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You left us hanging in your other post...we all thought you were still in his driveway.

Sorry about the bad car. Not sure why you bought it when he told you he didn't think it would make it across the desert because of bad noises. Guy definitely scammed you on the supposed head repair. Wonder what else he didn't do or tell you about.

Tap what ever size you want. The bolts just have to hold the valve cover tight.

Same with the water pump. Buy 5 bolts that fit.

 

No lie, I even posted asking what happened. And there were plenty of cars in pheonix. Why decide on this one? He even said it had issues.

Once you strip a bolt hole you are tapping it to a larger size. So it doesn't matter what size the bolts are supposed to be because they will not go back in the same hole anymore, carry the bolt to the store and pick something a bit thicker, then buy a tap set for the size bolt you buy.

Can't help on the pump bolts, I have no idea.

 

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I know the thread, I posted the last response lol. And it sounds like you are getting it worked out. 6k was may to much for that first one, but maybe lesson learned to not be in such a rush to buy a car?

 

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You let him take advantage at that point. You clearly had a couple grand to pay for the car, you could have got a motel room for like 50 bucks for the night.

He knew the car had issues and saw you on here in a rush to buy one. He went fishing and you bit.

But anywho, what's done is done, so nows the time to fix her up and enjoy her! I've made dumb decisions in the past as well. Take this as a growing lesson.


First for that dent. You can take that little access panel inside the boot out and remove the tail light, and should be able to get at that dent inside, get it hammered back out a little more round. You need to do this soon and sand it down and paint it. If it starts to rust you're in for a nightmare. Sand it real good, tape off around it a little past where you sanded. Hit it real good with primer, then paint over that with whatever color and some clear to prevent moisture from soaking through and starting the rust.

Check the classified here for someone parting a mini and ask about the pump bolts you need. The valve cover bolts will be easy to deal with.

 

Nice color by the way, same as mine

 

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I don't know the thread pitch, width, and I couldn't find it online, but what I would do, if I were you, Is take one of the bolts to home depot and use their little tool that helps you figure that out, then I'd just buy a helicoil kit for that size bolt. That should cost you about $20 and get you back on the road, good as new with the stock bolts.

 

If you are putting the head on I believe that those are one use only "stretch" bolts. Get a helicoil kit of course for that size for the stripped holes but I would get the correct head bolts and water pump bolts from the dealer. I got head bolts from the dealer when I did my head repair and they weren't that expensive and the repair worked out great. They will be the right size and the right bolts. I've never had to use helicoils to repair anything so maybe somebody else can weigh in on their ability to take the torque needed for head bolts.

Val

 

It's the valve cover bolts that he's having problems with, not the head bolts.

 

just retap the hole if any piece is left in use an easy out no big deal.

 

sorry to hear about your escapade in AZ....ugh.....

We ALL have done things we wish we could take back.......but like a few have said....lesson learned....move forward..

I would not hesitate to use a Mini dealer for certain parts...You KNOW it will work...and if you tell them you are a member here...you should get a 15% discount!!!!

I'm glad ...like others here.......the " rest" of the story.... was updated

Its YOUR car now and once it all done you WILL have SO MUCH FUN !!!

Be patient........and do any job......... " right"......no half a**

 

Thanks guys. My buddy's dad found a tap the correct size and we'll be tearing into it on Saturday morning. I really like how you can reuse factory bolts with a helicoil, I might try that.

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Yea they are a pain and over time the heads collect moisture and water, then rust away. It's easy once there out with a tap or a set of Bolt-Out removers, then get new ones. I dont understand why they did not replace them with a big job?

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...er-screws.html

 

Update time!!!!

First of all, a helicoil kit for our valve cover holes is $50 at O'Reilly's!!!

It worked great, though! What an elegant little piece of engineering. I'm so surprised at how easy and clean the Helicoil install is, and how well it works. Installing 2 helicoils took maybe 20 minutes, and then everything went back together smooth as butter

Unfortunately, I can't say the same about the head gasket.

When I dumped my first sacrificial oil/coolant after 10mi, the coolant reservoir was almost empty, and the oil looked like a proper chocolate milkshake...

I should have been patient and ordered the thicker head gasket on Pelican...instead I got a factory size from O'Reilly's the day of...lesson learned.

(When do I stop learning these stupid lessons and get to actual maintenance and modification? This is a lot of pain and missed meals and no gain, lmao.)

When I had the head washed & milled, he took 0.0045 off.


I'm running a CravenSpeed 15% pulley, and I guess with the slightly decreased head height (and therefore marginally increased compression), and the additional boost from the blower, the factory 0.0065 [insert unit of measurement] gasket just didn't hold.

At least, that's my best bet. I made sure to never rev over 3.9k on that 10mi drive, so I never entered anywhere near full boost, and the car was fully warmed up (88 degrees Celcius) and checked and double checked before it moved under its own power.

I know it's not a cracked block, because the oil looked worse after replacing the head gasket and driving 10miles than it did when I drove 400mi at 100mph to get it home across the desert.

Any ideas? I'm stumped.

Also, while I have the head apart, is there anything else I should get to help handle the additional boost pressure? I made sure to also vacuum out the head bolt holes and buy a better torque wrench to eliminate any possibility of the bolts hydrolocking this time around.

 

well typical engine machining is done in inches. so .0045 is just slightly larger than a piece of paper. as for boost pressure with a positive displacement blower, its a consistent pressure all along the revs. youll have the same amount of air per cylinder at 7500 rpm as you would at 2000 rpm. (saying that temp is constant). its the bypass valve that determines how much of the air flowing from the supercharger is going into the engine. anything over ~30% throttle will start flowing the extra air from the blower into the motor. at around 75% youll have the valve be completely closed and get everything.


torqueing down the head should be with a certified torque wrench and done in a pattern laid out by the service manual. there is a certain star pattern that is usually repeated at 3 different torque settings. to get the car home to work on it instead of the oreillies parking lot, you could have used a thin layer of rtv between the gasket and the sealing surfaces. ive done this on my dirtbike because I had to, leaked through a new gasket from the water jacket to the outside luckily. still running it with the rtv and ive had no issues consuming coolant.


also if things need to be retapped, don't worry about helicoils. they are great things and then they allow you to use the same bolts without tapping a hole the next size up


to handle the new boost pressure, nothing needs to be done, you could get arp head studs, and that allows you to reuse the nuts when you have to remove the head for any reason, typically head bolts are a single use, but can be used again (not ideal). the studs and nuts can be used multiple times. a 15% pulley is the most typical mod. if there were other things to keep boost pressure inside the motor it wouldn't be the most common mod =D


studs are really for applications above 30 psi for safety. youll be at 13-15 psi with the 15% pulley

 

Oh, okay. Thanks for the quick response.

As far as the "positive displacement" blurb, if the whole "max boost at any RPM" thing were true, why does boost climb on the videos I see of R53's with boost gauges? It still looks like it increases steadily until like 4k RPM or so, at which point it stabilizes at ~15psi. Although the whole positive-displacement thing may make more boost at a lower RPM than a standard type of supercharger, I don't think there's any getting around the fact that it's mechanically driven. I don't think it's physically possible for the supercharger to be spinning at the same speed at 2k rpm and 6k rpm without a clutch of some sort. Albeit, I have no clue how different types of superchargers work, but that's just my observation/inference...I still think that if I keep the engine RPM's below 3.5k or so while I'm testing the head gasket for the first time, I'm inherently producing less boost than I would be at even 4.5k.

To clarify, I followed ModMINI's procedure to the "T" in a well-lit enthusiast garage, with a proper torque wrench, in the correct pattern, under the watchful eye/mentorship of a seasoned mechanic.

We were thinking that maybe we should have used the thicker gasket that Pelican sells?

Also we forgot to vacuum out the head bolt holes. Is is possible that the bolts hydrolocked before actually reaching the correct torque value on the bolt itself?

 

You had the head milled but did you verify that the deck, the top of the cylinder block, is flat?

 

The block is iron. I thought that they can't warp?

You can still see uniform machining marks from original manufacturing on the deck.

 

Also, how frequently/how do you determine when to replace your timing chain guides? My chain tensioner is new. They looked nice and clean when I had them out but a vendor told me to replace them.

 

blocks can do all sorts of things including crack as well, I havent read everything here but if you have the head machined but not magnafluxed you could have a bad head all along as well

 

boost is relative to the pressure inside of the intake manifold. the amount of pressure before the valves. this increases as the rpms go up because the exhaust is a restriction. once you have a higher flowing header, the boost stays at 1 level basically all throughout the rpm band. our blowers are fixed displacement, so for each rpm of the engine, the supercharger spins 2.2 times (stock pulley I think) forcing air to the engine. its a fixed rate. there are some centrifugal superchargers that have planetary gears that will increase with rpm as engine speed increases making more boost higher in the rev band but still create a linear torque wave.


as for the gasket, a thicker gasket can work, but could not, a block deck can warp. it is cast iron but heat can change any material.


as for the hydrolocking, I wouldn't think this would be the case. my guess is that the internal threads on the block are a class 2 which would have about 60% thread engagement, even if class 3 it would be around 72%. the fluid would have moved out of the way or stopped you before the torque spec, I doubt right at it.