Engine Drivetrain 1st Gen Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: Proper belt for ATI damper + 15% pulley

I put the pump back in. I can't work on the car next week and need to actually have a working car for the coming months, just in case. Waiting for another part to get here and then fixing it 2 weekends later (no time next week) is really out of the question.

I don't drive much anyway. This year so far 450 miles and of those I only drove 50 miles myself, the rest was my son. At this rate, I think the water pump really only has to last another 1500 miles before the car goes back into winter hibernation. And nothing was wrong with it in the first pace - it just is getting up there in age. In spring, I will tear into it again and replace what I didn't replace this time around. It actually isn't that difficult to get the supercharger out of there if you can take your time.

Tomorrow flush and fill the coolant, oil change, put the bumper back on. Then finally to the coilover job. I am getting pretty good at putting that SC belt on and off the pulleys

 

buttoned it mostly up today, filled in coolant, started it, and crap - coolant came gushing out from somewhere near the water pump. Panic at first that I'd have to pull the SC again, but I just forgot to put the clamp on the front of the water pump to the bottom of radiator hose. Phew.

Later I yanked off the old suspension. Spent a lot of time with breaker bars, impact tools, liquid wrench. That stuff was SEIZED on tight. Especially the rears at the bottom. Double pipe extension, and a breaker bar that was rather close to snapping, but the bolts finally gave. Lost a lot of time with that.

Fronts are installed as they shipped re height adjustment. Sure look a lot shorter than what I pulled out.

I wasn't sure at first what you meant here:

This is the passenger side as installed now with the screws moved to the outside, inner pair dead center - is that what you meant?



I didn't get to install the rears, as I cannot get the old passenger side downlink off. Soaking it in liquid wrench for another day...


And some of the junk that came off the front:



replaced by this

 

Gotta love the instructions from BC to adjust ride height (the capital letters actually make sense in a small diagram they have next to this text)

- measure distances
- use C wrench to loosen tightened pallet B
- Along C direction to turn cylinder and raise car body
- You have to renew with tightening pallet after D direction lowers adjustable height
- Looseness will result in noise and affect driving safe
- if unnecessary to unchanged spring length, please don't loosen and move pallet F
- please don't use pallet F to tighten the spring to change car height and increase hardness. If do that, that will cause extreme uncomfortable in drive feeling
- please don't loosen the pallet F to make spring looseness to lower car body. If do this, that can shorten shock cylinder and cause danger.

 

the difference:

H-sport - poly bushings, can be rebuilt for $50 when they fail. Overall less accurate suspension setup with more "give" in the link. Reported to be highly reliable

Helix - lighter, more accurate because no bushings. They use a "heim joint" instead, which is prone to corrosion. No info anywhere about "rebuilding" them, so I assume when done, replace the whole thing. Now with rubber boots to protect from moisture.

I don't drive the car in winter, but it moist likely will become my son's Mini later this year and he will drive it in snow and salt...

I am leaning towards H-sport, mostly because the car's future will likely be outside my garage and care.

 

had a few hours today to work on the car. Removed old damper. It was in good shape, and no leaking behind it, but swapped seal anyway while I was there. New idler installed, too. Lots of oil on that side of the engine, though, which appears to be all from the valve cover gasket (have one ready to go). I spent probably 3 hours around the engine with brake cleaner and rags to get all that gunk off the car that had accumulated from the leaks.

Belt was stretched or worn - no hole visible in the tensioner. Ran out of time to do the tensioner, nor do I have coilovers here to install. I'll just do everything while the car is on jacks, so I'll leave it like this until the coils get here.

Also have to do the crank position sensor O-ring, which is leaking quite a lot.

Noticed that the plastic reinforcement of the supercharger intake plastic part in the hood rubs on the #2 plug wire - showing enough wear that I should replace. Anyone else run into that? I guess I could just file down that plastic ridge (L-angle towards one of the rear bolts) so it doesn't get that close to the wires, or maybe put a cover over those edges.

I noticed my right front outside CV boot is slightly leaking, too - tiny specs of clean green grease on the squeezing from the outside snap clamp sits. There's very light grease spotting the inside of the wheel rim, which I cleaned about 500 miles ago. Guess I have to order a CV boot kit, or is this just not installed correctly and a tighter hose clamp will seal it up?

 

more tools to purchase

Definitely no tears in any of the boots, just not sealing perfectly on the passenger side.

I suppose it's impossible to know if water got in if I don't take it off and service it. That's when I need a new clamp, and why not just get a full kit anyway. Hey, it's all for a good cause.

The more time I spend under that car, the more money it costs me... and I know, there's no end in sight. It will never be "done"

 

I swapped the SC belt tensioner and idler pulley last night. Gates 535 with ATI damper is perfect fit with well more than a full hole showing.

I wanted to change the top engine mount while I had the motor up, but that silly torx screw on the bottom put that off for another day - 10mm 6-sided socket doesn't have enough bite. Why on earth are they using such idiotic fasteners on this car? It's not leaking yet, but when I move the top stud it has far more wiggle room than the new part I have ready to go in.

Up next is front engine service mode to get to the CPS seal, pull the intercooler to do the valve cover gasket. Also want to throw in a new thermostat.

Once I run out of maintenance tasks, I hope the heavy box of goodies from Colin arrives.

 

got some phone pix of the progress - under the valve cover:



The mess below caused by a leak above the pulleys - crank seal clearly not the problem, but replaced anyway



Shiny:



pulled this bugger for new o-ring last night after the front of the engine got a bath in highly flammable stuff



and now the super charger is begging to be pulled for an oil change...



yanking the springs and shocks next to get it prepped for the coilovers. The car won't go anywhere for another week at least.

For the SC oil service, I need to find a place that sells the water pump seal without asking $13 for shipping for a piece of rubber.

 

just wait till I post photos of the Alta springs I am tearing off the car

Bought from Way because I needed Helix arms and a few other things as well and it worked out best with shipping that way.

Installed Helix arms today. What a pain to get a wrench on the bolt on the inside. It took a while going through my tool box and various extensions and breaker bars to get it to finally hold the bolt so I could get the nut off.

When installing, I tightened them a little too much, I think - misread the torque spec as 100ft/lbs instead of 100nm. It felt a little tight (barely got the torque wrench to click), but I doubt that's going to cause problems. The upper frame bracket actually looks like it got a little crushed by all that torque. Due to the lack of any instructions I claim complete ignorance and assume too tight is better than not tight enough in that location. It all still moves up and down nicely.

Later today then the radiator got washed, and the rotten foam ripped away (and fresh foam pieces ordered from Detroit Tuned).

Harbor Freight visit cost me another $50, but now I have the tool to get that engine mount off the frame rail. I will try that tomorrow night or Tuesday.

Supercharger oil and gaskets for the water pump, thermostat and thermostat gasket are ordered as well - that's all getting here mid week, around the time the coilovers and downlinks are scheduled to arrive. Looks like next weekend I could be driving again, provided everything I need gets here during the week.

I also need to locate a decent alignment shop, decide on specs like ride height and camber/toe as well. Any place you recommend, Myles? There are a couple that do 4 wheel alignment, but I'd rather go to a race shop like Kelly Moss, if they do alignments.

Good point about that dip stick tube. Have to take a look. Very possible it was leaking as well. The front was so messy, it was hard to find the crank position sensor bolt at first.

 

I just unboxed some shiny stuff from Taiwan Bor-chuann Enterprise Co. More performance enhancing stickers in the box as well.