I had a rattling sound coming from my engine now since August this year. A few weeks ago I was racing a Porche carrera (and won) and accidently shifted into second and let out the clutch at around 90 mph for a brief second and broke the supercharger belt. It revved very high! I put a new one on and it seemed to be fine, but tonight I accelerated through the gears which I do regularly and the rattling turned into a knock imminently and it got loud. I lost a little bit of power and coasted to my house which was coincidentally just down the road . I took off the valve cover just in case it was something there and realized that I probably have a spun bearing or broken connecting rod bolt. What caused this? What is the easiest way to fix it? Pull the motor? Remove the head? Subframe? Yikes The car had very little oil not even registering on the stick yet I had never had a check engine or oil pressure light come on.
I actually have it on camera which I was using to record the sound from the new RMW header. I'm not sure you can hear it but it happened when I rolled on the throttle in second gear after decelerating then it really got loud which you can hear it at the last half second of the video-

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...49546038&hl=en

 

Sorry to hear that. Knocks don't usually get better and go away. In that situation, since I have an extra vehicle, I'd consider my pocketbook to see if a stroker is possible. Does the stroker use the same head as the 1.6?

 

90 mph in second, about 12000 rpm suprised the crank isn't laying on the ground. Bad luck

 

Well, I didn't completely depress the clutch since it scared the heck out of me. I don't know if I was doing 90, maybe it was 80. The early transmissions have a couple loooong gears! And the knock seemed to have started as a rattle before that. I think I broke a bolt down there somewhere =(
I can't afford a stroker either=( =(

 

Spun a bearing is my guess. low oil high revs =bad things. Good luck was just in your town to do alittle island hopping. Good times... good times!

 

Fraid so, i am really bummed trying to justify a complete rebuild w/ RMW parts n pieces or just address the problem and get it back on the road.
Im glad you like it here in Anacortes, the islands are beautiful. Hope the motorcycle festival didn't get in your way=)

 

It is very likely that you bent a rod from the rpm. This is the reason it didn't knock right away, the bent rod has been damaging the rod big end slowly and now it has failed. If the car ran without oil, you may have damaged main bearings too. The chance is very good that the crank is damaged, this is an engine-out repair. I will saythat the Mini engine that survived this at all is a testament to really good design. I have missed shifts in my race car and it scrams the motor, often with the rod through the block.

 

That shift in known in racing parlance as "The Money Shift".

 

Or a 'paradigm shift'; in which the accumulation of monies is the prime mover.

 

Yup you should pull the motor....it makes it much easier to work on, plus you can inspect the block in better light. If the block is good and you didnt mess up the bore in the cylinder you bent the rod, then you are only looking at replacing the bottom end....crank/main bearings/rod bearings/ and you might as well upgrade the rods and pistons if you havent done so on the pistons yet.

 

Thanks for the great input I plan on shedding some light on this failure and rebuilding it for peace of mind with even better parts. I hope it doesn't cost too much...There goes my vacation this year

 

That sounds bout right, thanks.

How much did your rebuild cost, or how much should I plan on spending if I get good deals on parts? I think Im going to do the clutch while Im at it. It probably doesn't like mis-shifts either...

 

Anyone want a great deal on a shrick cam to help pay for my troubles?

 

Well I spun a bearing on number one, the rest of the top bearings look bad. Only three dirty quarts of Mobile one 0/40 left to show for. Gulp.
More tomorrow-

 

One sad Mini!