Hello guys, have found the forums on here extremely useful while doing some repairs to my MIni over the last few weeks. I have finally got round to doing the timing chain replacement on my R56 and got all the parts tightened up ready to hand crank the engine over to test the timing before the final torquing of the VANOS and timing sprocket. I thought i'd give the guide rail bolts a final torque check before taking off the cam locking tools. Got to the last guide rail bolt and it gave way on me while torquing!! Now it just spins in either direction so I can't seem to remove it to replace with a new one. Can't believe it!! Whats the best course of action here?

 

Grab the guide with vice-grips and lift it. Then you can drill out the damaged threads and use the common hardware store repair. Gonna get metal shavings everywhere so be careful.

Mini used two different size bolts for this guide. Sounds like you used the wrong torque spec. https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/ has all the info you need.

 

One of the guides ha the wrong torque value in the Bentley Manual. I think it was the one for the top-10 mm bolts. I stripped it out and hd to put a longer bolt in it with the correct torque

 

I've been using a Haynes manual. It has them down as 22 ft-lbs (30Nm)

 

I have a new bolt here ready to go and just waiting for the postie to deliver a screw extractor kit. Hopefully that will help remove the broken end of the bolt without having to lift the guide rails out again. I've aready torqued to crankshaft bolt down and don't fancy having to do it again! Was an absolute bear to get the old one off and the new one torqued to 180 degrees.

 

The M6 bolts at the top rail should be 8nm or 5.6ft pounds.
I stripped it out but put a longer bolt in it and it held torque.

 

Sorry I should have been more specific with my original post. It’s one of the larger guide rail bolts I’ve broken, the ones with the rubber seal around them. I’ll attach a pic of the broken bolt

 

Bentley says 22 ft lbs.
must have been over torqued at some point. You should be able to unscrew the rest of the bolt left in the block with a scribe.

 

Hey, is this a common problem? I have now broken two of them both of them when I was trying to reach 22 foot-pounds. Luckily my son doesn't mind using the extractors. I bought the new bolts from MiniMania and am seriously thinking about only torquing them to 18 foot-pounds with a bit of locktite. Any thoughts or recommendations?

Thanks

 

This thread is talking about two different sets of bolts. I suggest you look up the torque specs in newtis.info.

 

Thanks, I wish I'd looked at this before. No wonder I snapped the bolt. Appreciate the pain you saved me.

 

I'm in the Mini hell trying to remove the upper timing chain guide bolt that some fool either over-torqued or used locktite. So far I've used two easy-outs with no joy. The torque value for this bolt is only 30Nm (22 ft-lbs). Never use locktite, and if your tightening stuff know your torque values. Next step is to hire someone to weld a nut onto the bolt, or completely drill it out and replace with a Heli-Coil.

 

The lower guide pins are supposed to be torqued to 23 ft lbs (Converted from 32 NM)
The upper one (in the cylinder head) is 18 ft lbs (25 NM). Bentley doesn't provide a torque value for this bolt (see pg 117-22).
N12 and N16 engine specs for these fasteners are the same.





All good timing chain kits come with new pins.

 

Went to the parts store and bought an improved spiral easy-out (#4), redrilled with a left-hand drill, put my adapter onto my 24" breaker (T-handle doesn't provide enough torque), said a prayer, and put my substantial weight into it. It let go with a crack - I thought I had cracked the block. Lesson - don't rely on cheap Chinese crap (first easy-out).