Rebuilding The Mini Cooper Cylinder Head! 

When rebuilding the head it is good practice to give the valves a slight tap at the spring side to ensure the collets are correctly seated and also before replacing the cam, stand the head upside down and put some petrol in the valve seat area, the petrol should not leak past the valve seats this will show how well the valves are seated.

I love cordless drills. First I see a fella on Facebook using a cordless as a way to rock his baby's rocker while watching the football and now you're using it to clean up the pitting on the valves. Brilliant.

Would love to have the time, tools and know-how to do this kind of thing. Must be so satisfying to do everything yourself and save god knows how much £££. Keep up the good work James!

Can't believe you didn't grind the inlet valves/seats as well after having them out 🤔🤔🤔

Great work as usual James! Coupla minors... place a piece of cardboard between your work surface and the freshly skimmed head, saves scratches in your lovely milled head face... and if you use the drill method of lapping valves (which I don't recommend as it's too abrasive) spin the drill slowly in both directions, as you would when manually working the valves. P.S. I bet you F'ing hate me & my comments! But my comments are just meant as good advise, as opposed to being a hater / all out bellend! Your doing great pal, love your enthusiasm! 😀

Mate been in the trade for 40 years, its not a problem. keep correct coolant inhibitor in and change every 2 years and it wont get any worse ,

Great work ,not just with the work on the car but with all the filming and editing which probably takes more time than the head gasket !

Steady progress there. Don't let any negative comments bother you, just carry on regardless. I'm an amateur who's worked on cars for 30years and I listen to advice and take it or leave it as I see fit. There's always ways of doing things depending on the circumstances you're in.

Reminds me back in 1977 when I did my first and only head on my Vauxhall Viva. I stupidly started the car after taking air filter part off causing a fire. Luckily put this out. I used one of those wooden sticks to grind valves. Your videos and instructions are great.

The head is fine. The areas of damage will have no effect. Good luck

I’ve used a drill to do valves on a diesel lorry head before now and that worked fine so I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.

I thought about lapping valves like this lol now I will, thanks.

Lap the valves on a bare head, then give a good wash, you shouldn’t do it after fitting the valve stem oil seals as you could get grinding particles caught in the seals

Nice short video before the arsenal game, perfect

Slight comment here: lapping valves with a drill this way isn't a good idea. The reason is that an essential part of lapping your valves is to constantly check the clearance between the valve seat and the valve seat face. You'll be checking that your pitting's gone as you lap each valve - hence doing it by hand is what engine builders do, as well as ensuring that both valve seat on the head and valve seat face on the valve are uniformly ground. This practice is used even on brand-new valves and seats, and is also F1 and performance engine building best practice. If you must motorise what you're doing, then you could've asked the machine shop to do the grinding for you, where a machine geared towards doing this is used. Still; best practice is to hand-lap, and it is also the reason you're not getting a smooth finish. Good work and perseverance nonetheless.

Brother saw most of your videos on engine rebuild. Very nice and informative. Love to see your project on any Toyota engine rebuild.

Great video james mate. I think it would be good if you did a break down, on how much it cost from parts , skimming , tools etc. To allow people who are considering to see how much it could really save yourself.

Loving the Parkside drill, Parkside make some quality tools don't they? I've got the same drill and been impressed with it.

When you use parkside tools bought from Lidl you know the guy is legit cheers m8

Always worth while having it pressure tested when in having a skim

looks great! looking good to go. Id end up spending ages having the head entirely clean. nice one cant wait for the next video.

You could use any other(than black) coloured glove - helps w focus issues on holding small pieces. Thanks! :)

Awesome time to Rebuild that mini engine I’m glad you’re going to get it working again

If you're worried use some Permatex Copper Spray-a-Gasket. Will seal the pitting

Lapped valves with an electric drill 30 year ago mate. Great videos. More power to your elbow.

Well TBH your valves needed facing off and seats re-cutting, then grinding in, using a drill was to say err different but it better than nothing and as for the pitting as long as correct antifreeze used and changed every 2-3 years, should outlast car. Also when Colettes put back in, always give valve stem a gentle tap to check seated correctly but good to see lube used so many people dont.

Great job James 👍 looking forward to tomorrow’s vid, roll on 6pm 👍😊

1st......fingers crossed mate hopefully the head skim has done the job and you get her up and running. Look forward to tomorrows vid..

Love your vids mate! The head looks perfectly fine after the machining. Use a good quality head gasket and the proper coolant and your're good to go! On the side note: You have received new stem seals in the full gasket set you unboxed in the last video. What i saw those are the old ones that you used. Maybe i'm wrong. Awesome videos, awesome lad! Keep it up mateee! Cheers!

Hahaha he told them internet mechanics straight..

Did the place not allow camera access to see the skimming process? Strange how i've never been keen on mini's but i'm enjoying watching this..

to save any damage to the shank use a bolt stuck in a bit of rubber hose into the drill and the shank in the other, about 4 inches long ,also self aligning

Wow a cliff-hanger again. Its like waiting for the next episode of Game Of Thrones. :-) Great video by the way. It looks like the head will be OK, I don't think it will last 100,000 miles or even 50,000 miles but you probably don't need it to.

Using the drill with the stem seals in place is not the best thing to do,

With a new engine you worry about running them in in case they fail. With an engine you've rebuilt yourself you worry about what you have done wrong in case they fail. Just throw caution to the wind. If it breaks it breaks, just put it down to experience.

And you didn't invent that way to do it,the lone ranger, john Wayne and every other cowboy has been doing that for years!!

Love this series

that grinding paste is magic used it many times the stuff they produce now is crap so use it sparingly

Fingers crossed

Brilliant video James,

You tease james i was into this video looking forward to tomorrow's episode i will be here waiting at 6pm 👍

Dave wagsaff, you are saying all the things he should be doing , that I am thinking. 👍

The thing that kills water jackets is not using the proper ratio of anti freeze and water in the engine. Just using water causes corrosion which, due to antifreeze's anti corrosion properties stop this (obviously).

Make sure you use decent coolant for anti corrosion properties. coolant/water 50/50.

This is a great series James, keep up the excellent work mate 👍🏻

Well done you make it look so easy , which it isn’t .

Excellent work so far 👍

Next video what !!!!!!!!! Bloody typical just got a brew sat down and it's the end aaaaaarrrrrr lol good video dude

I no this is an old video but EDS is also my go-to guys they are awesome and well priced

Great work James, i like your can do work ethic. wish you every success

I been waiting for this moment, so exciting ....!!!

The exhaust valves in the Mini 1.6 Tritec engine have a bit of a flaw.. they're very small compared to the inlet valve so they live a hard life. It's not uncommon for the valves to burn-out, causing low cylinder pressure and rough running.

Always looking forward for a new video, keep up the good work... Live from S.A.

Can somebody explain why the valves get pitted? Does this happen with all cars?

id have lapped those exhaust valves alot more until no marks are left. it can take a while but the engine will run much smoother as a result.

Bro still up ? What do we call again does guide of the spark plugs ? Shim like guides that often always remove every time replacing valve cover gasket?

Thanks for another vid. Never put a head sunny side down 😱

Narwich boi! I wish I still lived there. Great vids mate.

Use a hose rubber between valve and drill! Directly is no bueno

Looking forward to it 👍

You did clean the grinding paste off the valve and seat after lapping the valve didn't you?

Nice work James

I like the intro to tomorrow’s video!

good job 👍

If you keep the old one tho you can get the old one tig welded up and then grind the port open and skim it agane tig weld mettle back on to the old one and fix it

You've come such a long way!

Really enjoyed ur videos cheers buddy 👍

Looking good " J ". Baz.

When using a drill to lap the valves it is risky to connect drill directly to the valve. Small mistake and you bend it or grind it in the sleeve. Better to use flexible connection

I love your vids man. I click on these so fast. Keep it up mate. 👍👌

You really need to lap the valves there not going to seal and you will be down on compression

Been watching most videos since the 5 stud conversion, and just found out you're from Norwich too 😂👍 Now subbed

That’s a clean new Haynes!

😓still waiting........ 👏👏👏great job though 👍👌👍..... ✌

I'd have used the old head. I'd have filled-in the lost metal using my pulse-TIG and had the machine shop to re-machine. Reforming isn't hard. Just needs more toys.

Seen worse pits and digs straight out the factory, as long as the pitting doesn't creep and become a crack should be golden. I reckon the old head started getting eaten away by the wrong antifreeze, its vital to use a alloy friendly coolant, a friend of mine didn't on his Reliant and the all alloy engine got seriously munched by corrosion and blown gasket O.o

did you not consider porting and polishing while the heads off

Good video and editing as always. Imo with regards to some wear on the head after you have had it skimmed. I'd say over cautious. Never a bad thing, but if you were that cautious and fisidious the valves would be placed in order. If you want to concentrate on the head so much then at least put the valves back in order. Even wear and tear.

The screws holding my rocker cover on were so rusty they were mostly dust. I managed all but one... which broke the cover! So I've had to get a new rocker cover. Damn it. (Mini Cooper S R53 Dec 2004)

Always feel gutted it’s the end of the video

Nice video.

Clean that grinding paste off after. And check clearances now you have lapped them, chances are they will be loose now. I also wouldnt be spinning them inside a drill with the stem seals installed already. Do it before seals are installed. Other than that, your doing good work and your channel deserves more subscribers compared to other youtubers who make boring poor content of bodges *cough*Lee🤧

Love your videos and would love to have to confidence to do jobs like that !

Yeah it’s fine I’d personally alloy weld the dimples and machine it again.. but that’s because I can 😂😂

I have a mini 1.6 2005 with a burnt valve and I’m not far from Norwich and was wondering how much they charged you for the skim??

Those little dints in the head wont make difference the gasket will take up those i probably would have lapped the valve's in again but hay its not me doing the job so it will all be fine there is another special tool you can get to put on your drill as well

Good video

go go go

Did you get a new torque to yield bolt for the next stage? Hope so.

Joey Essex with tools

When you go to turn over engine for first time please don't let it fire up straight away. Turn it over several times to circulate oil. Speaking from experience. You will just tear up a dry engine and it will rattle like nobody's business. Be good practice to replace the thermostat as its cheap enough.

Good vid till tomoz we await

LAP valves. Cheers.

What was the story re the spark plug tubes??

Miss EDS Is lovely

You need to start selling these cars :D

Would have been ideal to ground the valves in while it was stripped down.

How many miles on those valves?

Whens the fiesta coming back out?😅

I bet youd be fuming if there was a bolt left over after assembling that lot. he he