The o-ring at the hose behind the water pump is shot. Got everything loose, plenty of movement, the thermostat body is loose and the hose won't come off the thermostat. Yes the clip is removed and the hose at the pump end is off. Is there a superman trick. I'm lying on top of the engine putting as much force as I can muster and it only moves a bit out. Somehow it doesn't want to move more than an 1/8" or so.

 

So got it out and the pump side connection was totally gone. Broken. No O-ring in sight. The plastic lip was still in the housing. Fished it out. **** is all I can say. Any wise thoughts? That's a new pump and the engine has not been run since it was installed. I noticed the leak while trying to refill the system.

 

This shows how much is missing.

 

I just hate plastic parts.

 

Tips for access to water pipe and thermostat. In the back completely remove intake manifold. To gain access to thermostat which does need to be moved at least a few inches even if not replaced disconnect wiring at O2 sensor, coils, remove coils, sensors and unclip from the cover. Once it's loose the plastic wire guard lifts up and pulls away enough to access the bolts to the thermostat. It's not necessary to unhook any hoses or connections to the thermostat it will move enough to remove the pipe. It may take laying on top of the engine and effort to remove the pipe as it has sat for years in it's position. There's at least one electrical connection at the fuel rail that needs to be disconnected. Oh, and disconnect your battery before starting. It's a Saturday afternoon job at most.

 

If there was an improvement to this setup, I'd like an aluminum pipe and aluminum housing for the thermostat. Then again I wouldn't mind if the whole intake manifold was also aluminum.

 

Been out testing and I have a question. What is the normal engine temperature range on a R56 turbo model?

 

Right around 220 F

 

Thanks. I'm getting between 216 to 225 F. I'm still checking for air. I think I got it all out. Only strange thing that happened and I suspect some battery issue is I had to reinsert my Navigation disc and while cooling her down on my drive she just cut off and shut down. I restarted her and no problems. Earlier, she had sat for weeks and when I was getting close to finishing the repairs I hooked up the battery and ran the heater and got the battery symbol. Going to let her cool down then check the fluid level and go pick up some freon.

 

It's hot out here I need to top off the AC. Here's a look on what it's running.

 

Those pipes can be a pain. Most of the time they crack at the end. When I did mine it was not cracked and could be reused.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...stat-pipe.html

Are you still leaking coolant?

 

As of the last time I checked, no. But, the day is young and without bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all. Had a good test drive yesterday. I never knew of a way to check the running temperature before, but the DashCmd works nicely. I'm still going to check bleeding it a few more days. I was surprised that the temperature reaches around 226F at times, mostly low 220's though or high 2teens. By the way I bought a Schwaben transverse engine support bar from y'all a few years back, great tool. I made a mod to it for the MINI, my own piece of engineering and design, lol.




https://www.ecstuning.com/b-schwaben...595sch01a~sch/
Note the front extensions. It's my design for a MINI.

 

Yes, I noticed that before and looked liked you change it, that works great.

Hopefully no more leaks. My JCW N14 engine runs into the 225 on hot days. The sport mode and air conditioning on can kick down the temp a little to 217 ish.

 

Sounds like I'm in the ball park then.

 

At what temperature does the JCW reach an overheat critical point? The DashCmd app starts it's red area at 230F. That made me wonder about the temp.

 

I have not had it overheat, or an overheat light come on but I had it up to 229 and the fan would kick on. This was running on a track day and getting it hot. After the cool down the fan would run for about 3 mins then shut off. If you fan runs all the time and its cool, you have a problem and air in the system. If the fan runs after ever run and its cool, then low coolant or a bad thermostat, temp sensor.

I would say on a hot texas day and you dont have it in sport mode or the a/c on, you could get it up in that range. If you go to 240-250 ish then I would be concerned.

If you worry overall. Bleed the crap out of that system, i rebleed mine like 3 times on the Cooper S I had to get all the air out and then it was happy.

 

Great info. I'll check and bleed, but I'm getting more comfortable with it thanks to your input. Thanks again!

 

Welcome.

 

I did the Tstat and whole Detroit tuned oil line and cooler seals etc back in early 2016. I did not understand exactly how the water pipe was attached, and the plan was to sell the car when I got my 2016 Clubman. I decided to keep the car, and knew I would need to tackle the pipe and WP eventually. Passed inspection at 69k miles, 3 months ago, but was told the WP was leaking and I was down on coolant with a slow leak. Got quotes of $1100-1400! Two shops said they wouldn't even do it! I decided to do it myself based on the videos and posts.

I used the Graf pump, & pipe, and got all the parts from the same online supplier, plus I replaced the serp belt & expansion tank, as it always leaked a little whenever I changed the oil filter, and was very yellow and a known possible issue. About $220 in parts. I have a low rise lift, (EZCarlift) and air tools and did the jack engine up method, which in my case was lift the whole car, then lower the chassis once the engine mount was disconnected and the engine blocked on a jack stand. It took me 16 hours from wheels up to wheels down, including an oil change, and a lot of time cleaning up spilled coolant, and oil from the intake, pipes and butterfly. Most of the time was wasted on stuck bolts/pipes/hoses and access to them. I'm sure, now that the bolts are free, I could do it in 6-7 hrs. Wasted an hour plus just getting that damn rear 13mm bolt that holds up the underside of the intake manifold. Access is awful, and the bolt head is shallow and surrounded. Ended up using a combination of extensions and a universal with the passenger wheel off to access it. The charge hoses are a royal PITA to separate after being together for 10 years. A lot of time wasted TRYING to get them apart, and only finally getting the ones to the intake off. I can now take the intake off in 20 mins. Was more like 3 hours the first time. I NEVER GOT ANY OF THE ONES AT THE IC OFF! I ended up using a short 90 degree ratchet with a torx to disconnect the one attached to the passenger side of the radiator (another PITA) and just rotating it out of the way when needed.

The coolant system is impossible to drain completely, so even with the bottom hoses off, expect a lot of coolant when the Tstat is loosened & the water pipe comes off. I had to disconnect 3 hoses from the Tstat as well as that L shaped wiring harness on top of it in order to remove the 3 tstat bolts to get enough play to wiggle out the pipe. I took me the better part of 40 minutes struggling to get that dam pipe separated from the Tstat, because, I believe the new o-ring on the tstat made such a tight seal. With enough twisting and light hammer taps, the pipe finally came loose, and was separated at the block end of the intake to the WP, just like everyone else has shown. Access is awkward so it's hard to get a god grip and leverage on the ^%$#& thing. Weak *** stupid design. I made sure I removed all the stuck old pieces and the old o-ring from the block, but I decided to not replace the pipe until I had the WP out so I could be sure all pieces were removed.

Getting the motor mount brackets and surrounding crap off was a PITA, because of the access to the bolts, higher torques, etc, but faster and easier than the pipe was. Once the chassis was lowered enough to tip the engine up and angled, water pump access was easy and it came out easy. Plenty of clearance for the Graf shaft, which does unexplainably stick out WAY farther than it needs to. The serp belt was not too bad to replace, maybe another 40 min while everything was exposed. Once that was all back together I installed the pipe. Make SURE to take pics of the pipe before you remove it, and mark/note the exact orientation of the pipe in the block and insert it right the first time. It does not rotate well once inserted, and it is angled so bad, that the oring seal to the tstat will not be square if it is off. There were two tabs on the new pipe that were not on the old one and are unused. There are a lot of connectors that have to be detached to remove the intake manifold, so be sure to note and take pics of them. I thought I had and still struggled some trying to get them all attached and correct.

Everything was sealed well, as I use a Uview Airlift, which is the best $100 I ever spent. Sucks all the air out of the system, which tests for leaks, then uses the vacuum to suck the coolant back in to the system, so you know there is no air to bleed, as it was all sucked out.

Only issue is now every once and a while I get a check engine, and no code! It clears itself after running a day, and shows no codes stored. Code only happens under hard acceleration, like passing someone, and only sometimes. Maybe an O2 sensor. I have not been able to get a code reader on the car when the CE is on, but since it clears itself, it can't be too bad, I guess.