2nd Gen R56 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: Carbon Buildup: Before and After

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!

 

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....

 

: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.

 

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?

 

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.

 

How can one be sure that the valves are closed?

 

2nd gen problems

 

You look. When the intake manifold is off the, the valves are visible.

 

Totally worth it

 

I get that, but say some are open, just hit the starter till they close?

 

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)...

 

I used a write up I found on that other place and checked the valve closings by sticking my head down and looking at the valves. 1 and 3 were closed so I did them first. Then I put the car in reverse and pushed it little by little until the 2 and 4 valves were closed. Blast away and done. The first time it took me about 4 hours because it had never been done on my car before. I have a DoS intake so removing the intake manifold is a cake walk, 15 minutes max. Also that little bolt in the back that is a pain to get to, you don't have to put it back on, I never did. I used a harbor freight media blaster $40 or so and they also have walnut shell media for about $35. The manifold adapter and blasting wand I bought from Home Page. He 3D prints the adapter and fabricates the wand adapter to work with the Harbor Freight media blaster. Not too hard really, more just murder on your back. The taller you are the worse it is, unless you have a hoist. The air compressor seems to be the tricky part for most people. I'm a Service Advisor at a Toyota dealer, so I have a giant air compressor available to me.

I used to run a BSH catch can, but that never really caught anything but a small (very small) amount of oil and lots of condensation. So after 15k I sold the thing and I'll blast the valves every 15k or so.

And when I did the service I tried taking pictures, but I had an iPhone 5 at the time and couldn't get anything to focus. I might be able to focus in now with my 6+.