I am at 90k and my Cooper S has never had its intake valves decoked. The car stumbles and runs really rough on idle at startup. Used the Seafoam method all along, but this just delays the inevitable in my experience. I am following directions found here and other places, and using "Hazard Fraught" and BMW tools. I was able to get the BMW/MINI blasting wand and retrofit it to the HF blaster gun thanks to an adapter I purchased from http://www.bimmerhelp.info

Here is the wand:


I am using the standard BMW / MINi vac head that fits in the valve opening. I will take lots of pictures and hope to have a combined doc on how to build the tool from BMW and HF parts that is all inclusive of the different methods out there including the need to remove the 10mm bolt on the knee brace.

Also lots of dirty and then clean intake pictures. These are always so satisfying.

 

Getting ready to do this myself! Can't wait for the uploads!

 

Going to be another day probably next week as we have tornados predicted today and I am camping all week. I am through cleaning cylinder 1 and 4. 4 was soo coked up it took a solid hour of on again off again blasting. 3 is going to be even worse. All in all the directions out there are okay. They omit the fact that there are 3 harnesses that are clipped to the intake with normal removable grommets an 2 with slide type grommets. I will get pics of these. Also that 10 mm elbow bolt was a pisser. My socket would just not get in there okay but I got it. I am too sore to continue today but should finish next week. If you can, get a boreascope. The mirror method works but kind of sucks.

The first 2 sets of valves look great after they were completed. This just takes massive persistence if you have never had it done like me (90k on the odo).

On a funny note I had my wife turning the crank bolt while I watched the valves open and close. She got to the compression part of the stroke and it was fighting her. I told her I was happy there was still some pinch left in the piston. Her reply "dork!" I love her.

 

Subscribed! And looking forward to it when you have a chance.

 

It's going to be this coming Saturday. As a bonus, I was looking at my Serpentine Belt and noticed some cracking so I will change that out as well and document that with pictures.

Stay tuned. Sorry it's going to be next weekend. I will be in the boonies all week camping.

 

Sorry guys I suck. Because of time I had to finish this in relative darkness. I pretty much followed the great directions from Texasmontego on this only I deviated in the following ways:
- when pulling the intake throttle body assembly out I removed the following in addition to his instructions
- I removed 2 plastic slide clips holding wires onto the intake throttle assembly
- I pulled out 3 of the zip tie wire grommets also from the assembly (You will know what these are when you get around to pull the assembly back
- I removed the 10mm bolt on the elbow bracket that connects the side of the throttle body to a brace in the car. This is visable with the passenger tire off. You cannot remove the manifold without breaking it if you do not remove this bolt first
- I open and closed the intake valves using a ratchet on the crank pulley bolt. This was accessible by removing 2 clips in the passenger side tire area and peeling back the liner. This is so much better than goosing the starter.
- I disconnected the battery
- I did walnut shell blasting obviously. No carb cleaner was used.
- I used the BMW tools http://www.ecstuning.com/ES2166079/ and http://www.ecstuning.com/ES2166078/. The later tool I integrated with a Harbor Freight blasting wand as talked about in my first post. This wand was included in the next item.
- I used a harbor freight portable abrasive blaster kit
- my throttle body was fairly clean so no disassembly and cleanup
- basically did 20 seconds of trigger pull while indexing the wand in and then pulled the media hose, plugged the hole and did 20 seconds of straight air. I did this 5 times in succession and then checked the intake with a mirror and flashlight. On the really bad intakes it took 3 of these for a total of 15 cycles of media on and media off. Beware you must have dry air. If you don't have a filter/dryer for your compressor, get one. They are relatively inexpensive. Also sometimes the walnut shells can get clogged in the gun. When you go to spray just air using the gun you will fell preasure as you hold your finger over the nub where the media hose attaches. You should normally feel vacuum. Just hold your finger on their tightly and on trigger pull it will blast out the clog and continue to hold your finger there as you index the gun in and out with just compressed air. (This gets rid of pooled shells)

I could not take pictures due to lighting conditions when tearing down and putting back.

Complexity: Hard but not impossible. Anyone with a modicum of familiarity with turning a wrench and some confidence can do it. Be warned that on the dirtiest of intakes it took over an hour of blasting and then shooting in air to get them clean.

Is it worth it? I'll let you know after my HPFP is replaced under warranty. But right off the bat the throttle response is smooth and Idle, once past the HPFP stage 1 is buttery smooth.

Please ask questions if you have them. I am pretty well versed in tearing down certain parts of the engine and returning them with all of the factory clips etc so ask if your stuck or you just have a question.

 

Just got my car back today with a brand new HPFP installed under warranty. I had the stall / sputter on start issues even after the intake blasting, although they seemed less rough. Dealer observed misfire and found the 1st stage pressure at 1.1MPA when spec is 5. The car drives like a dream now. Starts easy, runs smooth and acceleration is quick. Doing the blasting is definitely worth it.

I got a kick out of the service advisor (great guy, great dealership). When I came in to pick it up he mentioned that the mechanic asked if the customer had done the intake blasting himself. I replied yes I did to which he stated, almost all customers have no idea that this needs to be done let alone the skills to do this. I explained how I did it and he said, you must be an engineer. Flattered, but not a mech engineer, just a computer one who God granted the knowledge on of how to turn a wrench. There is a certain satisfaction in doing it yourself and having it turn out right.

 

I assume you got your walnut shell from Harbor Frieght as well. If so, i think it safe you got the 25# box. But did you get the fine or coarse media?

 

I did purchase it from HF. I got the 25# fine grit media. Not sure if rough or fine is better, but everything I read said use fine.

 

Cool! Fine it is! Thank you! BTW I finally found someone who was selling their adapter. Thank you for being willing to work with me should I have needed to use your adapter, very kind of you.

 

Great to hear. If you get hung up on any part of the process ping me and I will see if I can help.

 

Will do, thanks again

 

Did you forget to remove the spark plugs??