Engine Drivetrain 1st Gen Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: Vacuum Line dangling! Help where does it go!?!?

Hey everybody AMAZING news! Yeah I couldn't wait for a response so I threw it on for the hell of it and yes it not only was the right line it fixed all the driveability problems I have been dealing with for the past TWO years! Unbelievable, you guys have no idea how relieved I am. This guy who did the work was trying to tell me I need a new engine! Thank god I hesitated and didn't just trust him! WOO HOO thank you Mike for the super quick reply. M/A is an invaluable resource.

Steve

 

No I'm done with him. The simple fact that he tells me I have good compression on all cylinders but it was still experiencing blow by left me quite suspicious.

It's all a very long story. I had a spark plug blow out two years ago. Got a time sert installed. Ever since then I had this horrible hesitation but only under boost. For the longest time I thought either the time sert bushing was I installed wrong or I had cylinder wall damage from a poor installation. Basically I was afraid to find out either way. A few weeks ago I finally got up the courage to bring it to somebody and hear the bad news for myself. I was referred to this guy by some local mini people. He said he did some test and that there was low compression on the cylinder that blew out and that the head would have to come off to make sure it was ok and not the cause. Me being convinced that's what it was I told him go ahead. the head turns out to be fine. But he finds the intake man gasket was on backwards and was leaking. So he fixes that also. Now I got a clean head, no leaks at the intake manifold but the car is still doing the same thing. He tells me I need a motor. That the piston rings on #2 were shot and not sealing properly. So I tell him I can't do it right now because of the amount of money I already spent and I pick up the car. That leads me to today. I took it out of the garage for a wash and as I'm backing out all I can smell is raw fuel. Start poking around and find that vacuum line dangling. Fixed it all up and the car runs great! Now I have to really get this thing tuned!

Wow that is really long! Sorry if it was boring and wasted a few minutes of your life! LOL hope you enjoyed my tale of triumph over my Mini!

Steve

 

Hey Mike, thanks for that info. These lines were actually all fine on my car. The problem was the dummy that worked on it hooked them up wrong and left it completely off my fpr. All it took was for me to hook them all up the way they are supposed to be and the car runs mint now.

What the real problem was all this time for the past two years was that stupid intake manifold gasket was installed backwards and leaking. I think when I brought it to Mini when the plug blowout first happened, they removed my intake manifold for some reason. When I found out they wouldn't cover the repairs under warranty because I had those stupid Denso iridium plugs in it, I told them I'd fix it myself. They must have put everything back together again and put the gasket on wrong. It's aggravating to think that's all that was wrong the whole time but also a major relief!

As far as those piston go, man I'd love to really just go nuts on this car but I have bigger priorities in my life right now and money needs to go elsewhere. I'm still running stock head, cam, injectors, and IC. And I don't have the money now to upgrade any of those parts! BOO I do however need to tune this thing bad. The old plugs I had in the car before I had all this work done were frosted white like they just came out of a freezer box! I'm pretty sure that's a telltale sign of a severe lean condition right? So I think I'm going to have to pick up the FA53 software and some 550s and at least I can safely drive around without having to worry about blowing a hole in a piston!

Yet another ramble post! SHEESH
Sorry,
Steve

 

Well the vacuum line was only like that after all of the head and intake manifold work was done. Before I had that guy work on my car those lines were all ok. The car has had the intake manifold leak for two years, since the spark plug blew out. I never got it looked at because I was afraid how much it was going to cost me. I know, stupid. Right before I brought the car to this guy to have him look at it, I swapped out my plugs and wires and noticed they were frosted white. Those plugs had been in the car since the blow out, so 2 years.

So you're saying the car was probably running rich with a stock tune? I figured, with all that I have done to it that the injectors were probably maxxed out. Of course I have no data logging capabilities so I don't know what was going on with that thing. Now that its running correctly I'd like to see how those plugs start to look.

 

yeah I know I'm not one of those heavily modded guys, but its enough where I think those stock injectors are working some overtime. Thank you very much for chatting and giving me your professional input. Much appreciated!

Steve