I'm always watching videos on Mini Cooper heads lol. Just to let you know those rings on the end of the camshaft are called rectangrings, they let oil pressure buildup to run the Vanos gear. Sometime in 2010 they switched over to the Teflon ones. The reason being, the metal ones eat up the bore on that end cap and leave deep grooves so that they would leak around it and not build up pressure. If there are grooves cut in that from the old metal rings, the head is toast. You can't just replace that cap and the bottom of it is actually the head itself. Base/non-turbo engines have them on both camshafts with valtronic on the intake cam with all the crazy springs and the motor that actuates the valvetronic. Don't ask me how I know haha.
Looking huge at the beginning there George - thick solid tight with vascularity and defination. Thanks for keeping us updated on the progress even though the gym videos aren't a thing again, glad to see you're keeping it up nonetheless
A bit of grease on the collet and a screwdriver makes them easy to install on anything. They stick to the valve and you can just push them round to get the next one in.
George I replaced the valve stem seals in position on my R56 this weekend.....didn't realise how bl00dy small the collets were!! God damn fiddly job! All sorted though now, no smoke after long idle and certainly no smell of burning oil during long drive.
Once again, an informative video! Is there a video on how you cleaned the oil and gasket off the engine mating surfaces? I guess brake cleaner gets rid of the old oil 🤔How did you clean the carbon off the valves?
