300 miles after re-build...
Turbo Mini Forums

bloody thing just wont idle under 1500revs..
just hunts and finally dies after a few seconds. removed plugs for a look, and saw steam from no.4 cylinder, so assumed gasket had gone...

removed head and this is what i saw...

http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x49/tha...i%20inspection/

cant find anything wrong, so i'll just have to throw it alltogether and see what happens...??

tempted to re-use the gasket though!!!lol

any ideas on the rough idling please?

For the sake of less than a tenner definatley change the gasket.

Hunting and high tickover is usually an air leak beyond the butterfly.

What exactly was the steam like? You sometimes can get a steam like mist out of a cylinder which is infact just compressed air and fuel.

Fastest 998 mini in the world? 13.05 1/4 mile 106mph

Throw a new gasket at it.
Different issue, is it me or does number 2 bore look different to the others?

Edit...ignore the pic comment, one pic shows lots of black down the bore......the others you don't see it.

Edited by Jason G on 10th Feb, 2008.

just checking, is the payen bk451 head set the one i need?

i think it was a moment of madness taking the head off, as it wasnt using any water and no excess pressure in header tank... oops!
it looked and felt like steam, lasted for a fair 3 or 4 minutes too.
does the condition of the pistions look ok in pics? could it be running slightly weak?

just checking, is the payen bk451 head set the one i need?

i think it was a moment of madness taking the head off, as it wasnt using any water and no excess pressure in header tank... oops!
it looked and felt like steam, lasted for a fair 3 or 4 minutes too.
does the condition of the pistions look ok in pics? could it be running slightly weak?

yep the bk451 is what you need, nless you just want the gasket which is bk450

ok cheers, i'll wack her back together and see what happens.
possibly would have a been inlet fanymold to head gasket leaking causing the rough idling? although it had a good vacuum at idle...

could be, although if you have the locating rings in there its pretty hard to get it to leak enough. I had somone bring me an MG metro which had idle issues, the garage that had put his exhaust on daddn't done the manifold nuts up so you could wobble the whole carb and manifold about an inch.

dont for get to tighten the head up to 55 ft pounds and make sure you use a new bk450 head gasket

also make sure the torque wrench is not cracking off at a lower figure from what you set it at borrow a friends to compare

severall peeps on here have fallen into this trap with incorrect callibration on OLD torque wrenches

What, about 81.3mm?

so eh.. any comments on the colour/condition of the pistons and chambers?
its just i've given it some boot on more than a few occasions, and i havnt taken it to rolling road for a proper set up yet :$
spi box is holding up well so far lol

i cant see anything blatently amiss tbh

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

phew sounds good.lol

one more thing is i cant get the tappets to quieten down, it always sounds like a bag of spanners and the rockers are defo not hitting the cover, thats the ONLY thing that spoils the car tbh.
inlets set to .30mm exh to .40mm.
maybe its the method.. i mean how tight does the feeler gauge have to be?? ooer

now i might be wrong as i am not turbo guy but all tappets sould be set to 12 thou(.30mm) with standard rockers shouldnt they? or is it a turbo thing to set the exhausts to .40mm?

Hi,
You should just feel the blade dragging as you slide it in an out.
That sounds very wrong
Cheers,
Gavin :)

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Unless rollers and then use a side to side motion with you feelers. LOL

Edited by Jordan on 11th Feb, 2008.

Back once again like a renegade master

double post

Edited by Jordan on 11th Feb, 2008.

Back once again like a renegade master

ah ha, ok...
so use a gentle front to back sliding action until slight friction is felt?! ooer!

al the places i tried to get a payen bk451 gasket set all said there was a bk450 (just the head gasket) and dk451, (head set) is this right?

BK450 is just the gasket, that should be all you need

Fastest 998 mini in the world? 13.05 1/4 mile 106mph

I had the same trouble with mine not idling below 1500rpm. It was the electronic module on the side of the distributor. If you have one of these dizzy's then give the module a try. Hope this helps!

ali, its running megajolt, so no dizzy right anyways, i think found the air leak, i removed the carb from manifold and found the plastic spacer was cracked right through.. does that sound like the culprit??
i have a spare n/a spacer to try, although had to swap mg manifold studs over...pest!
should have it back together for a test spin tomorrow night to see what like 8-)

took her for a spin only 15mins ago.. runs like a dream!! 8-)

phew...next job... fit new water pump as i noticed its leaking out the shaft! ooer