2005 R53, 2005 R53 lightweight, 2008 R55S, 2012 R58FJCW, 2014 R60SD All4, 1996 Mini Cooper 35SE.
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6,697 Posts
I had a customer agree to buy a final drive conversion a week or so ago, the next day he was in an event in the car and it suffered some damage resulting in a broken donor gearbox, so he came back to me and asked what I have, long and short of it I agreed to remove the one I'd just fitted into my car complete with a Quaife so he's had that, ready to go,
then a couple of days later he added the top end as well, so that marks the end of the last five years tuning cycle with that head, max achieved 252.7 at the wheels, and it's no more....boohoo😂
so....
car is now in bits to liberate stuff,
parts are off and due to be collected for use in a Northern Ireland hill climb car,
Decisions....
I've been talking about letting this car go now and again,
I've also been saying I'd recheck the motor at a 10k interval which passed about 3k ago, as it hasn't seen the track since April '19 other than ~40 mins June 14th this year, it didn't really matter much,
taking the head off revealed a broken front chain guide which is recent, it also revealed a mark on the pin side of bore 3 clutch side,
I can feel this with my finger so no point in honing, if I'd done the 10k check as I intended originally it might have been less and saveable, instead it's destined for a bore or sleeving back.
the block is so worth saving, there is just zero corrosion in the coolant galleries from using OEM coolant and that alone makes it better than most, no real scaling either so it's a keeper imo,
there was a drip on one of the sump bolts, previously there has only been a light sweat at the bottom left of the timing cover or top of sump by that corner which I've suspected was the timing cover more than the sump, it never had the chance to get wet as I brake cleaner it off now and again but haven't for a few months and did use it on track in June briefly. The timing cover would have come off anyway to recover the guide debris and access the chain, so that would be a passive repair, with the mark there though it's all coming apart anyway, so we start again.
while the oil pump is off I'll recheck the rotors and the oil gallery for the outer rotor again, rotors were new @49.5k,
the box has been swapped several times this year, flywheel off every time to check rear main and always dry, same seal since end of 2017. Now the last time the box was swapped I didn't like the wear that had suddenly appeared on the ring gear and didn't have a spare, so I took off the GTT flywheel and refitted a DMF. It soon reminded me what the alloy flywheel does for this car, so I've not really enjoyed having the heavy old lump back on and it was noticeable on track for sure in June. Anyway, point is, that on removal of the DMF this time, the rear main had started to leak. This to me says everything about the weight affect on the back of the crank and the affect on balance probably. I can't prove much but the car has been bone dry for close to five years with no DMF and as soon as one is restored it leaks. I've had plenty of these motors apart and one consistent wear point on them is the No.5 main bearing, right in front of the DMF, so again imo reflecting weight and potential for it to be off balance, speculative it may be, but these days I simply don't like these motors on a DMF. Needless to say I have a new ring gear and the alloy flywheel would be going back on asap.
this shows the tooth profile accuracy of the GTT flywheels, it's pretty much identical to OEM, just a narrower gear.
and gear installed, I did also put a friction surface kit into stock but it's not required just yet, I'll add another gear to it for later, I also added another complete flywheel and spare Helix sprung discs.
now with the motor out and coming apart, next out were the pistons with my H rods, no damage on the pistons which are still stock with original rings @ 63k, no play in small ends, just the usual skirt markings which considering this motor has been run hard on track and has a redline of 8160rpm since Sep 20, plus has been dragged a fair bit higher due to some miss shifts at Curborough I have to say I'm quite pleased to see it, so these will go again as far as I'm concerned,
what you can see in the background on the rod upper shell is a wear spot consistent across all four, these are King Race shells fitted ~13k ago, shows a hard life which is what it is, they were always going to be changed early, I'm happy with where these spots are. On most shells it's a lot larger and offset left which can tell a story, especially for pulley swaps that weren't mapped for.
I'll get the crank out later and take the block in to the machine shop.
so what next....
then a couple of days later he added the top end as well, so that marks the end of the last five years tuning cycle with that head, max achieved 252.7 at the wheels, and it's no more....boohoo😂
so....
car is now in bits to liberate stuff,
parts are off and due to be collected for use in a Northern Ireland hill climb car,
Decisions....
I've been talking about letting this car go now and again,
I've also been saying I'd recheck the motor at a 10k interval which passed about 3k ago, as it hasn't seen the track since April '19 other than ~40 mins June 14th this year, it didn't really matter much,
taking the head off revealed a broken front chain guide which is recent, it also revealed a mark on the pin side of bore 3 clutch side,
I can feel this with my finger so no point in honing, if I'd done the 10k check as I intended originally it might have been less and saveable, instead it's destined for a bore or sleeving back.
the block is so worth saving, there is just zero corrosion in the coolant galleries from using OEM coolant and that alone makes it better than most, no real scaling either so it's a keeper imo,
there was a drip on one of the sump bolts, previously there has only been a light sweat at the bottom left of the timing cover or top of sump by that corner which I've suspected was the timing cover more than the sump, it never had the chance to get wet as I brake cleaner it off now and again but haven't for a few months and did use it on track in June briefly. The timing cover would have come off anyway to recover the guide debris and access the chain, so that would be a passive repair, with the mark there though it's all coming apart anyway, so we start again.
while the oil pump is off I'll recheck the rotors and the oil gallery for the outer rotor again, rotors were new @49.5k,
the box has been swapped several times this year, flywheel off every time to check rear main and always dry, same seal since end of 2017. Now the last time the box was swapped I didn't like the wear that had suddenly appeared on the ring gear and didn't have a spare, so I took off the GTT flywheel and refitted a DMF. It soon reminded me what the alloy flywheel does for this car, so I've not really enjoyed having the heavy old lump back on and it was noticeable on track for sure in June. Anyway, point is, that on removal of the DMF this time, the rear main had started to leak. This to me says everything about the weight affect on the back of the crank and the affect on balance probably. I can't prove much but the car has been bone dry for close to five years with no DMF and as soon as one is restored it leaks. I've had plenty of these motors apart and one consistent wear point on them is the No.5 main bearing, right in front of the DMF, so again imo reflecting weight and potential for it to be off balance, speculative it may be, but these days I simply don't like these motors on a DMF. Needless to say I have a new ring gear and the alloy flywheel would be going back on asap.
this shows the tooth profile accuracy of the GTT flywheels, it's pretty much identical to OEM, just a narrower gear.
and gear installed, I did also put a friction surface kit into stock but it's not required just yet, I'll add another gear to it for later, I also added another complete flywheel and spare Helix sprung discs.
now with the motor out and coming apart, next out were the pistons with my H rods, no damage on the pistons which are still stock with original rings @ 63k, no play in small ends, just the usual skirt markings which considering this motor has been run hard on track and has a redline of 8160rpm since Sep 20, plus has been dragged a fair bit higher due to some miss shifts at Curborough I have to say I'm quite pleased to see it, so these will go again as far as I'm concerned,
what you can see in the background on the rod upper shell is a wear spot consistent across all four, these are King Race shells fitted ~13k ago, shows a hard life which is what it is, they were always going to be changed early, I'm happy with where these spots are. On most shells it's a lot larger and offset left which can tell a story, especially for pulley swaps that weren't mapped for.
I'll get the crank out later and take the block in to the machine shop.
so what next....