Great video, practical and informative. We have a non turbo Cooper that is puffing white smoke when hot and been idling for a while in traffic. Otherwise runs fine and not using coolant. Will give you a shout to do this to our car as I've got the kit but not the time!
Great video which really helped me a lot. However, I did not have to remove the intake camshaft gear, vacuum pump or oil (?) pump. Also: I was able to put the camshafts back in place without removing the timing chain tensioner (I pushed it in a little with a wooden stick) and making sure the chain was tight between crankshaft and exhaust gear, as well as intake gear. Apparently that was a big no-no for not removing the tensioner. This is what happened: upon starting car, it went in to high idle (cold engine). After a few seconds it went in to low idle and ran extremely rough with irregular RPM's. I decided to carefully warm the engine at a slightly higher RPM and drive in the neighborhood. Anything above low idle was just fine. After 5 miles, low idle was also back to normal and car drives great. Could it be that the tensioner needed some higher oil pressure to get back to a previous state with more tension on the chain? BTW: before replacing the seals, the car was using 1QT every 400 miles and blowing blue smoke. The old seals were worn and dried out. Not sure if the problem is fixed as so far I only put 5 miles on it, but there are no longer spats of oil on my garage floor.
Thank you for your video. Could you please clarify how many miles or kilometers had the car before replacing these valve stem oil seal? Is it the same engine of the car since brand new or a swap? Thank you in advance for your answer. It will help me to unserstand my Mini's issues .
Anthony, when I plug compressor and inflate chamber, seems like its leaking somewhere, I hear air noise on intake side. is it same when you were doing that? Generally cylinder holds a good compression 11 bar +-
Hello, thank you very much for the video, very well done and the procedure explained, I will move on with the work. I just have one question, can a 50 liter compressor handle the job?
very good tutorial, thank you. At what point did you remove the chain tensioner (or did i miss it) ? before opening the sprockets 100nm torqued bolts or after ? When putting all back, why not put the tensioner back before tightening the sprockets (why use the tool first) ? thank you
I got the exhaust side done, but one cylinder on the intake side is blasting air from the throttle body and the compressor cant keep up. What am I doing wrong here? The other 3 are fine. It was fine until I compressed the spring. Holding the valve up with a pair of vice grips 🙃
the cams and crank pulleys are not keyed to there shafts so can move freely when unlocked, the crank needs to be kept in place so it can be timed to the cam shafts
I've just realised where you are. I'm at the other end of the country. I'd have to drive through 6 different strains of virus to get there. I'd better roll up my sleeves again and do it myself. Thanks for the video - very helpful ;)
I live in Tucson and this has to be the best valve seal video ever, did mine yesterday as per your video and it came out perfect. fantastic video keep them coming.
Finally a good guide on how to do this job without removing the head. I would like to add: Intake cam gear bolt is 20Nm + 180° (tight to 20Nm and add half turn clockwise), exhaust cam gear is 20Nm + 90° (tight to 20Nm and add quarter turn clockwise), hold the camshafts in place by counterforce using wrench 27 on the other end. Seating surfaces between the gears and cams need to be degreased and tightened properly to prevent slipping of the gears. That could allow timing to go out of spec or even valves to hit the pistons in worst case scenario Better tight it properly....:) Oh, and chain tensioner should be tightened to 80Nm. You could also use a rope through the spark plug hole compressed by piston to hold the valves closed, maybe safer... How is Your oil consumption after doing this job?
Excellent video! Thanks for posting this. This is the only video I have found on this specific procedure (that's not in Dutch) and now I can attempt to do this job without fear of mis-timing the engine.
8:24 What is the diameter size of the modified spark plug ? Would like to see if there is an adaptor that I could buy extra to do the compression, I'm useless in fabrication so maybe there is an adaptor I could place onto the hose supplied in the Valve kit?
ok a daft question, as I'm about to do this very same job.. what pressure would you run into the cylinders to hold the valves in-place whilst doing the job?
I've just done this and 4 - 6 barg did the trick (just a normal domestic air compressor). I found that initially the spring caps didn't break away when compressed, however a little release oil then a tap with a rubber mallet & screw driver and they popped free. HTH
Hi Scott - excellent video and I'm almost done with my job. I learned a few things that I'll post a bit later that I think will help others on this job. For now, you mentioned in the captions that you should install the top guide first before inserting the temporary tensioning tool, but it looks like you didn't do that. I wanted to confirm that we should put the top guide on first, then put the temporary tensioning tool in with the chain fairly tight without movement, then torque the new cam gear bolts, then remove the temporary tool, then put in the original tensioner. Sound right?
Good video, soon i will change them too, one question tho, is not possible to take out the camshafts without pulling out the sprockets, in the idea that the chain might be loose enough to do it? Thank for all the information in this video!
I was thinking the same thing. Marking the chain to the sprocket and leaving the sprocket on the shaft. Hopefully there is enough slack on the chain to do so. I recently did the timing chain with new stretch bolts.
Did this solve the smoking problem? Mine is smoking blue when warmed up don't know if it's bad seals or rings, my compression was good when I checked it so I'm assuming that the rings should be okay. But then again it's possible that thier not and it's still getting good compession
the flywhell thing.. is it u cut of the tail due to cannot access??? because now I brought from china , they given 2 tools but 1 of the tools unable to go in ... the other one look like too small, and don't feel any like blocking,, easy in and out. i also confuse now. if it without this tools can do timing chain?
I just used to put rope through the spark plug hole, rotate crank to lock valves then hey presto do the job then rotate crank backwards remove rope and job done 😉
hi, did the valve stem seals replacement (could be regarded as cruel and unusual punishment...inhumane...) but forgot to put in the flywheel locking pin when assembling all together and torqueing according to spec (i did use the cams locking device). The car won't start (the battery is good, there is "ignition", the crank is rotating freely manually, the rev scale moves when i switch the ignition on) - could it be that not using the flywheel locking pin caused this ? i get a starter fault code (wasn't getting it before) - so could it be that it is a coincidence? thank you in advance
@@Scotty66 thank you. I did it with a rope (i.e. no pin while rotating the crank to get the pistons up/down), not air pressure. So, By setting the timing do you mean, dismantle everything to the point it was just after i finished with the valve seal stems and before starting the assembly, put the pin into the flywheel and continue with the locking tool, etc...? (I have the right tools, just wasn't concentrating enough after the tidieous replacement of the seals...🤦). Much appreciated
Lock the crankshaft with the pin, check where the cams are sitting, if the cam locking tools will fit then the timing is correct you have another problem. I would think the cams are out of time, with the flywheel locked loosen the cam pulleys and move the cams to there correct position, they need to be exact
Well...i re-did it, no change, so i removed the valve cover again and found all the exhaust valves to be "sunk" (all 8 springs are pressed down hard and the cam doesn't even touch them (no pressure on them). I put an endoscope into the cylinders and there are scratches in the pistons heads - when rotating the cams i see (i think) that the pistons may be indeed slightly touching the valves when they reach the top). I guess a rebuild is needed but i don't understand the issue with these 8 exhaust sunk valves , do you? Could it be that all 8 bent the same? I have photos of all of the above but can't upload here sadly
Hi I have a 2012 mini Cooper countryman s r60 turbo and it smokes a lot on a cold start only and it clears up in about a minimal or so and after that it’s fine doesn’t smoke while idling or driving only cold starts and I notice it after I did a oil change is this what i need to do change my valve seals?
I dont have access to compressed air. How does rotating the work with an Auto? I plan to use the rope method, how does that work with locking the flywheel?
You will need to turn the crankshaft from the cam chain end, the rope thing is a waste of time on this engine as the plug holes are so far into the head, would be quicker taking the head off than trying to stuff that much string in, the engine is locked so it just won’t work
@@Scotty66 with air, would the process be the same on the Auto transmission? Just put it in drive, turn the wheels? What size air compressor would I need? I really appreciate your help and knowledge.
Thanks for this I'm about to do this job soon! I have 2 questions. 1) when you put the car in 6th gear to lock the crank do you leave the car in 6th gear for the entire job? Or do you put it back in neutral once the crank is locked? 2) if you don't have an air compressor can you use the rope trick to stop the valves from falling in? Obviously you can't turn the crank to minimize the space up cause you've locked it. Thanks again this video will save me lots of money!
Hi You can take it out of gear but leave the pin in to keep the timing, the time it would take to stuff rope in each cylinder you may as well take the head off.
@@Scotty66 I have found on some cars you can remove the cam follower and replace the valve spring or seal without taking the cams out. I was trying to do the job without removing the cams.
@@davidnegron4193 ok, yeah this particular engine has the cam directly over valves so unfortunately not possible ( or extremely difficult to the point of being quicker to remove the cams)
How much harder are the vvti engines to do ?? My inlaws mini has leaking guide seals and ive just started to pull the rocker cover off and strip the top end down the heads gotta come off plus all the timing set is being replaced and theres a heap of stuff bolted to the intake side that I'm not familiar with do they need to come off or can they stay in and still have access to the valves..yea I'm getting the head refaced as well
Hi Yes they all have to come off, a bit fiddly but straight forward, I found a video just on removing and re fitting the inlet side, search for that one. Specialist tools involved but you can get round that with normal tools.
@@brendangrumpyweir1905 Intake camshaft bearing cap to cylinder head M8 x 30.5 mm - 10 Nm (7.3 ft-lb) Exhaust camshaft bearing cap to cylinder head M6 x 40 mm - 10 Nm (7.3 ft-lb)
@@Scotty66 where abouts is your garage could you inbox me as I've got this problem on my mini and was looking for someone to do it for me great video and no doubt you've had loads of people coming to you for the work to be done many thanks
Bought an r56 eml light on garage said it were headgesket done that still smokes from engine running an from the bk very rough idle any ideas ?? Anyone Tia
if its still smoking the valve stem oil seals need changing, should have been done when the head was off. rough idle could be many things but if the head has been off the cam timing could be incorrect.
you could have alot of issues from one or both fuel pump being bad, to a bad catalytic converter, a bad turbo or even a simple vacuum leak blue smoke is oil being burnt, white smoke is coolant I'd also check the cam timing visually as described in the video "easy to check" I'd also check the fly wheel position as well the R55/56 has only 1 relevant slot in the flywheel a lock pin fits into so its pretty easy to find. I'd also check the spark plugs & coil packs to make sure there operating correctly!
One of the easiest and cheapest fixes is to replace the PCV valve. This can cause oil burn, rough idling and similar problems. Plenty of videos on here how to replace.
The locking collars on the valve springs are my only scare. How do they work upon reinstall? Do they just click into place and you shift them freely or are the magnetized to the valve?
Spring pressure and tapered shape holds them in place, search “how do valve collets work” I’m using grease to temporarily hold them in place. Very simple, very clever
@@Scotty66 Awesome I appreciate it!! Is there a specific type of grease you are using? This is my first big job im doing on the Cooper and I'm trying to be as perfect as possible.
@@Scotty66 With your guide it seemed like it will be time consuming, but fairly easy. Did you have to replace the bolts for the sprockets on the timing chain?
Original problem is oil burning of course but how do u determine it is the stem seals but not piston rings (or both)? For N14, stem seals are raised up so no oil will seep down overnight. Did the car constantly burn blue smoke and more when rev up, or does it puff out blue smoke when rev'ed up in neutral or car taking off from stop (which is my case)?
