Your fleet running reports

[Sundayjumper]

Sounds like you should launch your own version of M539. Just focused on broken Minis.

Gavster has actually been bugging me to do similar.

[DeskJockey]

Sounds like you should launch your own version of M539. Just focused on broken Minis.

Gavster has actually been bugging me to do similar.

Then that's a majority vote. Get going!

[integrale_evo]

Had the front left wheel of the x5 trying to trace an occasional knock, but only at certain speeds / types of bump.

All the joints and bushes look good, but the driveshaft seems a little loose. Nearly all x5s seem to fail mots for split cvs so wouldn’t surprise me if it had gone and just had a new boot shoved on at some point.

Can buy the left one on its own for about £50 so tempted just to do that.

Pleased that my jack goes high enough to comfortably lift it

[integrale_evo]

Sounds like you should launch your own version of M539. Just focused on broken Minis.

Gavster has actually been bugging me to do similar.

If we lived closer I’m sure we could come up with some sort of collaboration with plenty of material and old knackers to work on

[Sundayjumper]

If we lived closer I’m sure we could come up with some sort of collaboration with plenty of material and old knackers to work on

I can hear my wife's eyes rolling right out of her head at that, and I've not even told her yet

[Gavster]

Making YouTube videos about something you already enjoy doing is a legit career move

[Sundayjumper]

I've had a sit down and some dinner and a well earned Guinness. Or two.

Working on the engine today revealed a few gremlins that need sorting, inevitably adding a few more £££s to the project.

* The cam cover has been replaced in the past and has been leaking quite a lot of oil. Someone tried putting sealant all round it but didn't work. Having taken the cover off it is visibly distorted along the front edge (the side closest to the turbot; that may or may not be coincidence). New one ordered.

* The seller claimed the cam chain had been done a couple of years ago. I am not convinced The guides look exactly like the old stained & worn ones I took out of my wife's MINI a couple of weeks ago. New chain & guides ordered.

* It is (or rather, was) fitted with a decat. It sounded quite fruity and popped & banged but I'm not really into that and it ought to be an MOT fail. The head & exhaust are also dark black with soot so it's clearly not been running right. I'm going to blame the (de)cat. A good deal was found on an aftermarket replacement cat. I'll sell the decat to recoup a few quid. Possibility of needing new lambda sensors.


Costs to date for essential stuff:

1,300.00 Purchase
60.60 thermostat
11.99 pollen filter
10.70 air filter
9.99 sniff test
110.71 cat
94.95 head gasket kit
86.26 cam chain kit
62.33 valve cover

1,747.53 Total


I've also spent money on tools but they'll be useful in the future so I won't include them in the cost of the car.

My initial plan was to be up & running for £1500. I'm now hoping to keep it under £2k. Still a good deal. I hope.


Other bits still needed - spark plugs & and oil filter. I've got oil & antifreeze in stock so no additional spend there but the cost ought to be included really. I'd like some new tyres really, it's got a totally random mix of four different makes right now. That's going to be ~£400 though so it can wait until I've done a few shakedown miles !

[Jobbo]

Have a look on eBay for a set of wheels+tyres. I got a set for £150 with nearly new tyres because they were 16”; same as the ones on my stepdaughter’s car already so a bargain.

[drcarlos]

Head. Off.

Surely there’s some requote potential ?

Did you find where the HG had blown?

[Sundayjumper]

Have a look on eBay for a set of wheels+tyres.

Well ahead of you on this but in the past I've had extremely mixed experiences with wheels & tyres on ebay. For some reason people get wildly optimistic about the condition of tyres when they're selling them, to the point of flat-out lying (pun intended). A set of staggered BMW wheels from a 328i Sport that turned out to be three fronts & 1 rear. One time I asked specifically about the tread depth and was told 8mm. I arrived to collect and found two were on ~5mm and the other two were almost on the markers. He'd looked at one, optimistically guessed 8mm, and assumed they were all the same. Another occasion, a set of tyres that had done "only a couple of thousand miles" - turns out they were on the car when the bloke bought it and *he'd* done a couple of thousand miles on them with no idea how many miles they'd done before that

I like the wheels I've got even though they're desperately in need of a refurb and I want to stick with seventeens for aesthetics. Refurb (they're split rims) + 4 new tyres is getting close to £1k and I'm not sinking that into the car right now. I will bide my time.

Did you find where the HG had blown?

Nothing obvious, no. It looks a bit crusty generally and I think it's the original. It's made of four layers of metal and they're delaminating in several places so it might be leaking between the layers. Dunno. I'll whack it all back together and keep my fingers crossed. Living on the edge ! (of Sandhurst).

[Jobbo]

Have a look on eBay for a set of wheels+tyres.

Well ahead of you on this

Yeah, I realise I was teaching granny to suck eggs I've bought loads of wheels off eBay too. The real value is in buying a size which is generally taken off to put bigger ones on. Buying from Germany is also good, but not going to be cost effective at this sort of price.

[nuttinnew]

Presumably you're going to get your head examined.

[Beany]

Presumably you're going to get your head examined.

Some would say that's long overdue.

[drcarlos]

Have a look on eBay for a set of wheels+tyres.

Well ahead of you on this but in the past I've had extremely mixed experiences with wheels & tyres on ebay. For some reason people get wildly optimistic about the condition of tyres when they're selling them, to the point of flat-out lying (pun intended). A set of staggered BMW wheels from a 328i Sport that turned out to be three fronts & 1 rear. One time I asked specifically about the tread depth and was told 8mm. I arrived to collect and found two were on ~5mm and the other two were almost on the markers. He'd looked at one, optimistically guessed 8mm, and assumed they were all the same. Another occasion, a set of tyres that had done "only a couple of thousand miles" - turns out they were on the car when the bloke bought it and *he'd* done a couple of thousand miles on them with no idea how many miles they'd done before that

I like the wheels I've got even though they're desperately in need of a refurb and I want to stick with seventeens for aesthetics. Refurb (they're split rims) + 4 new tyres is getting close to £1k and I'm not sinking that into the car right now. I will bide my time.

Did you find where the HG had blown?

Nothing obvious, no. It looks a bit crusty generally and I think it's the original. It's made of four layers of metal and they're delaminating in several places so it might be leaking between the layers. Dunno. I'll whack it all back together and keep my fingers crossed. Living on the edge ! (of Sandhurst).

Are you going to get it checked? I didn't know about these engine but just saw a story about increased boost and tuning (you had a decat and evidence of poor running) without changing plug rating type causing heads to crack. There used to be a good machine shop in Fleet so it must be worth getting it checked before putting it back together.

[Sundayjumper]

Are you going to get it checked? I didn't know about these engine but just saw a story about increased boost and tuning (you had a decat and evidence of poor running) without changing plug rating type causing heads to crack.

Nah, I'm just winging it

I highly doubt it's been remapped. The decat is literally the only mod on the whole car. And I'd temporarily forgotten Jobbo pointing out the valve stem seals, those would contribute to the gunk in the combustion chambers. The head gasket kit included new seals so they're already on my list. I'm going to clean it all up as best I can, put it together and see what happens.

Speaking of cleaning, I'm currently going down a walnut blasting research rabbit hole. The inlet valves are very coked up (as is normal on these) so for now I'm soaking them in some carb cleaner that I had lying around. That's loosening it off quite nicely but I think they need blasting to get them totally clean. According to "the internet" it needs to be done every 30k miles. My wife's MINI probably needs doing. And the Cayenne is direct injection too. Which makes it a great opportunity (excuse) to invest in even more tools !

[nuttinnew]

What are your fanny moulds like? Probably more relevant to the Dooper.

[Sundayjumper]

Cripey ! I’ve never seen that before. But the MINI intake manifolds are plastic so that would be a really terrible idea

[mik]

I think I’d put something down to protect the tarmac too, but yeah - seems quite effective for something that’s probably a bar steward to clean mechanically.

[V8Granite]

Thin chisels, picks and time, they aren’t hard to clean but they do take time.

Compared to a leaking heavy fuel engine, that’s nothing.

Dave!

[drcarlos]

Are you going to get it checked? I didn't know about these engine but just saw a story about increased boost and tuning (you had a decat and evidence of poor running) without changing plug rating type causing heads to crack.

Nah, I'm just winging it

I highly doubt it's been remapped. The decat is literally the only mod on the whole car. And I'd temporarily forgotten Jobbo pointing out the valve stem seals, those would contribute to the gunk in the combustion chambers. The head gasket kit included new seals so they're already on my list. I'm going to clean it all up as best I can, put it together and see what happens.

Speaking of cleaning, I'm currently going down a walnut blasting research rabbit hole. The inlet valves are very coked up (as is normal on these) so for now I'm soaking them in some carb cleaner that I had lying around. That's loosening it off quite nicely but I think they need blasting to get them totally clean. According to "the internet" it needs to be done every 30k miles. My wife's MINI probably needs doing. And the Cayenne is direct injection too. Which makes it a great opportunity (excuse) to invest in even more tools !

Hope it's ok then, the decat made me remember that with any mod on the old WRX a remap was recommended as any mod (and decats or sport cats were one of the first mods) would cause issues with fuelling as the map needed to be adjusted to cope with the increased flow.