1st Gen R53 Cooper S What am I smelling when I stomp on the gas?

I've noticed that whenever I drive the car hard, especially with higher boost and temps, shifting a few times at higher RPMs, I get this smell in the cabin that is a mix of exhaust fume and maybe burnt oil. I've seen other threads about this, so I am pretty sure it's normal.

What I don' get - how does it get into the cabin so fast? windows closed, I am going through two or three gears with over 4000rpm shift points, and bingo, there's that smell. It can't be the exhaust unless the R53 sucks in burnt exhaust all the time trying to kill me. It clearly doesn't.

Is it something that burns off on the outside of the motor/headers? again, how does it get into the cabin so fast? Out the top of the hood and into the air intakes for the cabin?

some say, you just need to drive hard all the time and the smell will go away, but I don't think that is a valid solution.

I've seen "oil catch can" as a solution, but I am not convinced that anything happening inside the intake/exhaust system actually emits that smell. It would come out the back of the car, wouldn't it?

Any insights? I know the car isn't broken. It runs rich, there's oil in the intercooler and it gets hot, etc - but why does the smell penetrate the car so quickly in the first place?

 

ah yes, every time my Mini does some weird stuff no other car does, I am told my damper is probably failing. When the engine cuts out completely without engine code on a long uphill mountain road, I am told I am screwed and it must be the damper self destructing. Now I smell combusted dinosaur juice in the cabin and it is could be the engine damper failing...

Can you even remotely explain what the damper has to do with the smell in my cabin after a brief pull to maybe just 3500rpm?

I've thrown $400 at the damper failure risk and put an ATE damper in there this summer, only to remove a perfectly fine OEM damper. The car smelled like this before the damper change, before several oil leak fixes, before new belts and tensioner, although that lasts bit probably is responsible for the lack of burnt rubber that used to be mixed in with the smell.

The car runs fine. The seals on the SC are fine, or at least I can attest there's full boost at full throttle (15 PSI). It stinks even on just 2 or 3 pounds of boost. I am not really asking how to keep the smell from coming into the cabin by sealing the hood. I know it is bent up slightly higher now by the M7 strut bar, so I guess that's why it is more noticeable than it was in the past.

The question is - what on earth is causing this? I want to exterminate the source of this. It does smell mostly like an exhaust leak under the hood, but it doesn't sound like I have that issue, plus I'd smell it all the time if it was a leak in the exhaust system.

My best guess is that there's some EGR fumes mixed into the SC pressurized part of the system and it leaks slightly under pressure, doesn't leak in normal driving, as then the intake runs a vacuum and everything gets sucked into the engine.

So where can it leak post super charger? The IC boots seem fine, but I can throw more money at the car and replace those, too. What about that bypass valve area - it does have some rubber parts to it that may not be sealed perfectly? Going to yank the SC this winter for another oil change, so I'll just replace all that stuff, too . That's been pretty much my mode of maintenance with this Mini: anything that has failed on other cars, just replace. Am I forgetting a soft spot in the pressure segment of the SC system that could leak?

Regarding keeping the smell out - I've soaked the hood liner material around the M7 bars the day I installed and then many more times, but the hood is still up a little in the center. I am thinking it may be time for a knife to be asked for some more aggressive assistance with the hood liner to get that hood back to a proper seal, but I did smell this stuff before the M7, just not s bad as now.

 

I thought it was something like burnt oil. Unlikely now, because after 2000 miles since fixing every oil leakI could locate, the engine is still shiny clean and there's really no oil anywhere on the outside of it. New valve cover gasket, O-rings on dip stick and CPS sensor are still holding, new crank seal on the damper side. No leaks visible.

The smell - how to describe?

It certainly isn't rubber, nor clutch/burnt slipping smell. It is like really bad exhaust pre-cat lightup, and maybe some burnt oil mixed into it. The car does not smell like that out the tailpipe. It is a little more on the burnt side, so oil is probably involved, but none of that oil is external on the engine block, nor would I think oil burns of so quickly in response to higher boost, but never when just cruising along. There's no oil leak around the exhaust ports that I can spot. Valve cover gasket was replaced in June.

Searching around, it appears many others have noticed this smell, but no real answer as to origin. Over at NAM there are a number of older threads about this. No answers, though.

Looks like I'll just address it over the winter - new gaskets everywhere, replace most of the exhaust system if the budget allows. Also, it isn't the end of the world. The car runs fine. Smells a little. I've had motorcycles with everything vented to the outside air and they were worse. In fact, thinking back to what that smell was like, I think the crank case smell from that modified KTM 950 engine was very similar to what I smell now.

 

I do not, nor was there a lot of oil in the intercooler when I removed it.

Even if there is oil going through the intake, it does not explain where the smell escapes from what is a pressurized and supposedly closed system.

I'll have a look at the EGR routings on the car. Maybe just a bad hose connection somewhere that blows by under boost. A catch can will be last resort, as I don't think the oil going back in harms the engine. Not one of the must do mods and many have reversed back to not using one due to vacuum issues. It's more of an R56 thing to keep the valves clean.