1st Gen R53 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: Today's Job

I doubt many R56s would have this much oil in the intercooler if they were healthy. I think its location does lend itself to oil accumulation and an internal cleaning should be a part of a maintenance routine.

 

A few more cracks were discovered in the header, a repair was attempted, but I didn't feel comfortable with crack remnants. The header is made of cast stainless, which is supposed to be highly heat tolerant and not crack. A new part number replaced the original and the header doesn't appear to be as flow friendly. Below is a comparison, original on bottom, new part at top.




The new part is much lighter than the original; although both stainless, the new one is just a hair less magnetic. The original had round passages with little interference between channels.





The new part is a bit rectangle, and the paired runners overlap somewhat.





The original header nuts are kind of unique, copper nut with locking stainless thread inserts, and odd shaped captured washer. The replacement nuts are all copper.




The TIS says to replace the nuts; a couple of the originals locked on their studs, so I planned to do it anyway.

 

The line delivering oil to the turbo's bearing has an O-ring around the pipe within the banjo fitting on top of the turbo housing. If the banjo turns while applying torque to the bolt, the pipe can become cocked at an angle squeezing one side of the O-ring while opening a gap on the other. I believe when this happens oil is allowed an exit path over time, and this is the main cause of leaks at this fitting. If it's leaking already, replace the pipe and washers, tighten the banjo bolt hand tight, position the banjo in line with the tube, and to keep the banjo fitting from turning, wedge something on its side like a screwdriver blade while applying torque.

 

Today's Job #9

I'm doing a few things on an R56 specifically for autocross. The front swaybar is being swapped for a smaller diameter Cooper version. One of the bolts for the control arm bracket was damaged badly; could have been cross thread, or the subframe threads weren't cut deeply enough to begin with.




I could clean up the bolt threads with a restoration die, but my restoration tap wasn't long enough to reach the really bad section in the subframe hole.





I tried running a couple bottom threaded bolts through, but the end threads would get wiped out before penetrating deep enough. An aggressive cutting tap fixed the mess.

 

The flywheel and clutch are cooked.







I don't know if the details in the photos above will show here, but there are traces of fluid radiating from the center of the flywheel, also note more wear on the outside edge of the disc. It appears transmission fluid leaking from the transmission input shaft seal contaminated the inner portion of the disc.

 

I failed to mention the flywheel's secondary mass had excessive rock just like the other defective R56 flywheels I've seen. That pattern is on most of the rattling flywheels.

 

It has low mileage (the ECU is removed or I would provide the exact number) and another OEM clutch & flywheel will be replacing the cooked kit.