Didn't see that coming... melted valve cover
 

I spent the weekend at Roebling Road with three other buddies. They were driving.....

Porsche GT3
Z06 Corvette with 433 WHP
Nissan 350Z (stock)

With the RMW tune, I damaged a lot of egos this weekend. The GT3 and Corvette would blow my doors off on the straight away and even the 350 would pull on me a bit but it was only a matter of a few turns and I was on them like ants to a picnic.

The mini handled FLAWLESSLY. I was on their butt so hard that no matter what turn they came to, I was there. It was only a matter of time before they'd have to give me the point by just so I'd quit riding their butts.

Absolutely fantastic.

Now for the downside. I scalded that car so hard this weekend, this happened.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...w/IMG_0584.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...w/IMG_0585.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y29...w/IMG_0586.jpg

Apparently the heat shield deflected the heat to the valvecover and completely melted the end. (I should have taken a pic of it with the heatshield off...the end was melted bad)

I drove back from the track and by the time I got to my buddy's house 25 minutes away and by then, it was warped enough to leak oil.

I guess it was my fault. After a session on the track, I typically would pull it in and open the hood. Apparently, I should have pulled it in, opened the hood and let it run for 5-10 minutes to cool it off.

It ended up melting the air intake tube, the valvecover and wiring harness. (not to mention completely burning a hole in the kevlar padding on the heat shield.

The car ran like a raped aped but damn, completely didn't see this coming.

I had to leave the car in SC and ride up with a buddy. On the bright side, it will be towed to Charleston Mini who is much more mod friendly than my local dealer. While it's in the shop, I'll have them to the timing chain tensioner bulletin update.

Oh well....


Mark

Wow, sorry for the meltdown.

:confused: To clarify; was this the MINI installed heat shield or an addition to prevent hood scoop warp? :confused:

Has the hood scoop warped?

Holy god! Kevlar shouldn't decompose until it gets to the ever so toasty range of 750F or so :eek: I suppose it's no wonder so much damage was done.

I guess I just have to wonder though...MINI designed these cars to handle well and aggressively in the twisties. A bazillion MINIs have been auto-x'd by now. Is this an isolated event to your car? Were you really driving it that much harder than anyone else?

I hope your repairs are easily done and that there are no lasting effects.

Well I could have been that he wasn't getting good air flow. But he could have been redlining like it was cool. These cars are ment to be reliable under normal conditions not under race conditions. But hey you live and you learn. I guess now its run it balls out for 20-30 minutes and let it sit for 5 or see if can increase the air flow.

Sorry to see oc! What heatshield is that? The M7 aerogel?

The heat comes from the TurboCharger which is cooled both by engine coolant and engine oil circulating through while engine is running.

The MINI Engine does have a special pump to keep coolant flowing for a while after shutdown, but not oil (which can 'coke' on the shaft/bearings from heat).

So, it is a good idea to allow the engine to idle for at least three minutes after any 'intensive' run, before shutdown. You can include any 'gentle driving' in this 'cool-down' time.

No offensive: this whole heat shield/turbo glove thing simply doesn't make any sense. :no:

Which part doesn't make sense? The heatshield is installed to keep the hood scoop from warping under normal driving conditions.

It's a pretty common problem with Minis.... regardless whether they are stock or tracked.

Unfortunately, the heat shield didn't like that much heat.


I think you hit it on the head. I SHOULD have let it idle for a few minutes to keep the flow going until it cools down.


Yep... sure was. :sad:


I wonder if they'll warranty it.



That is my biggest fear... damage done to the turbo or bearings. I mentioned this to the SA and he said they'd pull the oil lines going into the turbo. If they are coked on the inside, they'd replace everything, if not, we're cool. (I hope)

Mark

:nod:It's a paradox : heat shield are usually installed together with nice engine mod. But then people with engine mod/performance upgrade tend to drive harder than normal (outside of normal driving conditions).

Keep us updated oc. Hate to see this. Hope everything works out with minor out of pocket! :nod:

How about a turbo timer. Is that even possible on a MINI. I was thinking about getting one to help prevent problems.

Sorry, not sure if I clarified this answer.... yes, it was an addition to prevent the hood scoop warp. I used the M7 aerogel heatshield.

I have no warpage on the hood scoop since I would open the hood as soon as I parked... (just failed to leave the car running long enough to cool down.)

LESSON LEARNED!!!

Duuuuuuude!

Adds new meaning to the phrase "Drive it like ya stole it".
:lol:

Sounds like you had a blast. Hope everything goes back together in a relatively low-pain manner.

Dude this sucks. I feel your pain:sad:

I was under the impression that the S and JCW already have a cooling system that continues to operate after the engine shuts off.

I suspect the issue is that the heat shield trapped the heat in the engine compartment, or reflected it back to the engine.

A quick idea: how about wire an extra sensor close to heat shield and feed the temp readout to Mini's factory turbo timer? :roll:

But this sort of solution won't help if the damage is partially made during hard driving(e.g. the engine ECU/temp sensor doesn't take care of the rising temp around the heat shield/turbo area in the engine bay).

Ya but what a turbo timer does is keep the car running to help cool off everything based on the condition on how hard the engine ran. It will keep blowing air and circulate coolant through the motor also. And in doing that it will prevent the turbo from seizing. The car kinda already does it but its not enough.

Orangecrush, sorry to hear about the problem but since the car is at the dealership, have them check the valve cover and PCV/oil seperator.

About a year ago, the morning after a track day, my car started and ran really rough. Seemed to run on only two cylinders, stalled and a plume of white smoke came out of the tail pipe.

Turned out there was oil sludge accumulation under the valve cover and the cylinder head gasket, valve seals, valve guides and valve cover had to be replaced due to the PCV/oil seperator allowing oil into the intake. This seemed to do the trick for me.

I've also had the timing chain fix done and the car is a rocket on the track.

Be sure to ask them to check the valve cover and PCV/oil seperator as this was redesigned. Also have the check the low pressure fuel supply hose since they found that this contributed to the misting I had on my motor.

Haven't had any problem since but I really take it easy on the cool down lap and try to let the car sit for a bit with the motor running after each session. Don't know if this helps but it can't hurt.

Good luck and keep us posted on what they find as the culprit.

Cheers!

PS: I love the Helix intercooler and RMW tune!!!

You did keep up with the G3 but I'm guessing he didn't burn up his shield/valvecover so I guess you can look at it 2 ways as to who won that race lol. Is there any way the heat shield contributed to the heat damage (I don't know where it goes under there)? Sounds like you're fortunate to get warranty to cover that stuff.

Most interesting, scalded motor. I think this was what happened to the guy in Utah who had to replace his head.

Not sure his was track related or due to the heat shield but I do remember a melted valve cover.

Other than getting some happy time on the track lapping, how did the JCW compare to the last time you ran without the tune?

Were you running light (OZ) 17s and new tires?

I do hope your guys at the dealer are real mod friendly, good luck my friend.

I'm still enjoying the heck out of your MINI Challenge wheels.

I was going to run this Sat. at HPR, but we a projecting a rain/snow mix. :mad:

Hopefully I can get a day in before full winter sets into Colorado.

Don

LOL, win the battle, lose the war, huh? :lol:

Honestly, I don't think any of this would have happened had I done a cooldown lap or at least let it run for a while afterwards. Unfortunately, I was in it right up until one of our members (who shall remain nameless Ben) got the run blackflagged. :lol:

I didn't hear back from the dealership today but will give an update when I hear something.


Mark

I hope I didn't do any damage to the head. Obviously melting plastic came first but guess I'll never know.

The dealer is definitely mod friendly and they have an EXCELLENT service dept.

I did run the 17" OZ's with Bridgestone RE-11's. They were superb, they stuck like glue for street tires.

As far as running, the JCW with RMW tune was FANTASTIC!!!! The car hauled azz...had an absolute blast.

I'm sorry to hear you had bad weather, it was in the 80's...great weather.

Mark

More like going to have bad lapping weather for this coming Saturday. I prefer the track to be in the 50s/60s. :)

A little wet, just adds to the fun. :nod:

Let us know how it all turns out. If you have to do a head, I suggest a port and polish. :-)

Don

Those statements remind me of the ant and the elephant joke. I'll try to keep it somewhat clean in the interest of a public forum but it goes something like this...

An ant pulls a thorn out of an elephants foot. The elephant is so relieved she says she'll do anything to repay the ant. "Well" says the ant..."I always have wanted to have sex with an elephant". "OK"...says the elephant so the ant climbs onto the elephant and proceeds to do his business. About that time a coconut falls on the elephants head and the elephant screams "OUCH!!". "Yeah, that's right....take it all #$@%!!" says the ant triumphantly.

I guess what I'm saying is that I doubt seeing you in the rearview mirror damaged any egos :grin:...it's cool you had fun though and I'm sorry to hear about the melted valve cover!

I thought the only time they replaced the chain tensioner item was if it was actually broken. I didn't know they took care of it as a recall item. I had my Mini at the dealer for the rattle and they never replaced anything because they said the noise came from my cai rattleing against the strut brace.

Vince