Most liked posts in thread: GNAT - Rebuild - The Sequel

Remember to start slowly, go for short durations and don't overdo it.

Wait - that was our advice to you a year ago.

Oh well, it still applies.

 

:blush2: And I thought that those kinds of things only happened to MINI Margi and me. Thanks for the warnings, between now and several years ago(with another Gnat emergency rebuild) there are 2 shops on the 'only send your ex wife to them list'. Detroit Tuned the place for MA MINIs.

Jason

 

I have to laugh, as I just took a call from my local Mini dealer that has taken good care of me. They wanted to give me a good discount for be a customer. I told her that I would die in my Mini. I had to clarify the comment when she became silent. I love my Mini and hope to have it until I die. I would rebuild Elson in a breath, if necessary. Good luck with the rebuild on Nat. You will enjoy it more.

 

Is that valve seat area fixable, or do you need a new head?
Jesus! you probably need a new head . . . call RMW.

 

I'm not sure all the names can fit on that head. :wink:

 

Damn, might be cheaper to buy new injectors, be interesting to see what they charge.

 

That's better than I thought, looks good.

 

Whadya think - just one of those things? valve just broke? the color looks good on all the valves, doesn't look like it went lean at all.....

He would have had to have been at full throttle for a long time for it to burn a valve like that - to me. Like doing laps around Texas Motor Speedway or sumthin......

 

I've thought (several times) about installing EGT probes in all four primaries. It really is the best way to do it. But then I think "OMG that's overkill..."

I'm about to install a single EGT probe at the collector... which provides interesting info, but not really the useful data I'd like to have.

 

YES!

 

It is difficult to diagnose a problem like this without seeing it first hand, but the valve got hot enough to burn, and the remaining valves didn't. We know it was the hottest. A lot of times there isn't one answer. Several things together probably caused the problem. Eric pointed at the very likely ones. I would flow test the injectors to make sure that isn't the problem. I suspect what you will find is that one is flowing a lot less than the others, but the O2 sensor problem probably contributed as well. Not likely but to show how these problems can be hard to identify. The engine was detonating and eating the aluminum away between the valve and the spark plug. Was there a coolant issue that caused the problem? Was there a hot spot that caused detonation and ultimately burned the valve.

 

Yes to all of the above.

 

opcorn:

 

Good news about the head.

OEM cam? Seriously?

 

Well now the cam selection is plentiful... Even more so since you have an ECU that can control the big stuff.

Plus all things considered they are relatively inexpensive.

 

It's BIG BOY CAM time since you have the ViPEC.

 

Oh boy another T-Shirt, I'm in...

Good luck in getting this all sorted out, folks sure want to spend your money, guess we can send money for the cause.

Don

 

Any chance the Gnatster will be able to make it to Colorado this August?