Hey Guys, need your thoughts on this one...

Driving home today, minding my own business, not doing anything fancy...

Car goes into limp mode, check engine light, DSC light on, fuel light on...

Limp car back to neighborhood, 25mph limit, going slow, and hear a ka-pow! now sounds like the car exhaust is leaking with a tink tink tink sound that is parallel with the cars rpms... (still moving but studdering)

Get back to the garage and find a spark plug wire flapping in the wind with NO spark plug! Yeah... my thoughts exactly too!

So, sticking my nose down the hole with a flash light looking for something... anything... Take out 1 of the other 3 plugs and put it in the new vacancy... instead of 5-6-7-8 turns to lock the plug down, maybe 1...

Now my thoughts... I think the plugs or plug became loose and the pressure blew it out???? Little to no threads left... I think...

Anyone offer their 2 cents?

Is this a new head time? Is there a way to insert new threads for the a new (obviously larger) spark plug?

I am assuming that I am pretty screwed on this... I have the 15% pulley on, and also have the IK22 plugs in... so I am thinking warranty is out!

If so, does anyone have a cylinder head to sell if this is the head or head needs to be replaced? And how many hours to replace a head at the dealership if I brought the head in?

Just trying to gauge the damage and hope someone can shed some light on what the HECK happened to my car...

Best Regards to All,

Jeff

 

Aftermarket plugs? It's not so unusual when the plugs have been replaced

 

That was my first thought.....then I saw he had the IK22's.....yep.

CoopersAZ, if you do a search on this site for helicoil you'll find all kinds of reading material.

....Les

 

CooperSAZ, you can repair the head if the threads are stripped out, using a helicoil or a threadsert. The kits are fairly expensive to start with, so you might be better off having a machine shop or a good mechanic do this for you.
Torque the spark plugs to 14 ft lbs with a torque wrench and this won't happen again.
Good luck.

 

Booom!
Beneath the Bonnet

haha thats catchy

 

If you don't want to deal with all this stuff I would put your stock pulley back on and find out what the OEM plugs are and re install them and drop it off at the dealer. Also there are many dealers that are very easy going about mod'd cars, you just have to find out which ones. 15% pulley should be fine, thats is what the JCW comes with.
m

 

MNS is a very mod friendly dealer... however... if you replaced the plugs... and didn't TQ them properly then they can get loose and the threads will become galled from the vibration... this has happened to a few people I know... one most recently came to Fireballed! to get our Performance head... as the dealer quoted him over 5k to replace the one he had with a stock one... LOL... it was not close to that for us...

anywho.. it seems to be happening more and more... did you have stock plugs? who TQed them last?

 

Thanks guys for all the replies, at least I have some ideas now for when I start my crusade in the morning!

Not sure, need to locate the stock plugs! I torqued them last... It's been about 9k miles since the pulley and plugs were put in... I knew better... should have checked every 5k miles.

Tuls, does MNS do the helicoil? Im hoping to get out of this situation for $1k... What about MINI Works? I'm not sure I feel comfortable performing the service on my car, and appears to be the question... take the head of and do it or leave it on and do the cheap fix... and prey no shavings on inside...

 

hehe indeed it is! Normally, I too would have fun with that, but under the circumstances, I am a little pi$$ed at the moment!

 

Lots of info here:
http://store.webbmotorsports.com/for...opic.php?t=305

I checked my IK22s a few weeks ago. Two of them were finger tight! Glad I caught it.
Hope this helps!
Jim

 

CooperSAZ, I'm hoping it would cost a fifth of that! The helicoil isn't expensive once you have the right drill bits and taps and the installation tool. MINI probably won't do this for you because they want to sell you a $5K head, or engine, etc. Find a local engine machine shop, preferably one that rebuilds engines or does racing or performance upgrades.
As for doing it and worrying about shavings, it can be done with head installed. You'd rather not pull the head and deal with replacing the head gasket, all the labor, etc. You can use a shop vac with a hose to extend the vacuum to the spark plug hole, use some grease on the drill bit and tap, and don't sweat the few shavings that fall into the combustion chamber. Those will blow right out the exhaust valves. Aluminum shavings in the lower half of the engine are bad, but not so bad above the piston.
Good luck.

 

I bought IK22's about a year ago and have yet to install them because of stories like this.

 

Try calling DynoComp. I know they sell and install Madness heads with the larger intake/exhaust valves. http://www.dynocomp.com/contact.php

 

This is called theft my friend...... Best not to go down this path.

The problem is the plugs that you used. I was recently going to switch to a colder plug and was advised not to do it. Guess this soildifies my decision.

 

FYI, in most cases helicoils are stronger than original threads anyway. I used to have to do this all the time when I worked on skates and such.

 

dude relax . top dead center; helicoil;vacuum ....off and runnin' . google heli-coil

 

Here's a Helicoil alternative: Timesert. I've never used these before, but I have used Helicoils. I like the concept of the Timesert, though.

The repair is not a big deal. If you're not comfortable performing the repair yourself, any competent auto repair shop can handle this task - they've likely done this kind of repair many times. Current generation Fords with aluminum heads are notorious for blowing out spark plugs.

In any event, this thread prompted me to remove the IK-22's and re-install the factory plugs. My MINI service manager had told me that they've seen numerous spark plug blow-outs with after-market plugs and never with stock plugs.

I installed the IK-22's at 700 miles at a Randy Webb pulley party. He convinced me they are a good idea with a 15% pulley. Now the car has almost 17K miles. I checked the torque on the plugs at each 5K mile oil change. After installing the stock plugs. one thing that was immediately noticable, is how much easier the car starts and how much more smoothly it idles. Also, when taking off from a stop, the engine does not seem to have the momentary power lag it had with the IK-22's. I just figured this was 'normal', since the IK-22's were installed when the car was five days old, I had no basis for comparison. I can't discern any difference in power or how the car runs, other than what's mentioned above.

I'll leave the stock plugs in for now.

 

Dereks old MINI blew an aftermarket spark plug on a run last year ...




But expert mechanic Pete (BWROOFCHEX) went out and purchased a heli-coil and installed it right there; Derek drove the rest of the event and home with no problem

 

Hey Guys,

Quick update, picked up the car tonight and brought it home. Works flawlessly! Victor (MINI Works) put him back together for me! I just did not get that comfy feeling using a helicoil... Too old of a fix and too much like a bandaid waiting to be ripped off... Victor inserted steel threaded sleeves to replace the existing threads on the aluminum head. Used them for years apparently and they work flawlessly. Just by the nature of how these things work, I liked them better than the helicoil... More permanent and it allows me to retain the same plug size.

Anyway, picked up the car tonight and brought it home (20mi drive). Stretched his legs a little bit, full bore once or twice (still gun shy) and everything worked GREAT! I want to put some more miles on the guy but so far I am incredibly happy! And at a fraction of what it would take to locate a used head and schedule an appointment to swap heads...

Two thumbs up to MINI Works!!!

@AntiqueCarNut
That is exactly what Victor did, timeserts! Such a cool idea!

www.timesert.com

 

Great news!!
And a BIG "Attaboy" to Victor.
Motor ON!
JIM

 

I'm glad to hear your car is back together and running like factory. Victor is a good guy, he has treated my friend Mike and myself very well. He even opened his shop on one of his closed days for me since I live out of town. He is good guy to know is AZ.
Mario

 

Well done Victor .

 

...and to think the MINI dealer, that place in North Scottsdale I guess, wanted how many thousands to do the repair? I guess they were expecting you to pay the month's mortgage on that BMW palace of theirs.

 

If I found a used head (hopefully with around 25k miles), and labor... about $2000. The dealership wanted $6800... yeah... The guy I talk to is very good about helping out, but his hands were tied on this one... $3800 for the head, and 18 hours to install. (18 hours are for transferring stuff over to the new head and installation)

I got out for about 1/3 of the used head swap option. Victor re-sleeved all FOUR cylinders (do not want any surprises in the future) and an oil change. I'm a happy guy again...

 

So... Do they wear a mask while they rob you blind! Jeez...
Jim