1st Gen JCW Refreshing Rufus - 2005 MCS JCW

Gracie is my in-house QA team. She inspects all inbound packages for damage, completeness & tasty meat products.

 

I spent yesterday evening assembling brake hats/rotors... Loctite & safety wire... fun!

 

Hey... Where is the MOTD 2018 forum?

Hmmm... Well. I was out running errands with my wife this morning and, by the time we got back home, the Saturday events after the panoramic photo (which I always enjoy doing) were already booked up (the apple pie run) or are on roads that I enjoy, but will have seen several times from other drives (ice cream run).

So... Saturday is now the time for the Unofficial Texolina Run! (Texas and Carolinas). I'm inviting anyone for a drive! 30 minutes after the panoramic photo is snapped (11:30-ish) we will depart from a spot at Fontana (place TBD) and make a run somewhere... my first thought is heading out on Hellbender, continuing south on 28 to Franklin for lunch and returning home via Wayah road, a Dragon rival (For you MSSD folks, it's the first half of Blimey's Tour of Terror). Maybe 4-5 hours tops, including lunch, so we are back home for a beer and the farewell dinner (which starts at 6).

I'll update here w/ details once I figure 'em out. Please feel free to invite your friends... Anyone and everyone is welcome.

 

Well... I spent the day out in the garage, trying to wrap up several jobs that got started then stalled for parts.

1) New thermostat and thermostat housing were installed, including a new bracket for what I'm guessing is a coolant temp sensor (the bracket is attached w/ 2 of the 3 bolts that hold the thermostat housing in place). The old bracket had rusted out and the screws holding the sensor in place had fused to the bracket.

2) I had a valve cover leak after doing my work a few weeks back. I found that one of the valve cover bolts had snapped and another had been 'fixed' by someone with fix-a-thread that had crumbled. I found a new bolt for the fix-a-threaded one and I bought a new set of valve cover bolts (they were hella rusty anyway... probably a good idea to replace 'em before the heads round off.

3) I replaced the rear wiper motor. The original rear wiper arm had broken and the ferrule that holds it to the shaft of the motor had fused itself to the shaft, so I couldn't fit the new arm. An aftermarket motor wasn't too expensive, so I just replaced it and mounted the new arm.

4) While I had the coolant out, I replaced the coolant tank w/ a cool stainless unit I found cheap on NAM.

I put everything back together again and tried to start the car. I got no turn-over at all. Lights came on, fuel pump energized but no motion from the starter. I walked up to the front and could hear something pressurized leaking. Sniff... uh oh... fuel leak. I pulled the intercooler back off and saw fuel leaking out from around the top of a fuel injector. I pulled the rail to discover that an o-ring at the top of one of the injectors was missing! Grrrrr. I must have done something stupid a few weeks back. Luckily, you can buy new o-rings and don't have to buy all new injectors. I've got new o-rings and clips coming (just in case) and I'll re-mount all of the fuel injectors next weekend. Hopefully it was the fuel system not holding pressure that was stopping the car from turning over.

 

Yep, and yep. I always have a fire extinguisher handy when I'm working out in the garage... you never know what will happen!

Lots of work going on. The pile of engine parts is getting smaller and smaller (once I can button up the previous jobs, I'm down to the supercharger oil service (w/ associated gaskets & coolant flush), oil change and transmission oil change... all jobs that I've done before. I think I've got all of the parts assembled for the brakes and suspension work (I'm sure I'll find something else that needs to be replaced or has rusted through). It's starting to feel a bit more manageable and I've got a day off of work in a week w/ no wife in the house, so if I can get the car back to running state, I can start that next phase and hopefully be done w/ the engine stuff in the next few weeks (fingers crossed).

 

Also... Myles pointed out that it might not be necessary to touch the fuel rail to do the timing chain guide job that I wrote-up, above. In the course of my valve cover bolt replacement, I was able to prove that he was indeed correct (and might have saved me my fuel leak problems... sigh). I've amended the instructions in the thread above and will copy/paste into the article system soon.

https://www.motoringalliance.com/threads/refreshing-rufus-2005-mcs-jcw.29878/page-13#post-400327

 

Since I'm going to have the fuel injectors in my hands when the new o-rings arrive soon, I figured I'd look into what I could do to clean them at home.

I found a DIY YouTube video where the guy builds a spray can cleaner adapter to his fuel injectors and cleans 'em himself. I'll probably start with the backflush step, but it's a pretty good video.



I also found an adapter kit for sale on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Injector-Cleaning-Ocamo-Universal-Vehicles/dp/B075GGVJQQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1518623682&sr=8-2&keywords=fuel+injector+cleaner+kit

I ordered the kit, but it's coming from China on a very slow-boat, so it won't be here for a long while, but I'll have it the next time I dig down into the engine a bit (and the injectors aren't really that far down, so it would be a nice hour or two of puttering in the garage one day in the future).

 

I hate this sound!



That's a quick video I shot last weekend... fuel injector leaking at the top where an o-ring was missing. A new set of o-rings are on the way (top and bottom... why not).

 

Mmmmmm... tracker says that my new fuel injector o-rings and clips will be here today! Something tells me I'm going to rip the envelope open like a kid on Christmas morning, run to do the install and then pray the car starts quickly before turning the key!

I've got Monday off work. If all goes well with the fuel injectors, I've got a transmission oil change and a supercharger oil change (along w/ gaskets, oil pan gasket and oil/filter change) left to do, then on to suspension and brakes! I can feel an end in sight! It won't all happen on Monday, of course, but I'll have all of March and April to do suspension/brakes/alignment... it's possible!

 

OK! The new fuel injector o-rings and clips arrived yesterday evening, so I got out to the garage today for a bit. I pulled all of the injectors, replaced top and bottom o-rings, clips, and remounted em. I got everything back together again and IT'S ALIVE! For some reason the battery was flat (had didn't been disconnected for the last 3-4 weeks) but a few minutes on the charger fixed that. I've got a full day off on Monday with my wife having to work, so I'm going to try a get a good 8 hours of wrenching in. Time to tackle the supercharger oil refresh!

 

The day went surprisingly well. The supercharger lobes looked almost perfect (a few nicks, but no wear on the coating, so the bearings are good. It felt nice and smooth after a few oil changes and a fill up. The old oil looked much cleaner than that in my first MINI, so I think the supercharger is good for another 80k miles! I spent an hour scraping and cleaning oil and dirt from the front of the engine... looks like the crank sensor seal has been leaking for a long time. A new o-ring and some RTV should help.



I still need to drain the oil, change the oil pan gasket, reassemble and refill the fluids... work for another day.



EDIT: Aw crap... I was clearing up the workbench and found the electrical component that I need to replace to return the 2-stage function to the cooling fan. One more job to do before I button everything up.

 

I needed a few minutes away from work, so I decided to do the copy/paste/edit need to turn the timing system service post from earlier in this thread into a how-to article here at MA.

https://www.motoringalliance.com/articles/timing-system-service-chain-tensioner-guides.110/

 

Well... it was a good weekend out in the garage. I dropped the oil pan, did a massive clean-up (the pan gasket, plus the crank sensor plus the valve cover gasket had all been leaking for a while, creating quite a mess under there) and installed a fresh pan gasket. I replaced the oil filter and got everything reassembled from the supercharger oil service that was 1/2 done last weekend. New oil and fresh coolant topped everything off and Rufus started right up! Yea! I need to get out for a few drives to bleed the coolant system and get the engine up to temp so I can properly check the oil level

I do need some help from my MA peeps, though! I found that my bonnet micro-switch (figures out if the bonnet is latched properly or not) was not mounted properly to the bonnet latch... it looks like 2 ears have broken off of the plastic housing, so it won't stay put. A bit of playing determined that this is why I've got an extra idiot light on the dash (door ajar). This part is mounted on to the rear side of the passenger side bonnet latch. The hole it fits into is rectangular, so I don't know which way it is supposed to mount (and from looking at the latch, I could make an argument for either direction). Would one of you R53 owners please look at the sensor on your car and tell me if the wires are on the top of the switch or the bottom? I took a photo of the switch, below, so you can see... the metal flap, when the switch is mounted, is inside the metal bonnet latch. I just don't know the correct orientation of the switch as mine was laying loose in the engine bay. A new switch is on the way.

I'm quite excited as I'm almost done with my engine maintenance projects. I've got to do a gearbox oil change and then I'm done with phase 3 of 4 (Interior-Check: Exterior-Check: Engine-Check: Suspension/Brakes: Next on the list!)