Hiya everyone. I am upgrading my R56 with 73,000 miles a new full Milltek exhaust, Intercooler, Forge coolant lines, and the such to go to a Stage 2. I purchased the car used at 65,000 miles and found that the intake was melted at some point so it was obviously overheated. I thought about buying a whole new engine and going that route but instead decided to go deep into the engine and repair any issues I found. It turns out there are quite a few.
First is that a coolant pressure test showed a small leak at the water pump so I took that off and found a ton of sealant in there and the reason for it. One bolt hole is stripped. I couldn't get a heli-coil in there due to lack of space so I used loctite thread repair. It seems to be working but unknown for how long.
Second is that one spark plug was white with busted ceramic. I believe from the same cylinder as the toasted fuel injector(See below) but I'm not sure. I replaced them all.
Next is that the inside of the turbo is white and I think the valve(wastegate?) is broken. One side is loose. Picture attached. I am guessing I should probably replace it.
Today I took out the fuel injectors and one is trashed. Burnt to a crisp with some lighter damage to the other injectors(picture attached) It appears to be missing the middle metal part and I do not see it stuck in the hole so someone must have installed it like that which is amazing to me. I suppose it will be best to replace all four.
What is really odd is that the car ran pretty well even with these issues. 30mpg on the highway, 110 on each cylinder for a compression test, and 160hp on a dyno test just a few months ago.
Are my assumptions correct about the turbo and fuel injector? Would that busted fuel injector be responsible for damaging the turbo and spark plug by causing a lean or rich scenario? Would I be better off buying a new engine at this point since I don't know what other damage there is or should I just replace the turbo and fuel injectors?

Turbo on cat side.

One of these injectors does not look like the others.

 

That's a seal missing on the injector. You need to replace them on the others before putting them back in, with some proper tools. I would just get a new injector. If compression is good between cylinders, then maybe nothing too bad happened yet.

The waste gate is only fixated on one side. If it ran well and didn't have any codes, nothing is broken.


The water pump thing would be my biggest worry. You can remove the motor mount on passenger side and use a jack to lift (or lower) the engine.

 

Thanks for the advice @cpmetz. I will buy the injector tool set, one new injector, and four sets of seals to replace them all. I guess I just clean the tips of the other three. Brakleen?
Good news about the turbo. I will just leave it then.
I did remove the motor mount and raised and lowered the engine to install a new water pump but there is no way to get enough room to put in a heli-coil so I don't think I have many options there. The Loctite thread repair seems to be holding but maybe it would just be better to put in a layer of Loctite water pump sealant as well just to be safe.

 

Detroit Tuned rents the injector seal tool. Far cheaper way to go for a tool you'll (hopefully) use only once!

https://www.detroittuned.com/mini-co...n-tool-rental/

 

@ yeticat99 Thanks for that. I also saw that on their website but ECS Tuning has them for $73. To rent for $20 plus $10 or $15 shipping each way equals $40 or $50 so I'm just going to buy one and keep it in the tool box.

 

I forgot about the clearances, but an angled drill is pretty short, and then it's just cutting the threads and putting the thing in. I never did a timesert. But yeah, if your current solution holds.

 

"110 on each cylinder for a compression test"

Are you sure your compression gauge is accurate? 110 is pretty low.

Typically, you want to crank the engine over until the pressure is stable or bouncing slightly on each stroke

 

@thefarside They may have been around 118. I don't remember exactly but they were all within 10% of each other. I will try the tester on my other car and then again on my Mini. I think it should be okay to do the test with the fuel rail, valve cover, and lots of other pieces off the car since it is just turning over the pistons. Fuel pump fuse pulled of course.

 

Back in the day I used with success for compressing the injector seals.

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Done with all that.
All new Bosch fuel injectors. The kit to seal the injectors seemed like a waste. Only the tightest ring did anything.
New JCW turbocharger.
New Milltek downpipe and exhaust which I am extremely disappointed in. The downpipe is nice but the exhaust fit is terrible. It has a large bend in it even though the stock exhaust is perfectly straight. I had to pay $300 to have a mechanic weld it in place and bend the skid plate out of the way. Just an awful design.
Stage 3 tune by Detroit Tuned.
Check engine light is on but was also on just a few days before these upgrades. It came on I thought because a vacuum hose had come off. No engine codes and the car runs just fine. I have no choice but to take it to the Mini dealer here and pay $200 for their "special" code reader as disconnecting the battery did not reset it.
The only thing that has me a bit worried is that if I remove the oil cap while the engine is running or after a drive, quite a bit of smoke comes out. So perhaps a piston ring or the valve stems are leaking? The new spark plugs I put in didn't have any oil on them but two show a little bit of white on the tips. The coolant has gone down a little after each drive but that may be just getting the air bubbles out after the refill. I am also going to have a smoke test done to make sure there are no intake or exhaust leaks since I replaced pretty much every connection to the engine block.