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MINI Cooper Supercharger Rear Dipstick, Water Pump Flange, Intake Duct Install Notes
MINI Cooper Supercharger rear dipstick mod, water pump flange and intake duct installation notes with pictures (2005 MCS Convertible)
I did this task this weekend, and this week mornings/evenings…well…not quite done technically, but close. Big job. I was pleased to see some oil drain out of both reservoirs on my 121,000 mile supercharger! Nothing was easy, as is typical for working on this car. The service mode / modular front end feature is pretty cool though. It was my first time doing that so it went slow. But that’s also par for my course…slow, that is…
Stock Supercharger oil plugs are 7/16-20 thread with an o-ring seal under the head of the plug. Turns out that a ¼” flare fitting has that thread, which means I didn’t do any machining / drilling / tapping to the supercharger. Used a ¼” flare male to 1/8 female NPT adapter; this configuration has a large flat face at the transition to female NPT where the hex portion starts which serves as the “head” on the plug, and an almost identical (to the stock oil plug) thread relief against that head surface for the o-ring. Ground the cone off the end of the male flare thread. Then used a 1/8 male NPT to 5/16 hose barb 90 deg adapter. Both fittings are brass and I bought them at Ace.
Cleaned up the holes thru both adapters, slightly enlarging some to about .200 ID. Used 5/16 fuel hose with a spring clamp on the barb and routed it out forward of the intake manifold and intercooler as shown. I’ll cut the hose shorter and clamp it in place when I reassemble the front end. I am using the inner core from an old speedometer cable for the dipstick; when inserted you can feel it contact the brass hose barb, then give it a little twist and feel it drop down into that barb.
I routed the 5/16 fuel line / dipstick tube out the way that made the most sense to me. I rounded a couple sharp edges on the supercharger and added a protection layer to the hose where it passes over edges. I'll add a pic of the finished tube upper end when complete.
WATER PUMP FLANGE
This one in particular I am flabbergasted that nobody mentioned. Nobody. Crazy! The procedures say to remove the water pump flange, clean up the surfaces, install a new O-ring, and reinstall and tighten the bolts, then install the water pump. But the flange installs with two small bolts through large clearance holes, resulting in a great deal of tolerance (~1/8” or more) in where the flange actually ends up. I figure this is by design, so it can be moved to align with the water pump outlet which engages that flange. It has to match that position fairly close due to the type of fitting, so even the tolerance from one water pump to a new one could result in the need for realignment of the flange. Well, that implies that you have to mount the flange with its greased O-ring, but leave the bolts loose so the flange can float around and self-align when you install the water pump. Which also means you have to then tighten those flange bolts up after the water pump is mounted, and access to said bolts isn’t very easy. It is possible though, with the lower one accessed from below the pump, and the upper bolt through the access hole in the pump structure as shown. The bolt heads are 8mm, and I used ¼” drive with a long extension so the tools were nice and skinny. My new dipstick hose almost blocked the access to the upper bolt, but I had just enough room after moving it aside with a screwdriver.
I am sure that if you do not do it this way, there is a good chance that the water pump outlet won’t align with the flange. Either it would be out so far as to not install at all, or maybe barely install but be off enough to leak. You might wonder if I learned this the hard way…thank God, no, I noticed the issue while cleaning the parts. Has anyone else run across this, or had a problem?
INTAKE DUCT, THROTTLE BODY TO SUPERCHARGER, INSTALLATION
I fought with trying to get this back on for a good while. I had the green lower gasket in place with a little silicone grease on it for ease of installation, then tried with that gasket totally removed for trial fit. I couldn’t get the duct over far enough toward the passenger side to get the bypass valve hose (the approx. 2” dia x 2” long hose) lined up. (Note: the throttle body had been removed.) The key was to have that short hose as free as possible – both clamps removed, hose cleaned and greased inside so it could slip around a little. I had removed the duct with only the lower clamp on the short hose removed – the upper clamp remained in place. This made it way too stiff to allow the misalignment necessary for the installation process.
Ha, it certainly wasn't like that before, the leaking water pump had made a wretched mess. I spent some time with gasoline in a pan and a brush. Had the oil plugs installed, of course, and took care not to get gas heavily in the seal areas.
I replaced my water pump this weekend and so when I saw the picture my first thought was that you had put armorall on the black plastic tubing and had walnut blasted the aluminum parts. Did ya??????????
Oh, heavens no! Ain't nobody got time fo dat! 😉 LOL It did come out good, just wiped the tube with a rag and cleaned the SC with gas. I think they look better in the pics than they really are.
It called for a silicone grease, so I used some silicone brake parts lube I have. O-rings pretty much always need to go in with a light coat of oil or grease so they slip into place in the groove properly as they are installed and tightened.
GearHead: Your thread is invaluable and timely, as I am putting mine back together now. Question: Why didn't you simply remove the driver's side intercooler elbow (to which the bypass valve mounts) and then, once the s/c, water pump, and plastic intake duct are in place, reinstall the intercooler elbow? Would seem to be quite easy to then slide that short hose down onto the intake duct.
Well, yes, that would have worked fine! In fact that would probably be fundamentally the best way. None of the posts said you have to remove that piece, and so I was trying to avoid unnecessary parts removal, cleaning of surfaces, gasket replacement, etc. Once the hose was loosened at both ends and greased, it slipped in OK.
Gearhead: I suspect that the problem you had with reinstalling that short hose below the blow-off valve was because it was original. In mine it was absolutely inflexible, almost as if it were plastic, not rubber. But because I was installing a new intake duct, with that section of hose already attached, it was new and quite pliable. I had no problem at all.
I'm trying to get the courage up to just check my SC fluid and change it out. I've had the oil and gaskets for maybe 5 months now but have yet to get started. Well at 118k miles it's gotta be done soon.
How long did all this take you? What was the most troublesome part(S)?
Btw, just so you know how my MINI mechanic skills are, it took me 3 & ½ hours just to install my new DT BPV... So yea. Definitely not a master mechanic. Great write up again by the way!
Well.... I'm pretty good at this stuff.... But SLOW and methodical. Like really slow. Like if I did this for a living, I think I'd have happy customers but a starving family! That's how I roll... I do a good job by being very careful.
It took me many, many hours. Most of a 3 day weekend, plus several mornings and evenings after that because we were leaving town in the Mini the following weekend. I did a few other things as well... Strut mount, tie rod, belt tensioner /idler, front alignment and a couple other thing I can't remember.
Oh, most troublesome? I wrote about a couple. Everything is very tight in there, you already know that. With all the writeups available it's not bad really, just slow.
11-16-2016 | 02:35 PM
