RB, Have you ever Seafoamed your engine? Do you use a OCC? What were it indicators that caused you to address the carbon? What was the $$ to have this done?" Very disturbing the carbon is this bad at 60K
Never Seafoamed. OCC? Oil Catch Can? If you mean catch can no, this is without a catch-can. I will be installing one in short order though. During a search over the carbon cleaning issue I found a guy on MINI2(... I think) that had a 2010 JCW with 4 tracks days and 62k miles and posted pics. His valves were actually worse than mine but it put the fear of carbon in me. lol. The official quote was like $560.00. However, if you are paying out of pocket all amounts ar negotiable to a point. I have a good relationship with my service guys and talked'em down to cost for the parts: blasting media (walnut shells) & intake cover gasket. And I paid the standard labor rate but I only paid for the actual hours worked not the "book hours". Knocked me down to just over $400. No, not cheap. However, that saves me the worry about getting a decent clean and without other work I know the car is good for another 58k miles before needing another clean. Remember: Mine wasn't actually "that bad". The tech said I would have been fine to keep going for a while but I figure that I'll stop it before my car ends-up like that gal with the 2009 MCS.
:cornut: I guess that I'll keep using my BSH OCC(1-2oz/30-60ml yellow translucent oily/watery/blow by smelling liquid with smaller amount of opaque liquid at the bottom) emptied every 100-200mi, BSH block off valve, and Seafoam every 3kmi or so. 61kmi on Margi(08 R56 MCS/JCWm) and no problems yet. Jason
Do you have pics of your intake ports? That would be great for reference. I will say I didn't have any sign of an issue either. Car ran fine.
:cornut: No Sir, sorry no photos. If she does develop this problem though; I promise to post it here such that all of our good 'Miniac Buddies' can post their 'I told you soes.' I love to laugh at myself, good for the sole and keeps the ego in check.:lol::lol::lol: Jason
So far I have had them done at the MINI dealer. Usually costs me ~$50. 2 primary reasons: 1) I trust my dealer's service dept. They have done right by me. 2) It's a PITA having to pull the coolant expansion tank, drain the filter back into the engine and deal with crush-rings for the drain-plug. I'd rather leave that to the folks that have the experience and tools.
I'm still on MINIs three year free maintenance program. I got my oil changed, for free, the day after the anniversary of my purchase. I had a bit over six thousand miles on it then. It looks like it will be close to twelve thousand miles this year on the second anniversary of my buying my MINI. I'll have the dealer change the oil yearly, while it's free. After that, I'll change it myself, every 6K miles. Dave
As stated before here is a link to the pics I found that put the fear of carbon into me. His habits are very similar to mine. I just have more high performance driving and miles on the car than he does. (Two mistakes it's an '09 MCS and it was on Michigan MINIs site; I saw it a while ago and most of the threads I have read have sorta blended together) Hat tip to CountryboyShane. Carbon Build-Up and Clean
We are coming up on 15 months of ownership with 24K miles, and have stuck to the maintenance schedule (every 15K, which means one:eek6. I'll look for the "oil change" thread...don't want to hijack this one. Thanks for the input.
Here is the tool and procedure BMW / MINI use to remove the carbon buildup. View attachment M040311_Carbon_Blaster_Operating_Manual.pdf Here is a discussion on how to DIY the carbon problem. [ame=http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=645616]I cleaned my valves, before and after pics! - BMW 3-Series (E90 E92) Forum - E90Post.com[/ame]
Okay I have confirmed that from the state that was shown to now that I am getting a consistent 2 miles per gallon better gas mileage. I tested this over two tanks of gas with my normal weekly driving route with no change in driving habits I went from a 31.1-31.5mpg to a 33.3-33.4mpg.
Intersting to see what they are using, it's basically a pressure pot sand blaster using walnut shells instead of sand. The really interesting parts to me are the shop vac port adapter and the "future use" part, wonder what engine that's going to be for? Audi has been doing this since the mid 90's, well before direct injection came about, so I'm not buying the "gas injected before the valve washes the carbon off" theory....... Still wondering why some engines need this done so badly and others don't.....
Gasoline on the backside of valves does, in fact, help keep this kind of build-up from happening. It certainly doesn't prevent it entirely. Crack open any vehicle that has PCV with TB or port injection and after enough miles some stuff will build-up on the valves. That's usually after 150k+ miles and not as "bad" as my MINI was after 58k miles. It's the PCV recirculating oil vapor and particulates back into the the intake manifold that is the direct cause. BThayer23 posted a great article link earlier in the thread: DI Fowling Early Adopters I haven't heard of non-DI engines having this sort of rapid build-up. Do you have any links to articles or technical info? That would be great to add to this thread. I'm friends with a guy who is master tech at Audi and they have had the same DI carbon build-up issues. He did tell me that it wasn't an issue when they were still port injected. There are some DI engines from Toyota and Audi/VW (TFSI Engines) that have a secondary injector(s) behind the valves. I haven't heard/seen any info that shows this is more or less effective.
Yippie.... Just got notification that the special BMW/MINI tool used with the walnut shells to clean the carbon buildup off the intake valves and passage has shipped. I should have it in hand Monday. I'll post pictures. Now to come up with my own walnut pressure pot. Ha, $600 - $800 to the dealer for one cleaning, who needs that? This would be the tool.... I was anticipating being told it was out of stock and no longer available...
That's only one piece of the puzzle, but a very specialized piece for sure. Without this piece, I would have little pieces of walnut shells all over the shop floor...... Lotsa pieces in this response... Heh, Heh, Heh....