Head Gasket or Pston Rings?
Turbo Mini Forums

Howdy, today my N/A 1275 ran RLLY rough (sounded like metal to metal in the block and the oil light was constantly on even though its topped up ok. Got little bit further down the road and the clattering and banging stopped on a gear shift and the oil light went out! It was ok till i stopped at a junction and made the same horrible noise and disspeard as i pulled away. It make that noise now under load everytime i start up from cold. But goes after a while.

I went and bought a compression tester and ran a test as follows:
Cyl 1 = 12.2 (bar)
Cyl 2 = 10 (bar)
Cyl 3 = 10.3 (bar)
Cyl 4 = 12 (bar)


Now correct me if im wrong but if the head gasket had gone wouldnt the 2 and 3 (in this case) be alot lower on pressure? Could it be the gasket is just about to go? Or could compression be lost because of the rings on 2 and 3? I dont think its a torque problem lol.

Im just about to go and start taking the head off before it gets dark. Any ideas would be cool, ill check the cylinders for scoring and let you all know! Hope you lot can help again!!!


Rich

hi rich

well you give many symptoms but .. the givaway is the oil light not going out and at the same time the engine making terminall noises!

when the oil light whent out, the noise stopped !!!

there you go i susspect heavily that the main bearings have gone!

unless its a faulty oil pressure switch which is throwing you in the totall wrong direction (which i doubt.)

have you got an oil pressure gauge to monitor the situation further??

the compression on the middle two cylinders are not right!

if the gasket has blown between these two, only

to test fully, if this is so.
remove all the plugs and get someone to turn the engine over, now place your thumb over the spark plug hole of 3 the 4 if the headgaskets has gone between these two cylinders,

there will be "NO" compression at all.

its rather a crude method but it works!

on turbo motors, detonation usuall takes out the head gasket between these two (first go!)

going back to the above rich.
i strongley susspect the main bearings have gone!

the oil pressures the givaway!
if you dont have a gauge "get one"
this will reveal all.

as a matter of intrest, how many starship miles has the motor done?

keep us posted.

Edited by BENROSS on 20th Jan, 2006.

lack of oil pressure, sounds like either the pump is fubar'd or possibly the wrong sort of oil has been used?

I've seen the future and tbh its Pie

Dam, i thought as much benross. looking at the last MOT paper it indicated that there could be a main bearing problemo so i think ill have to regretably agree with your reply! I think my N/A engine is dead

This afternoon i spent about 2 hours taking my head off, im pleased with myself as its the first time ive done this! Straight away i could see that the gasket is fine, i didnt have enough light to check the bores but i think theyre ok as i couldnt feel any scores.

Im almost certain now that its a main bearing prob. and its wishfull thinking the cause of the rough ride this morning is down to a head gasket or rings, but im still not sure why compression is down on 2 and 3?!

The oil used is the usual ive used since ive bought it and its been reccomended to my from all my mates. The engine is an MG Metro which was transplanted before i got the car, the dial says 53k miles. I dont know the year of the metro engine, but my car is 93', the engine in now could be prehistoric with stupidly galactic miles on it so its all a guess really.

I think i'll bite the bullet and SORN my car now and start working to fit the turbo engine in. I may as well guage the oil pressure just to make sure but i think theres no doubt whats happened! How can you take oil pressure readings?

Thanks alot for your reply benross,

Rich.

Without a doubt I'd say you are looking at main bearing problems from the noises you describe.

Bad luck, unfortunately these things happen!
Although if you need to get it working again to use, it is not out of the question to do a quick freshen up, new bearings, oil pump, etc and put it back in again. I once did this over a weekend from driving the car into the workshop to driving it out again, I was lucky as I had a spare crank already to enable this. It shouldn't cost the earth either, £40 crank grind, £80-odd bearings thrusts oil pump, £40-odd gaskets, bung it back in, job done!

Yeah thats true tom, i would fix it if we didnt have a spare car i could use. But weve just got a new one that i can get insured on while my mini's off the tarmac so it wont be so bad.

It'll give me time to sort everting for the turbo conversion but to be honest im a bit scared of doing it! LOL! The only problem is, i dont know weather to put the turbo back together and put it in without a service. So far i've

Taken the ancillaries off
Taken the head off
Taken the manofilds off the head
Taken the actuator off
Tanken the carb off etc.

So basically ive just got the block and box to take apart. Im tempted to bolt it call back together and plonk it in completely standard and take it out to beef up later. What do you guys reckon i should do? pointers would be appreciated!

Rich

id say its sounds like you engines knckerd matey
option 1, do your turbo conversion( you know you want to)
option 2, repair existing engine like tom suggested.
option 3, find another engine you can guareentee is a good one

no longer a series, but still 1.3 turbo.

i'd really consider rebuilding the turbo lump before you fit it mate. the last thing you want is to fire it up and it to be exactly the same as your knackered n/a lump.

If you're going to keep it standardish then give the turbo lump a freshen up like tom's described above, keep the boost to a sensible level and it should be nice and reliable, with a lot more poke than the n/a lump.

freshening up an engine with an unknown history isnt what i'd be doing, but an option none the less. I freshened up my n/a engine (mg metro) 3years back, re-ringed the engine/glazebusted it and reshelled the bottom end, along with a new cam/pump/rockers it gave me a 80bhp engine which did me 20,000 miles. I always wished i had gone the whole hog though, afterall its only a set of pistons/rebore and a crank grind between the two. U know u wanna turbo it, specially if you have the option of taking it off the road.

I've seen the future and tbh its Pie

Personally, lobbing in the turbo engine isn't something I would do. The turbo engine you have needs to come COMPLETELY to pieces, and be rebuilt as necessary.

In your situation at the moment, I would give your NA engine a quick rebuild, and put it back in. By doing this you will have the knowledge of how to do a proper job of your turbo engine.

yep sonds like a totaly bottom end rebuild and tom those tits keep distracting me lol

always looking for them bigger bunches of bannanas

my oppinion is with tom,

the other guys on this one, there oppinions are

sound advice as well the decisions yours

keep us posted rich.

My dad is thinking of buying a clio for my mum to run to work in and so i can run about in too. This wont put me under pressure to get my car on the road so i can do a proper job on the turbo.

I think now ill get all my bits together and sell my stage 4 head to a mate and get as much cash as possible, strip down the rest of my wurbo engine and rebuild it to a nice spec. If im gonna do it i may as well do it properly! As long as you guys dont mind me asking loads of newbie questions along the way to a working TURBO mini hehe!

Rich

arnt toms boobies just greeaaat

no longer a series, but still 1.3 turbo.

[quote=bud666,20/01/2006 18:52:38]
i'd really consider rebuilding the turbo lump before you fit it mate. the last thing you want is to fire it up and it to be exactly the same as your knackered n/a lump. [quote]

ive done that before, i comtemplated lying under the car and letting down the jack...


pesky breasts!

ask a way rich
we are all hear to help

Get a cheap/free 998 engine to put in the car if you do need to use it,while you rebuild the 1275 with a view to turboing it

Metro turbo weekend driver,Mini turbo in the making again!