Yep # 7 to the engine block ( triangular gasket ), #6 x 2 is the filter housing to cooler if you have a Cooper S.

 

Thanks! Just placed the order with ECS Tuning

 

Thanks. Glad we could help.

 

What is the torque for the cooler to housing bolts(#9) when replacing the cooler O-rings (#6)?

 

FAILURE of #7 is NOT a case of IF, but a case of WHEN. I suspect many are failed but still in service.
Oil droplet falls off the end of the bottom engine mount. Gets worse over time.

LOOKING UPWARD past right axle to the rear of the engine block...
Oil slick goes up to the Filter Mount area at the rear of the engine, looks like its the filter, but not wet in that area.
About 3" wide under the mount and 12" wide at the oil pan, usually several years worth of gunk...

Replace 5 items in and around oil cooler/filter mount:

1. TWO Oil Cooler to filter mount seals - non-standard Square O-ring, trick mentioned above (mine weren't leaking yet, but crispy)

2. TWO Oil Cooler to water hoses. These are about $30 apiece, but do come with new Spring Clamps. Note these are marked as to the position of the Clamp, its sort of a X marks the spot. Pay attention to the old ones and understand the markings... Its also darn import which end goes which way (ENDS are different sized to match tubes, its easy to miss, careful) and which end goes on 1st. Believe I put the ones to the Oil Cooler last,
AFTER the filter housing was replaced. Then re-attach Oil Cooler (actually heat exchanger), finally put the hoses on.
(was doing a water pump replacement same time so my coolant was out, these two hoses did not look quite right. Seemed better to replace.)

3. #7 in the diagram above, its $8. Pretty obvious it was "screwed up" as it was stuck to the machined surface of the block... totally brittle, crumbled while removing it.

NOTE: beautiful German Engineering, or lack thereof. The block surface was machined, but the Oil Filter housing was "as cast" in the channels the gasket/O-ring like thing fits INSIDE. Dependent on oil pressure to expand it against a "as cast" surface. Material for this seal hardens over time either Heat, Wrong seal compound or poor "German Engineering" or ALL OF THESE...

Darn $8 seal on the high pressure side of the Oil system... makes a huge mess
Easily cause TOTAL engine failure... $8 seal against a non-machined surface...

NOW, this requires a little skill with tools, but here is how it was done.
(NOTE to SELF: this would have been DARN easy with the right axle removed...)

1. Front Tires on 4" to 6" of blocks (want this stable and have to lean over engine too!) Lock that Ebrake and block the wheels, safety first.

2. Removed the Oil Cooler from the right side, remove right wheel the inner wheel plastic cover. Used a 1/4" drive to the Torx with 3", 6", 12" combination for the 4 Torx screws. (believe you have to release this to get the filter housing out)

3. Removed the 2 hex bolts that hold the SS heat shield over the exhaust pipes and removed this shield. I removed the attachment screw for the larger shield so it dropped down the firewall and out of the way (10mm hex?).

4. Filter housing is held on with 3 bolts, 2 short, one long, all the same size/thread and hex head. WARNING the head is thin and top corners are tapered. This means you need a SMALL 6 point, socket... as I recall this head is 13mm, but some of my 1/2" sockets fit nice and tight. I used 3 different length setups for the 3 bolts and left the sockets hanging there with just enough exposed to get the 3/8" wrench with a FINE ratchet pitch (newest style Craftsman, if you don't have them, now is a good time). Believe I used 1/4" drive sockets with adaptor to 3/8", then that 1 1/2" extension. Make CERTAIN you have a good grab on the hex head, its already made rounded, let's not make this worse.

FYI, the 13mm sockets were loose and would not stay in place, its awkward working over the top of the engine. Make certain the socket "feels" snug by hand a few times as the hex area is very narrow on these bolts. Also pay attention to how much "roll" is on the socket lead in edge on the 6 point... some are sharper than others.

NOTE: picked through about 3 sets of 1/4 drive, 6 point, 1/2" sockets to get 3 that fit the 13mm head. The two shorter bolts heads were the same, the longer was slightly different, sockets differed, some combo gave me a good grip on these tricky Metric heads. Push in tight to the head, make certain its on there square to block, loosen all 1/4 turn. Each setup adapted to 3/8" drive.

NOTE: If this isn't obvious, its worth buying one of these bolts or asking the dealer to pull it from stock for a look. Once I got one out I used it to get the socket thing understood and built a socket setup for each bolt and all 3 differed in ideal length.

5. Working underneath, there is a spot where the right arm will wrap up and around the axle. Another spot gets the left arm up there. At this point seeing is difficult, but both arms work in the filter housing area. So, basically blind, this will actually work. If you can reach the work area with both hands at the same time, that's it!! Left side was obvious, but right side was an odd path best I can remember.

5A. At some point the green plastic connector to the oil pressure switch is released. There is another one of those RED push locks placed to its difficult to see, be very careful, believe I was able to push it with little taps of a small screw driver till it released. The connector just slide off.

6. If its NOT obvious, removing the oilfilter FIRST is a good idea.

7. If the coolant is out, I'd suggest replacing the two hoses. Otherwise these will likely be okay. If you just pull the hoses, you'll suffer the coolant flow, its up pretty high in the system, so a quart will drain and you can refill later. Even with the radiator/water pump OUT, it still flowed a pint out of there... Refill, not nearly as bad as a full coolant change, just top it up, run till hot... cool, refill. One brief drive, cool, refill.

 

If you have high mileage and are leaking I recommend replacing EVERY gasket possible (crank sensor, camshaft sensor, valve cover, oil pan, oil filter to block, oil cooler) that are common. If that doesn't dry it up you may want to check rear and front main seals, timing cover, and hopefully your head gasket is good to go. I've done them all. With the proper tools and equipment it really isn't that bad...just time consuming if you are in a garage with jack, jack stands, and no pneumatic tools.

In an effort to justify why I recommend replacement of all you can at the same time is simply this: OIL PRESSURE

If you replace one bad gasket the pressure will then move to the next weakest gasket. Therefore causing a new leak. Simple logic IMHO.

 

Has anyone come up with a long term fix for the Crank Sensor O ring? I'm about to do mine (its been done once before 70k ago), and I'm thinking about using RTV.

 

A few people have gone that route but given that it's $6 and just a few minutes of your time - I don't think anyone has invested that much work into it.

 

If you have to remove everything to get to the sensor anyways, you are better off to fix it right and just put a new o ring on it.

 

IQ and ECS -- I am knee deep in this install right now -- the bolt that is closest to the passenger wheel well but impossible to see is the one giving me problems. I can't get a wrench in there and turn it -- so I ordered a stubby ratchet yesterday.

Fast question -- for the #6 gaskets -- if I undo the torx screws holding the oil cooler on -- can I get them in without removing the hoses? Will I lose any coolant if I don't touch the hoses?

Thanks for the help.

 

Ya that one is tricky, as you do it completely blind. It's a longer bolt than the other 2. I did all 3 from the engine bay with a regular socket wrench and misc. wobble extensions.

You're gonna wana pull the cooler off to inspect it for clogs. It has lots of tiny passages and it's very likely clogged/clogging. So order 2 hoses, as you might have to cut them to get them off (mine were either RTVd on or melted to the metal pipes because it ran too hot do to clogging). A cooler is ~$130

And correct, you wont lose coolant it you don't touch the hoses. If you do touch them, and you keep the header tank cap on, you'll only lose a cup or 2 of coolant.

 

So assuming that i don't want to pull the cooler out -- can I get away with just sticking in the two round gaskets? I want to have the car back on the ground by Friday...and have a few other tasks to get done on the car -- Crank Pulley and Crank Seal.

I know its not the right way -- I am just very tired:

List from this weekend
Valve Cover gasket - completed (hated the spark plug gaskets -- awfully hard to get in/out)
Oil Catch Can - waiting until I get this job done because the last thing you need in a MINI engine bay is more things in the way
Intercooler Couplers -- waiting because you need the intercooler off to run the hoses for the CatchCan
Oil Filter Housing -- stubby wrench coming tomorrow
Crank Pulley - -need to get a longer bolt from HD but forgot to bring the crank bolt to check the thread pitch
Crank Seal -- yeah thats behind the crank pulley...

So...adding one more job is really not high on my list right now.

LAST QUESTION: On the oil filter housing -- staring at it from the back of the engine (if you could) -- there are two bolts on the left side of the oil sender and one on the right side of the sender correct - thats the right orientation? I pulled off the two on the left already and stuck on this third one. But -- want to be sure I didnt pull some random bolt.

thanks.

 

It's possible. However, the new O ring out of the bag will be circles. And not easily form to the oval "trough" they need to set into. People have done it. However, it you get this wrong there's the potential to have 0 oil pressure and dump it all onto your garage floor. If I remember right the trick is to tack them into the "trough" with RTV, let it set, and then wrench it together.

Correct. And the bolt head is much further toward the back of the car, in the center of the "monstrosity." I think you got it, if your 13mm socket fits on something in the center of that heap than you found it ;p

 

Thanks for all of the help guys. I was able to take the oil filter housing off yesterday afternoon and put the new triangle gasket on it. The old one that was one there just fell apart as soon as I pulled the housing off of the engine block. It was a royal pain getting to those three bolts....but after I took the two exhaust shields off from behind the motor, I could access everything down over the back side of the motor.

Once I got the three bolts off, it was pretty easy to put the new gasket in, and bolt it all back together.

I should be good to go now....hopefully that will be the end of my leaks for a while!!

 

FYI: Mod Mini's Youtube channel recently posted a video of how to do this for the standard non-S MINI.

 

Awesome, glad you got it fixed.

 

Thanks to IQ, ECS AND mikes603 - I also just completed the oil filter housing gasket. Having people you can ping for advice - encouragement etc...was HUGE!

I decided to skip over the o-rings in the oil cooler for today.

Projects completed this week:
1) crank pulley replaced with updated crank pulley from an '05/'06
2) crank seal because obviously if you have the pulley off it's right in front of you.
3) WMW tensioner stop - doesnt rattle btw
4) Polyflex bushings for tensioner damper
5) alta intercooler couplers (not sure I would do this again...
6) M7 catch can
7) valve cover gasket + spark plug gaskets
8) Pcv valve
9) oil filter housing gasket

Keep wrenching and motoring NAM

 

Welcome. Glad you go the fix. DIY is the best feeling.