Someone please tell me this is a bad idea!
 

Hi folks, new to the Mini forum (however I've spent quite a bit of time on the R1100S forum on Pelican Parts).

I've been looking at getting a Mini for a little while now, and usually dismissed the idea because everybody always says how unreliable they are. Anyway a couple days ago I test drove a Cooper S and you could have slapped me across the face and I still would have been grinning from ear to ear... that's how much fun driving that thing was.

Anyhow, I'm not one for taking loans out on cars, or really spending that much on them in the first place. I've got no problem buying a high mileage car either, as long as it's been taken care of.

So here's my dilemma: Someone nearby has an 05 Cooper base for sale that I'm pretty interested in. It's got the Getrag 5 speed and it's not an S, so I think it'd be somewhat reliable compared to other models that have had problems. It's got a quarter of a million miles (no joke) and the guy that is selling it says it needs valves replaced on the #4 cylinder. That didn't sound all that appealing, until I heard what he was asking for the car. He only wants about half of private party book value.

I consider myself pretty handy, last spring I replaced the rear seals and bearings on my F150 in my driveway without any issues. I've never pulled a valve cover, let alone a head before... What do you guys think? Is this a stupid idea? How hard is this? The parts are pretty cheap, and I've got the time to do it, but if I screw something up or find any other problems, I think I could be out big bucks pretty quickly.

Looks like this site has a ton of tech info on the Mini, which is awesome. I couldn't find any info on pulling the head though... Maybe I'm missing something?

Thanks in advance for any advice/words of wisdom/etc!

Oh, forgot to add that the seller checked the compression on the cylinders and found the #4 cylinder to be low, the others just fine. Apparently the PO used cheap gas in the thing...

I'd pass on it. Mind you, I'm coming from the viewpoint of the later R56-chassis MINI (the 2nd-generation) which is generally more complex than the earlier ones. The later ones need some special tools to hold the cams in time, or to set the cam timing, and pretty much anything that can disturb the cam timing looks to be a real pain in the butt in part because of that.

I'm not sure about the 1st-gen cars, though. The later ones of those tend to be more robust, though they do still have known weak points. (E.g., mushrooming suspension mounts.) You might poke around on the North American Motoring (MINI COOPER :: North American Motoring) E53 board, which Pelican also sponsors.

--DD

Thanks Dave.

Yeah, keeping the timing chain where it's supposed to be and not reinstalling it incorrectly was one of my bigger concerns too. Thanks for the link to the North American Motoring forum, lots of good info there (but no detailed how-to article on a valve swap, bummer! haha).

Still haven't made my mind up... Might just keep looking for a different 05 base model.