Hi All first post here

I have an oil consumption problem with my -05 Mini R53.

I notice the tell tale signs of smoking at startup when cold, which leads me to think that it might be the valve stem seals that's leaking.
I wonder if anyone have succeeded in replacing the valve stem seals without removing the head altogether?

i have seen this very convenient tool from Lisle
So i wonder if anyone have used this on the Tritec engine with success? Seems to be a tight fit against the spark plug tubes?

I know that there are other types of tools to compress the springs but this one seems to be very easy to use.

I was hoping to be able to do this without removing the camshaft and disturb the timing (have no tools to set the timing).
It should work to just removing the rocker assemblies and leave the camshaft, chain and sprocket in place.
The only problem would be to remove the rockers with tension on the chain, since the rocker shaft bolts also holds down the bearing caps for the camshaft.
Perhaps one could remove one rocker shaft at the time and insert the bolts with a spacer so that the camshaft stays in position?

Feel kinda lost without a ModMini video to study before undertaking something like this

 

I just replaced the head gasket on my daughter's 06 Nissan Altima...what I didn't know before that I do now is worth sharing. Take your head to a shop that specializes in heads and let them check everything out. In my case, all that was needed was to have the heads resurfaced...the valves were all fine. I did not remove any of the valves/springs when I took the head off the block. So...if you think that is the problem you might consider just taking the heads off and letting a specialist look it over...not sure what it would cost in the UK but here in the US it was only $100 for the guy to look everything over and check all the valves, completely clean the heads to like new condition (at least appearance) and resurface the head to make sure I had a level surface when putting it back together.

 

Hmmm

Unfortunately that kind of job here in Sweden would probably end up between $500-$1000 (probably should move to US).

I was planning to use compressed air to secure the valves from dropping down into the cylinder. This would mean that i would have to be able to rotate the crank to get each piston to TDC.
This is the reason why i would like to keep the chain tensioned and the cam in place in order to not loose the timing.
My main concern with this approach would be that when i loosen and remove the rocker shafts to get access to the valves i will also loosen the cam bearing journals since they are held in with the same bolts as the rocker shafts. I wonder if the tension of the chain is sufficent to "pop" the camshaft out of the journals and damage something before i can bolt the journals down again with the rocker shafts removed (i was thinking of using the same bolts but with a spacer to "simulate" the rocker shafts or just use shorter bolts).
If i succeed with this then i will be free to rotate the crank how i please without risking the chain to skip some teeth on the crank sprocket.

Does this approach make any sense?

 

I cheap way to check your head is to buy a painter's guide at a hardware store. Modmini has a good video, 2 parts, on head gasket replacement. He does not mess with the valves in this series but does check the head with this too. Check at about 3:16 to see.

The second link is video on removing the guides.

The third video addresses guides as well.

If there is a will, there is a way.

 

How much oil are you using over the course of a few thousand miles? I wouldn't fret over 1-2 quarts between a 5k mile oil change.

If you don't want to pull the cam you can try removing the chain tensioner and rocker rails, that will remove the tension on the chain and hopefully keep your cam from wanting to pop up towards the passenger side and possibly causing you to jump time, but once the rails are off you don't need to worry much about getting cylinders to TDC to apply compressed air to keep the valves closed. It's a small enough chamber that anything bigger than a 10 gallon compressor should sustain it no problem.

We've popped springs off and reinstalled without the compressor, but you need to be careful not to loose keepers, definitely pays to have a second person there to help with the install.

 

Hi all, thank you for all the great tips and suggestions

I've had some issues with oil consumtion over the 6 months that i've owned the car.
But when i got it, it had numerous oil leaks so i figured that they were the culprit.
I've since then changed oil filter housing and oil cooler seals and crank sensor o-ring together with the oil pan seal so now its leak free, both crank seals and valve cover seal seem fine

After the oil pan gasket replacement i filled it up to the max point of the dipstick and recorded the milage. then i checked it after 500km (310 miles) and it was near empty!
So i would guess roughly 1 quart in 310 miles!!!
This reading completely blowed my mind, but I feel that this reading cant really be accurate so i will continue to monitor the consumption.
The car has around 110k miles on it so its far from new.

It puffs a little blue smoke when revved on startup after it have been sitting, but doesn't smoke when warm. When i serviced the supercharger (new oil) i cleaned the intake and the intercooler and there were some signs of oil but nothing excessive i would say. The sparkplugs look fine perhaps a little rich.

Is it common for these engines to have bad valve stem seals?
How can you detect a worn oil scraper ring?
The car i feel is running great without any abnormal sounds.

I guess that i really should get hold of a leak down tester or something to test the engine. I don't feel like its down on compression because it really pulls hard and doesn't seem to breathe hard through the oil filler cap when removed. The PCV valve is also renewed.

I wonder if it in fact burns through a quart of oil in 300 miles the back end would be covered in soot or oil specks (Pepper white) and it would be constantly smoking, but the only time i notice some smoke is on cold start after its been sitting for a at least a day.

When i pulled the pan, both the pan and the engine internals looked really nice and clean so i think the engine have been serviced accordingly (the service history confirms this).

So i guess i will keep monitoring the oil level and then decide what to do hopefully the oil thirst can be solved.

This is by far the most fun car i've ever owned!!

 

I doubt only your valve stem seals are bad. If you need to do them, I'd imagine you probably need to do the head gasket, too.

That being said, if you want to do all of your valve stem seals, just handle one cylinder at a time. Mark the chain and gear, remove cam shaft, do seals and springs, reassemble but don't torque, rotate engine, to next TDC, remark chain and gear, disassemble again and do #2 seals, repeat. It'll probably take you about an extra hour with the fiddling, but I've found for jobs like this it's probably best to not try to take shortcuts. The shortcut will end up taking longer in the end because you're trying to work around other stuff.

FWIW regarding your last post - mine had a cracked head in 4 places and a bad head gasket and ran just fine.

 

Just thought i'll give an update.

Finally this weekend i got some spare time.
I checked and filled the oil to the maximum mark on the dipstick.
Then i went for a long drive in the country side, i drove non-stop 160 miles.
When i got back i parked in the exact same spot and let it sit until next morning.
When i checked the oil it was down just a couple of mm from the maximum (i know not the most accurate method). So it seems like its doesn't burn the same amount of oil at all when driving longer distances at highway speeds (around 70 mph). If it did i would be closer to halfway between min and max on the dipstick.

So me and the wife will swap cars and she gets to take the kids to school with the whale (Bmw 525D) while i take the Mini to work (not a bad swap...) and i'll see what that results in oil consumption.

I've also checked the crankcase ventilation with the "rubber glove" method and it indicate that it pulls a steady vacuum through the oil filler cap when removed.
Also no smoke from the dipstick tube or oil filler cap when hot.

There is one thing that im wondering about, my previous Bmw:s that i've owned all had some sort of oil trap in the PCV system to trap and condense any oil mist and return it to the sump. The Mini just have a one way valve and a pipe to the super charger, perhaps i should try to some sort of air oil separator on the pipe and see if it cathes any oil?