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The dude wrongly identified the belt tensioner but more importantly, he missed plenty of design details about the N14 that make you wanna pull your hair out...
The stupid vacuum pump and it's tiny oil passage, running off the camshaft so when it fails it blows up the entire valvetrain
The oil cooler with like three bolts holding it on the block
The oil cooler getting blasted with heat from the turbo
The plastic auxiliary water pump
The steel oil pan on an aluminum block
The stupid plastic valve cover...why BMW why do you embrace plastic so?
IIRC - he admits this is not an engine he usually disassembles or parts out. But his commentary and verbal reactions are hilarious ! Definitely not a fan of this or the Mini. FWIW - I have blown up a few Miata Engines in my youth ( which seems to be his fav ) - but I was doubling the hp via forced induction.
I think he made offhand remarks on these 3 (The plastic auxiliary water pump, The steel oil pan on an aluminum block, The stupid plastic valve cover). His focus, I believe, were on what to salvage and a curiosity of what caused the engine to destruct. On the former, I am not sure there was anything he could sell ( just give away ) and on the latter - he believes the broken valve guides led to the downfall. I find it amazing that part(s) of the broken timing guide were left in the engine after it was replaced ... sloppy ! It should be like counting sponges when finishing surgery ( makes me wonder if they had fewer or more bolts or nuts left over after finishing the replacement ).
No, he thinks a leaking fuel injector seal or faulty injector caused the cylinder to run lean and detonate. But the broken valve guide piece wasnt helping things.
My last engine "burned" valves in 2 cylinders at 145k. I junked the old injectors when I got the new engine...I wasnt taking any chances.
The friction wheel and water pump pulley are so incredibly stupid. A second belt would have been so mnuch better than this crap system. Its just another point of failure.
Plastic water pumps, plastic throttlebody...this is all so unaccepatable for a car at this price range.
That was pure supposition on his part ... he is not an engine design guy, but is a great scrapper ! That engine had a host of issues - where lots could have been going wrong for awhile and building up.
Yeah - I am not a fan of plastic ( even in plumbing LOL. But pex has it's plusses ! ). And FWIW - I lost a few valves on my Miata 1.6 liter engines.
In my humble opinion, the Mini is more fun to drive. But a big part of that is I sit better in the Mini ( my head/vision was at the conv top level on the first gen Miatas. I am 6'2" - but sit tall. ) The Mini is a good fit - it accommodates height better.
Their were two N14 engine, one assembled in hams hall (UK) and the other one (JCW N14) assembled in Germany. The Germany ones are made better and last longer. PSA developed the main engine design and then BMW worked it to mate to the MINI platforms. This is were BMW group wanted to get into the turbo game and drive efficiently with the dual scroll. So things got more complicated.
When this engine was used at the time it was hailed by former Mini owners (classic) as a mess and look how it held up.
I wish they would have moved MINIs engine in house from the start, but they outsourced as at the time BMW group did not want to use older 4 cylinder BMW engines? They went to Chrysler, then PSA, then finally in house.
He has not worked on older BMW or Jaguar engines 1990-1980. Those can be a pain and very problematic.
I love seeing the old timing chain jobs on the v8 audis,
In my humble opinion, the Mini is more fun to drive. But a big part of that is I sit better in the Mini ( my head/vision was at the conv top level on the first gen Miatas. I am 6'2" - but sit tall. ) The Mini is a good fit - it accommodates height better.
I sat in a Miata once...I was looking at the winshield border...no good.
R56 Mini pushes hard (understeers) and has TERRIBLE SCARY bump steer. Its a half baked car.
08-16-2023, 06:46 PM
