Payen BK450
Turbo Mini Forums

I rang minispares this morning to order some parts in prep for reassembling my engine, when asked for a bk450 I was told that they are no longer in stock due a batch of them being faulty. so Just to warn those of you that have fitted one recently excersize caution. I fitted one recently when I had my head off to fit new stem seals in an attempt to cure my smoking issue, when I tore my engine down last week the gasket was a mess, I dont know if this was a faukty gasket or due to the fact I had melted no3 piston?
What is the next best gasket to use after the 450? I believe there is another payen gasket that is similar and suitable but for the life of me cant remember the part no, suggestions
Cheers
Shane

I asked at Minisport, they said they wont have any for a while, but never said why.

Good job i bought one to keep as a spare two months ago

I think I still have the old one in the garage, might dig it out for inspection?
Shane

oooh err I replaced the h/g on my daily last week with a bk450. hope it was of the stock before they noticed this fault

That might explain a few things I have had two fail inside a month that solves that then

The AF470 is very similar to BK450, it just has an extra O ring seal on it.

-MINI CLUBMAN 1380 TURBO-

Isn't the AF470 a copper gasket?

as above, the AF470 is almost identical and the additional "O" ring may be better. then again i've never had a head gasket go there before.

If you dont want to risk these the only other that i wouold be considering is the cometic

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

Shane, the gasket may well have been the cause to the #3 piston melt down,,, just a thought for you to ponder

www.miniman.com.au

"""LazyGoodForNothingSmartArseKnowItAllBackYardMiniMechanic"""

Just sorting some stuff out for a friend and his vauxhall powered mk1 escort. And came across this interesting reading.

Not sure if its been posted before, But have a look.

http://www.sbdev.co.uk/Main.htm click on pump fuels...

Si

Edited by Si P on 6th Jun, 2009.

I drill holes in everything..!

Good find could explain a few things. If I run mine at 7-10 psi I get two weks out of a head gasket if useing unleaded and an octane booster but if I put old school leaded 4 star in it no issues.

Own the day

Now this has intreged me, one of the guys in our club has been thru had gaskets at a rate of knots lately, with no apparent cause, been trying to get hold of him to find out what gaskets he ran.

On 6th Jun, 2009 MadMatt said:
Shane, the gasket may well have been the cause to the #3 piston melt down,,, just a thought for you to ponder

i would say your failure of the gasket was due to det rather than the other way round shane.

always looking for them bigger bunches of bannanas

Does anyone know what the actual problem is, ie wrong material used, wrongly "assembled" etc.

Is there any way of looking at a "new" one and knowing.

Also, if it is a production fault, it may affect the AF470s as well - they presumably use the same tooling for stamping/assembling them....

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

The chap at mini spares was unsure. I have the same resevations about using af470. Found a new bk450 in the garage yesterday and am a little reluctant to use it now?
Shane

Just fitted one to the 16valver, bought it at the same time as the last one, granted it only did 300 miles, but doesnt look like there is anything wrong with it

Some of the BK450's had the wrong material used, however if your gasket was made in the UK then it should be ok.

The one I'm about to use says made in Belgium on the wrapper.

Is there anything visually obvious about the wrong material ???

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

No, do you have the 4 digit batch code on the wrapper if so send me a pm and i'll let you know.

For everyone's info - Gavin has checked my batch code and it one of the bad ones.....

The worrying thing is I bought it 12 months ago - luckily my ultimate build progress is rather slow so I had put this one to one side and used a cheap un-branded one for the testing so far.

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

Cant tell you how happy that makes me. Could explain why all mine were going pop with such alarming consistency. I there any chance of the range of batch numbers affected as I still have a few left and would rather bin them than have to repeat last years merry go round again and again and again and again.......... :(

Own the day