix the car. On top of all of these the car had a blown head gasket. So far I rebuilt the top of the engine, I got a new cam and second hand hydraulic lifter, sprockets, chain, tensioner, new valves, changed every gasket apart from the rear main seal, new thermostat, water pump, got a second hand supercharger which was in better condition than mine+new oil, new front pulley and new injectors. The suspension in front is fully new with power flex bushes. I used to have experience working on cars from before but the Mini was a completely different story, overall it was a pain in the *** working on the car since everything is so close to each other and you need to remove almost everything for repairs on top of all of this many of the bolts were rusty and didn't come of easily but what do you expect for a 20 year old car in Germany. I got to drive the car after almost 4 months of working on the car when I had time and at the end it was worth it.

After the rebuild I feel like my engine is too loud and I can't understand where the noise is coming from, I feel like it is the lifters but I want to see if anyone has had a similar issue and what the noise ended up being. I attached a video of the engine running in this post






This is how the car is standing, I also got these rims second hand.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, any feedback or help will be appreciated since I don't know any mini experts around where I live.

Sam

 

That noise is not that uncommon. You did mention that you installed used lifters during your rebuild and that may be one of your issues. You can always go up one step in oil viscosity to quieten the engine. 5w30 synthetic is what you should use but stepping up to 5w40 may help your noise problem. Of course, that 40-weight oil may too heavy for a cold German winter. Nice work, by the way and welcome to the Mini family.

 

what cooper48 said.

Great work!

 

Thanks for the replies. I installed another exhaust lifter set from a different car from the Pick and Pull. The engine I took the exhaust lifters from was in very good condition, seemed like low kms and also no oil sludge.
Now I feel like a couple of my lifters on the intake side might be problematic. Is there any way to make sure that the lifter is working properly before installing, apart from the hydraulic part having a bit of play?
I also already went to 5w40 I can't imagine how loud it would be with 5w30.

 

@cooper48 I saw that you have done the one-ball mod. How much difference does it make? From what I have read the right muffler thing is the resonator so I'm scared of the car having drone on the highway.

 

The one-ball mod provides a slighter louder exhaust note but creates no drone on the highway. My MC40 has also been tuned so on deceleration the mod also provides a nice little burble.