2nd Gen R56 Cooper S Intake valves horribly coated with oily black goo after 15,000 miles, half a** job

Discussion in '2nd Generation: 2007+ R55 through R61' started by Systemlord, Jul 23, 2015.

  1. Systemlord

    Systemlord New Member

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    #1 Systemlord, Jul 23, 2015
    Last edited: Jul 24, 2015
    I'll try and make this short,

    I purchased my 2007 Mini Cooper S 2 years ago (62,000 miles now, 45,600 when purchased) and paid my local Mini dealer $800 to have the intake valves walnut blasted or so I thought (more on that later), the reason I had them cleaned was because of my misfiring and pre-ignition during low to moderate boost. Right after the intake valves were supposedly walnut blasted I still had problems with pre-ignition during low to moderate boost.


    So I did tons of research on Mini's with misfiring and pre-ignition here and everywhere, I found a product BG 44K Fuel System Cleaner, bought multiple cans and ran in each gas tank of either Shell V-Power 91 or Chevron 91 here in Southern California. I ran 15 cans in total every tank fill-up, I'm not joking because I noticed when I removed the plugs my pistons were going from black to aluminum gray, I could actually see the color of the aluminum alloy.


    Most of my pre-igntion during low to moderate boost began to go away as I used more cans of BG 44K, but when in Summers where the humidity was low (50% or lower) I started getting pre-ignition in moderate boost but no pre-ignition in very humid Summers (I know cooling effect high humidity). When I got my intake valves walnut blasted 2 years ago (15,000 miles ago) I asked the mechanic to take before and after pictures and I was very firm about it was asking, heads turned. He took before pictures (1st pic) and later when he was finished he stated he forgot to do the after picture.


    Hay before we start with looking at the pictures there's something you should know, my MCS consumes half a quart (1/2) of oil every 1000-1500 miles. Less consumption highway driving which is 75% percent of my driving.


    The first picture is the before picture the mechanic took of the worst cylinder #1 (left to right). His cameras screen was to small so he loaded it to the computer and I took a picture of the computer screen. I took these other four pictures two weekends ago, the second picture is the cylinder #1. They look like the same cylinder, I'm seeing the same picture just 15,000 miles later. The third picture is cylinder #2, forth picture is cylinder #3 and the fifth picture is cylinder #4. Looks like someone was using dentist tools.


    I don't know about you but it's my belief that cylinder #1 was never cleaned as well as cylinder #2, the last two were done in my opinion to a point. The last bit of that harder carbon I was talking about was not able to be removed with the shops walnut blasting tool. I'm interested in what you believe cause I think it was a half a** job at best by the Irvine Mini dealer 15,000 miles ago! No more Mini dealers ever!
     
  2. Systemlord

    Systemlord New Member

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    Before
     

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  3. Systemlord

    Systemlord New Member

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    After Note the crud around the edge of the valves was cleaned with pick tools, pictures taken before that was done.
     

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  4. BlimeyCabrio

    BlimeyCabrio Oscar Goldman of MINIs
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    After an ECU reset several monitoring cycles need to complete to set the "ready" states of all the emissions on board diagnostics. One of these is the EVAP test cycle. It typically requires the car to run at idle for a certain amount of time, after a warm-up cycle. This performs a fuel tank purge test, etc.

    In this case, "not ready" probably means the test hasn't had enough time under enough conditions to complete yet. It's not usually a "problem".
     
  5. Metalman

    Metalman Well-Known Member
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    How many miles did it take to generate the "before" photo's?
     
  6. Motoring Magic

    Motoring Magic New Member
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    exactly!

    the carbon on your valves is minimal, we have seen enough build up to actually hold the valve open, off the seat creating a zero compression in that cylinder. What were they using for a walnut blaster? ours never leaves bits that need to be cleaned with a pick tool on the edges. They look nice and clean though.
     
  7. ZippyNH

    ZippyNH Well-Known Member

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    Worry less, drive more....
    Don't spend your time being OCD about your car IMO...
    Drive it. Enjoy it, and WHEN an issue occurs fix it.
    It is normal after the computer reets to take a few days or a week of driving cyles to "test" itself....
    Don't worry about it till the check engine light tells you it fails, or you have a REAL drivability issue that causes you too look at the engine management system.....
    Looking at it too much will result in stress and lots of ghosts that you might investigate, like this one...
     
  8. Systemlord

    Systemlord New Member

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    Disconnecting the battery resets the ECU correct? If so there was no ECU reset, but the adaptation procedure had to be performed because the throttle body actuator was moved during cleaning of the intake manifold, there was a layer of oil coating the inside. Would installing the updated intake manifold even out the oil coked onto the intake valves? I want them to look more evenly so the two cylinders don't get so bad, I probably won't have to worry about my intake valves for quite awhile now. I will check them every 20k miles.

    There was 62,251 miles on my 2007 MCS, I burn through a little less than half a quart every 1000 or three full-ups at the pump. I could go 2000 miles not adding any oil and still have a little less than 1/4 of oil on my good old Craven dip stick if I were dumb enough which I'm not!

    You also refering to 1 & 2 cylinders, lol? At what psi should the walnut shells hit the carbon? I was told by the mechanic performing the job that the walnut blaster operated at 101 psi. The tools looked exactly like the Mini dealers tools and the mechanic performing the job and the owner of the shop said this was the hardest walnut blasting job they had ever performed! They said that every other walnut blasting job performed at their shop the valves once hit by the walnut media was sparking clean almost right away with only a few repeated attempts to get everything spotless.

    Much appreciated to all and those that come after with comments.
     
  9. Systemlord

    Systemlord New Member

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    #9 Systemlord, Jul 23, 2015
    Last edited: Jul 23, 2015
    My compression test late last Summer, hot vs cold yielded the same numbers, dry test only. These numbers on all cylinders built up compression quickly, 4-5 compression stokes. With numbers like these it's difficult to understand how good numbers can be possible with carbon build-up on the intake valves, I'm assuming not all the oil burns itself onto the valves but makes it into the cylinders and burns the same black carbon onto the piston tops and in and around the upper piston rings.

    Compression readings to small read, cylinder #4 165 psi, cylinder #3 165 psi, cylinder #2 165 and cylinder #1 170 psi. Cylinder #1 had the most carbon build-up on the valves and the piston tops. The other piston tops mimic the same cylinders intake valves, there's obviously a connection to the amount of carbon on valves and piston tops of the same cylinder.

    Cylinder 1

    Cylinder 1_zps8oor78zn.jpg


    Cylinder 2

    Cylinder 2_zpslsioxsju.jpg


    Cylinder 3

    Cylinder 3_zps6qibzdnd.jpg


    Cylinder 4

    Cylinder 4_zpsu9dqdqpz.jpeg
     
  10. Metalman

    Metalman Well-Known Member
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    Tell them to crank the pressure up...
    The BMW / MINI OEM unit says not to exceed 8.0 Bar (116 psi)
    There is a pressure safety that vents pressure at 8.5 Bar (123 psi):Thumbsup:

    Here you go...
    View attachment M040311_Carbon_Blaster_Operating_Manual (4).pdf
     
  11. Minidave

    Minidave Well-Known Member
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    ....or just blast on them a little more till they're clean.

    I did mine at 90psi and they cleaned up perfectly, but I did have to repeat it several times in each hole just to be sure - still it only took about 30 min of blast time - total.

    You just have to work at it a bit till you learn where to aim the nozzle and such.
     
  12. Systemlord

    Systemlord New Member

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    Everyone please re-read my first post, I added tons more information that I should have shared in the first place! Thank you.

    Thanks for the PDF file. :Thumbsup:

    The shop was operating at 7 bar or 101 psi, whether they turned it up I'm unsure, didn't know to ask. Does an extra 22 psi really make that much of a difference? I would have taken my Mini to Motoring Magic except I was able to take off work on Tuesday (elevator maintenance) and took the soonest available appointment on that day, I needed my Mini back by 2:00 pm so I could make it to work. I believe MM has Saturday appointments but not sure how booked they were being Summer, the time to get a walnut blast of intake valves on N14 engines.

    I was willing to drive 200 miles to get it done! Funds are extremely low for me right now so renting a car even if paid for by the shop was a no, I still needed a rental car deposit which I didn't have at all. I had to loaned my mother $600 to buy a plan ticket to go see her dying sister in Atlanta! There's somethings you just can't say no to even if you must take out a loan for a family member for this important occasion. :frown5:
     

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