E26 - Rebuilding the Cylinder Head - R53 Mini Cooper S 2006 

Awesome! More people to share my pain with. :). I don’t really use Facebook a lot but happy to join the group if people are talking R53s. Rust on everything because of the Canadian winters. Hopefully once I eventually get it all gone this car will never see road salt again.

@@RegardingAutomobiles I am in Minnesota so I feel your rust pain. My current R53 I purchased out of Seattle with under 42,000 miles so zero rust. It has been a pleasure working on it. Dropped the both rear and front Sub frames without issue. Check out the FaceBook group. Gen1 Mini Cooper Owners, Parts and Forum USA. I will out in a word for my Canadian friend so you can get in a USA group. Helpful group of owners with nearly 3,000 members.

Ha. This car almost ended up on the scrap pile a few times. As I said, the fixing became the hobby rather than actually driving the car. Thinking of it that way was the only way to stay sane.

Thanks for watching! More coming soon.

Thanks for watching! Maybe I can get a beer sponsorship if I keep it up.

Thanks! Only advice is that it will take longer and be more expensive than any plan you have. :)

@@RegardingAutomobiles would you suggest to buy a used engine instead of trying to fix it ? I just discover your charnel few days ago and already seen many of your videos. (Going to be helpful) I bought a pretty clean one, I drove it and the engine seems to be the only problem. Many years ago I swapped a 94 suzuki sidekick engine, but doing it on those mini is going to take more time !! My idea is to buy a used engjne and install it. It would give me time to rebuild the actual one without to be in a hurry. With your actual expérience on rebuilding yours, do you think it would be a good choice ? Can I ask in % or $, where did you spend most of the money invested(until now) ? I'll watch more of your videos in the coming days...

In 2007 they switched to a new turbo charged engine. So the engine will be different than mine, unless yours is convertible. Convertibles kept the super charger for one more year. I am not too familiar with turbo models, I think they had timing chain issues. The money is kind of spread around. Tools, fasteners, little parts are the things that really get you. $100 here, $40 there turns into $1000. Good luck with yours!

@@RegardingAutomobiles mine isn't a turbo... (sadly) !!!!

Ah yeah that is a good call about the lash adjusters. Too late now :). I suppose I’ll have to change them when I get around to upgrading the cam.

Machine shop specifically said they matched all the valves so I didn’t need to lap them and I don’t know all that much so I trust them. Not sure on vacuum test.

Just posted a short showing the inside of the valve head.

Yeah close to its minimum setting but I am pretty sure that other one was broken.