I thought I would post up a video of how my car looked both before and after having walnut shell blasting done at MOTD 2013 by Helix. For background, my car is a 2009 JCW with 100,000 miles on it. I am the second owner and this car has been a daily driver for both myself and the original owner, CHKMINI. The car has never had this procedure done in the past, so this is the buildup over 100,000 miles. Some cars may experience more buildup. There have been other threads that theorize the buildup is worse if the driving style is short trip commuting. I do not intend to debate that issue as I have no experience or value to bring to the table. You will see in the video that I have an oil catch can installed at this time. However, the OCC has only been on the car for approximately 3000 miles maybe less. I really need to thank Helix Motorsports, (Eric and Mike), for offering this service at MOTD. I would highly recommend them. If you are within driving distance of the Philly area, this may be the place for you to go. You can reach them at Helix Motorsports. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF2MmQ0mTks]MINI Cooper R56 walnut shell blasting - YouTube[/ame]
:cornut: Good job. Your 'build up' looked rather minor compared to some that I've seen. Ah, BSH OCC. Did you also install the BSH Dual Boost Tap? I'm just curious as I put both on Margi(08 R56 BRG MCS/JCWm) about 50kmi ago to block all 'blow by' and no problems so far. Jason
This reminds me... I've got a lot of wire fishing to do through walls and ceilings soon... I really need to get a boroscope!
What's the current assessment about an OCC's effect on carbon buildup? Has anyone confirmed that it works, or is it a "seems like it might be a good idea" notion (like nitrogen in tires) that doesn't yield real world benefit?
:cornut: OCC's have no effect on carbon build up. They are to prevent or greatly inhibit carbon build up in N14 MINI engines. Once that it's built up, you've bought yourself a 'walnut shell blow job' (so to speak) to remove it. Jason
Jeff thanks for posting the video of your colonoscopy. While your valves didn't look terrible there was carbon that was cleaned out nicely. I believe why this engine looked so good was the diet of over the road driving & Italian tune ups it has had over its life. My guess is that a properly set up catch can will help, but not prevent carbon build up.
My 2009 has half that mileage, gets run regularly on the track and has worse buildup than that - I'm planning to blast mine with my home made blaster this weekend, I'll post results once they're in! I did a video with the boroscope that came out very dark, but you could see the buildup pretty well - it looked like I was walking the scope thru a coal mine!
That was my real question. Is there any verification that OCC's actually helps prevent carbon buildup? There is a lot of speculation but nobody seems to know for sure. People find it catches some oil and think it must be preventing carbon buildup, but does it really? Is it like "butt dyno" speculation or the real thing?
Maybe another way of looking at the question.... What gets caught by the OCC isn't getting to the valves to form the carbon buildup... Not aware of any OCC that is 100% effective, so some still gets by... It's probably more of a "slowing the process down"...
Good luck with your test run... One thing that I might suggest.... As you finish with the blasting of each set of valves..... use the air gun to get as many of the walnut grains out of the ports.... So as to minimize the loose pieces that would pass thru the combustion chamber and then get wedged into the small cells of the catalytic converter.... I can't imagine carbonized walnut shells blocking the cat will offer any performance benefits....
Yep, that was my plan. Plus my compressor isn't that big so I'll let it catch up inbetween "blastings". If it doesn't feel like I've got enough air I'll run it up to school and use the air there.
With the spark plugs removed, you can turn the engine over by hand with a socket wrench on the crank pulley.
When I do the service I leave the car in gear and rock the car forward or backwards to move the valves. I've had zero problems doing that way.
I for one would be interested in your procedure.... With pictures of course.. And I'm sure others with the R56S would be as well (excluding David.O)...