Hello everyone! I will make a 1st Gear post soon and introduce myself properly. I have been lurking on this site ever since I got my used 2009 Cooper S. I'm in love. Unfortunately, problems keep popping up when all I want is to play with my car and zoom around town. I hope I'm posting in the right thread, since this is not an issue with a stock Mini. TLDR at the end.

To the point:

I recently purchased my used 2009 Cooper S, 97k miles and in decent shape (apparently), no warranty and from a private seller for a good price. No mods at the time except for a turbo blowoff valve. After purchasing and driving a bit, I had a check engine light turn on and upon inspection at the local Mini dealer, the light was related to the EVAP system, but they encouraged me to go ahead and get the front engine seal and oil filter housing adapter gasket replaced. Immediately I'm spending a huge chunk of money - okay fine, I just want a good running car! So they go about repairing the car. It takes days because their EVAP smoke diagnostic machine broke, and then the day I went to pick it up they installed the new timing belt incorrectly and it was another 2 hours before they had it running properly. They threw in some free brake pads for my trouble. I have since driven less than 400 miles.

So assuming my car was fine, I made some moderate upgrades: I added a short ram intake (K&N) and a Borla catback exhaust. Performance wise it was working great and I loved the new sounds it was making. My friends were just rolling their eyes, but I can afford eye rolls. I initially had problems with the computer adjusting to the new airflow, but after reading more I realized the proper steps to allow the car to adjust to airflow mods and the car was running like a dream. After my car started running fine, I sent my ECU to M7 Tuning to get their Stage 1 tune (advertised 20-30HP increase), got it back, popped it in, drove easy for ~50 miles. Everything seemed fine. After I was sure my car had properly adjusted to the mods I started zipping up and down some rural roads, and let me tell you it was awesome, until last night :(

Last night I took my Mini out for a speedy test drive and was going pretty fast when I felt a kick from the engine and immediately lost a lot of acceleration power. Mind you I have not ever red-lined my car and I continuously monitor the temperature. I initially thought it was just an issue with the car adjusting to the mods (I had a similar incident after installing the intake and exhaust). So I drive home (a few miles), look at the CEL - P0402. The engine is running pretty rough. I park the car and decide to deal with it in the morning. I start the car this morning and it initially idles rough and I noticed a bit of white smoke coming out the back. I didn't think anything of it, today is super cold. Then I pull the car out of my parking lot and a billow of white smoke came out the back (engulfing my poor neighbor walking his dog ). There's very little power going to the engine and it is running super rough through gears 1, 2, and 3. After driving a bit, the smoke dies down. I stop and let it idle and watch the tailpipe which then had whisps of white coming out with a lot of water (clear fluid) dripping out of the back, and I noticed a buildup of soot (the pipe is basically brand new and should be clean). The engine would randomly shut off when in neutral at this point, and I get additional P0300, 301, 302, 303 codes.

Looking under the hood nothing is off in particular. No smells, no smoke, no unusual sounds. I monitor my coolant temp and it is never above 108degC, and the coolant levels are normal. I did pull the oil dipstick out and noticed wisps of white coming from the dipstick tube. My car is scheduled to visit the Mini dealer as soon as I'm back in town, car is parked until then.

I am afraid I have blown the engine head gasket, since this is what some googling my symptoms seems to find. What do you think? You all have loads more experience than I do with cars. Could it be something more simple that I don't know of? Carbon buildup or a less-expensive issue? If the head gasket was worn, would the Mini mechanics have noticed during my last visit and would fast driving cause it to break? This sucks! I just wanna drive around make my friends jealous in their Subarus (I can't help but laugh at myself, blowing clouds of smoke and my best friend doubling over from laughter).

At this point I kind of regret not going with a dealer certified used car, but lesson learned. Thank god I'm getting a pay raise soon . Next car will be certified used with <50k miles

TLDR:
Used MCS '09 - 97k miles
Recent mods: K&N intake, Borla Exhaust, moderate ECU tune
What happened: Driving faster than usual down the road, engine kicks. P0402 CEL. Engine idles incredibly rough, stalls. P0300-304. Later, white smoke billows out initially when driving down the road, but stops after a few minutes.
Observations: Under the hood, coolant is fine, oil seems fine (although white wisps coming from dipstick when opened). No strange smells or sounds. Liquid dripping from tailpipe and soot buildup. I have never red-lined my car. Had an inspection and some gaskets replaced ~400 miles ago.
Action taken: Going to the shop asap, no driving until then. Also, margaritas.

Thoughts?

Hope you are all having a great weekend! I live in Michigan and I am getting the hell out of this bipolar weather and heading to New Mexico. Shame my Mini isn't coming with me.

 

Yep sounds like a head gasket to me. Does the white smoke from the exhause smell like coolant? Check the coolant level and look for any signs of oil etc. in it. Also open up the oil fill cap on the valve cover and check for signs of coolant in the oil.

Get it to the shop, they will probably do a compression test to verify and then pull the head. Let us know what they find.

 

I will! Any thoughts on whether the gasket might have blown due to the mods, or a combination of wear and tear and driving it a bit harder than normal? I just want to avoid this in the future.

 

 

Well, here's the awful news:
in short they did a compression test and used a boroscope and found that cylinders 1,2,4 were only getting 120psi while 3 was getting zero psi. Upon inspection piston 3 was completely broken, when lots of holes in the cylinder. It needs a whole new engine.
The mechanic pointed out that the ECU tune sticker says "max boost 20.5 psi" which he says is way too high, and is likely the culprit behind the damage. He says I should contact the guys that did the tune. I know they're gonna tell me I signed all these release forms and stuff, but damn are they blowing up other people's minis? Or was my engine just ripe for breaking?

The good news is I'm getting a newer MCS lol

Anyone need a parts car near Ann Arbor?

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Ouch! There was probably some underlying problem that combined with the tune caused things to go boom, but good luck figuring that out now. Sorry to hear it.

Enjoy the new MCS!

 

oh man that sucks...the incident itself is no surprise. we all have seen it one way or the other...it's a fairly easy (straight forward) DIY rebuild just lots of parts to get out.

btw, i take donated MCS

 

Any pics of the Piston. I wonder if it was detonating. What octane fuel were you running