Stage 0
Hello and thank you if you read to the end of this long post. Perhaps I should begin by saying that I'm an idiot. I typically do better research, and if I had, I would never have purchased my beautiful Laser Blue 2007 Mini Cooper S with JCW Aero kit. Oh, and white stripes. Dead sexy. Also my first automatic transmission, boo <cry>, but my knees cannot take shifting in traffic any more. Army+running+sport clutch in traffic+old man. On the up side, the brilliant paddle shift sport automatic is one of the best I've driven and rivals even the paddle shift in the BMW 550i M-Sport.

I hope this thread will become a document of my experience and of the process of evaluating, sourcing, and installing many modifications for my Mini. I am not the only one, and nothing like this exists in one place yet that I have found. Maybe this can help someone else.

Why 'Stage 0'? The purpose of these modifications are to fix many problems that this great little car came from the factory with. I am spending money to make this car into what it should or could have been when factory new. I am fully invested in making the N14 motor reliable for the next 100k miles of ownership. This means addressing its problems and not taking things too far in terms of performance. Some of these mods will result in more power, better sound, more responsive throttle...but they are all primarily intended to keep the motor and turbo from eating themselves.

Back Story
I purchased this car from a very nice school teacher in August of 2016. I paid the best BMW/Euro shop in the area to do a thorough PPI, drove it for about a month, and then the problems started.

The car has been on jack stands in my garage for about 7 months now. The head is off of the motor and the valves are being redone. I've put about 1500 miles on the car since I purchased it.

Crank case ventilation resulted in oil accumulation at the mouth of the turbo inlet. This caused my turbo inlet to become brittle and break, allowing air to bypass the MAF and the air filter and get sucked directly into the motor. CEL and rough starts.

Smoke tests also revealed a cracked valve cover. Replaced with gasket.

More starting problems, this time tracked down to the HPFP. Sending units tested fine (yay!). Fuel Pump replaced under the BMW warranty campaign (yay!).

About a week later the car won't start again. Back to the local Mini dealer, but now I find that the intake is off by 9 degrees and the exhaust is off by 6 degrees. Timing chain time. At this point, for gossipy reasons that are not suitable to include in this post, I am losing confidence in the local Mini dealer and the car comes back to my garage. I do the timing chain job.

Post timing chain no start. Double/triple check everything, no love. Compression test time.

120, 0, 30, 115

Yikes, run the test 5 more times, 4 compression strokes per cylinder. Nominally similar results.

Leak down test time. Oil back out of the car. Coolant drained. Turbo inlet removed and balloon over the intake part of the turbo. Balloon over the coolant expansion lid. 85psi charge in the air compressor.

#2 TDC, air rapidly escaping from cylinder #1 spark plug hole.
#3 TDC, air somewhat rapidly escaping from cylinder #4 spark plug hole, turbo balloon also weakly inflating.
No noises from the oil filter housing, no noises from the exhaust, no air coming out of the expansion tank. Run the test 8 more times to be sure.

Conclusion: When #2 is TDC, #1 is in the intake stroke. Air is traveling out of the open valve in #2 (that should be closed), down the intake manifold, and out of cylinder #1. Same story for #3/#4. Suspect bent/stuck valves for intake #2 and #3. This was confirmed when I pulled the head. Gaps between the valves and the head that were large enough to read through when the valves were in the 'closed' position. Careful inspection of the head gasket and 5+ day soak of seafoam on the pistons determines no problems at the gasket, pistons, or rings.

At this point I've done everything (including pulling the head) using the videos found on the Mini Adventure YouTube site (thank you brother!): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCD...8JIGskDeqtJU1w Thought I did purchase the Bentley manual for reassembly.

Time to start doing a LOT of research. This is the point where I wanted to roll the car to the end of my driveway and light it on fire. After a couple weeks I calmed down and came to the realization that it's not the car's fault that it left the factory with so many problems and was then neglected by its next two owners. There are many great things about this car, and I am invested sufficient to justify solving this problem and getting my money out of it in terms of use and enjoyment.

Big shout out to Arric at http://jmtcperformance.com/, he spent time talking with me about my ideas, my analysis, and ultimately helped to point me in the direction that I have headed. He knows a LOT about these cars, and while my build was not about making stoooopid power (his forte), he did help steer me away from some mistakes.

Cosmetic
Yellow H8 fog light bulbs, because reasons.
Custom vinyl stickers to cover the factory emblem centers (still looking for a good place to do these)

Turbo, Exhaust, Intake
It appears that the problem with these turbos are the gunk they ingest from the case ventilation, coking oil deposits compromising the internal seals, and restricted oil supply due to heat soak and clogging. They of course work better when they can breath in and out freely. My rebuild approaches all of these problems. Lucky for me the waste gate arm on my turbo looks great, as these can be hard to source parts for. Still to resolve is the problem with the 5 minute cool down being insufficient to get the stationary oil in the turbo lower than 400f. I will eventually figure out which system controls this time limit and double or triple it. Until then I will need to sit in my car and let it idle for 10 minutes after every drive. Very 1985 Saab Turbo, boo.

Chose to rebuild my turbo with a rebuild kit from Turbo Lab of America. They have an upgraded K03/K04 rebuild kit with the bits I wanted. They seem to be a small shop, they know their stuff, they got my money. It is intimidating to rebuild the turbo myself, but I also build sub-MOA rifles as a hobby, and the basic principles appear to be the same. We'll see how this one works out. My turbo has not crashed, but it does have ~70k miles on it and while I'm in here I want to get it fresh.

Went with a new Waste Gate Actuator and the upgraded DV+ (from Go Fast Bits, via JMTC), to replace the OEM diverter valve with their brass valve in aluminum housing. Also picked up the JMTC oil supply line heat shield.

Also replacing all of the oil and coolant supply lines and hardware, all gaskets, studs, bolts, etc.

Cold side turbo down pipe muffler delete, went with a $20 ebay part. Should flow and sound better.

Cat/down pipe, kept the factory part but did a long hot (boiling) soak in Simple Green Pro HD, which is safe for all metals used in this car, as well as plastics...is aviation certified etc. Its the safest and most aggressive degreaser you can get as far as I know. http://simplegreen.com/products/pro-...ner-degreaser/. My thought is that the factory CAT is already pretty good, I dont want to tune past a CEL, so removing all of the goopy residue and surface carbon should rehabilitate this part and let me continue to use the stock ECU. I have the JCW final section in the exhaust, with the high flow resonator. Had the OEM center section...brought it to a local welder to delete the #2 CAT and the resonator and replace with a straight pipe. This should greatly reduce back pressure on the turbo, keep it living longer, spooling up quicker, and should sound better. Also maybe a bit more powa.

Intercooler, went with the Wagner unit. It's ~250% larger than OEM and plate and bar construction.

Charge Pipe/Noise Maker, did the delete using a factory Mini part from the Countryman. Got this used off Ebay for $50.

Intake hose, went with the Forge unit, in black. Should be more than I need and I already have a couple of cone intakes sitting around that should fit it. Will need to figure out an adapter for the MAF to the filter.

Oil Supply
My timing chain (most likely) got hot from an oil starved motor. I was leaking from my vacuum pump, through the turbo supply line, and the oil pan gasket.

45/60 PSI Oil Pump, in my conversations with Arric it became apparent that the factory oil pump is barely adequate under ideal conditions, and inadequate under realistic conditions. He has two 'in development' improved oil pumps that are new enough they are not yet listed on http://jmtcperformance.com/. The first version, I would call 'street performance' takes the OEM pressures and roughly doubles them to 45/60 PSI. The second one, what he described to me as suited for racing applications, takes things up to 90 PSI. I went with the first option. Keep in mind that the oil pump drives from the motor with a little chain on a sprocket, so there is a little power leach happening. The upgraded pump will provide adequate lubrication under realistic driving conditions to keep my engine internals healthy for longer.

Vacuum pump, a real problem on the N14 and the source of CEF for some people when it decides to seize due to oil starvation and the design of the bearings. Turns out the N18 vacuum pump bolts on and functions within spec for the vacuum load, but has an improved uptake and bearing assembly. I will need to relocate some vacuum lines to make this work, but that should be easy. Kind of pricey, 2x more than a replacement N14 pump, but should last longer and be less failure prone.

Crank Case Vent, I talked with Arric about plugging the rear vent and installing a catch can on the front vent. He explained that this gives the rear pressure no where to go and could cause bad problems for me in certain use conditions. This is a point of some contention and I don't care to open that can of worms here. Suffice to say I am convinced and opted to install two catch cans, one on the front vent hose and another on the rear. The cans I am using were designed for an Audi/VW 1.8t/2.0t setup but are mechanically sufficient for my needs. One can for the back vent (the one venting directly into the intake manifold at idle), the other can for the front vent (the one venting directly into the intake/turbo inlet on load). I'll have to fabricate some brackets, but that should be easy.

Preventative
According to the service records, the Throttle Body and Water Pumps were both done already in 2014. I am replacing the Thermostat Housing while I have everything apart. I am also going through and degreasing/cleaning everything that the last 10 years of various leaks have deposited in the engine compartment. I am replacing the Oil Cooling unit gaskets, front and rear. I am also replacing any clips that I broke, as well as the Apron Cover (the battery cover thing) as the plastic molded hinge is broken and I don't want moisture to infiltrate there into the battery tray area. All manifold studs and nuts, turbo studs and nuts, everything that I took off that is 'torque to yield', as well as any stud or nut or gasket or supply line that is subject to heat or responsible for delivering or removing oil or coolant to any part. The remaining rubber will all be degreased and then treated with Griot's rubber dressing to rehabilitate it (I will let the Griot's cure for a week or so before reassembly). Any additional cooling hose or other rubber part that can not be rehabilitated in this way will also be replaced.

Pictures to come with subsequent updates. I hope to have the project on the road again by the end of this month.

 

Tim -
Welcome to NAM! Sounds like you have a great build going there! Love the Laser Blue/white stripe combination. Please keep us posted on your progress - esp on the turbo rebuild. I sent mine out on a previous R55 because I was intimidated.

When you replace the gaskets on the oil cooler make sure that you pull the old seal out of the block before reassembly....I missed that one.
-Steve

 

Thanks bugeye1031, quick update on the turbo...got it apart this weekend to find that the turbine wheel had some bent fins. Not sure if this happened in the take-a-part, or if something (carbon chunk?) passed through the exhaust manifold and got zapped in the fins...but here it is.

Looking at options I can get a new turbine shaft from ebay for $50, I already have the rebuild kit from Turbolab...but then I need to balance the new shaft with the compressor wheel and the nut and the bearing. Sending this out will be ~$50 plus shipping cost both ways. Going with a local shop the balance will be $120. Either way this puts me very close to purchasing an entire 'turbo cartridge/core' already assembled and balanced, all new parts, again from ebay. Assembled in the UK, 1 year warranty for 20$...

The new cartridge should be here in a few days. Supposedly has a larger compressor wheel but will fit in my MCS turbo housing without modifications. Calipers never lie, we'll see what shows up and if it fits.

Bummed that I don't get to run a turbo core that I rebuilt myself, but this is most likely the best option at this moment, and if everything works out good should result in a small power boost.

For people wondering, larger compressor wheel in a smaller compressor housing (according to the maths) will result in building pressure quicker...which means more low and middle zoom. Less high end sustain. This should be just more of the same performance characteristics that the OEM MCS turbo was designed to deliver.

Turbolab is a small shop, and the parts were not bad, I just didnt end up using them. I dont feel right sending the rebuild kit back to them. Maybe when this is done I'll sell it on here or keep it in the garage for the rebuild of this cartridge when it gets weak in 5 years...

Running with MCS factory tune, etc.

Pics later...

 

some pics...




you can see how long the Mini has been parked here, yes that is a baby mattress currently being stored on the double sun roof. pitiful!



Turbo!



Compressor with reference marks prior to removing the (counter clockwise) retaining nut.



Bummer! Bent fins.



Boo!



Headless motor with Seafoam soaking the piston faces, letting the injectors soak at the same time.



Newly faced, blasted, and rebuild head...wrapped and ready to install.



Most of the parts...



Refurbished CAT/down pipe and...the new intercooler!

 

Quick update on the turbo, as I initially suspected, the JCW cartridge clears fine for the turbine housing, but the compressor housing is off by ~3mm. Sent my compressor housing to Turbo Lab of America to be machined, also sent the new cartridge along as reference per their request.

Once this turbo situation is resolved I plan to create another post devoted just to the things I have learned about the K03 MCS and JCW turbos. This will include how to take them apart, which I was not able to find anywhere yet.

Through this process I may have landed on a method to upgrade a MCS turbo to a JCW turbo for $250 plus shipping.

 

That would be Modification Hall of Fame material if it pans out!

 

Great thread! Any updates?