13 replies to this topic

[MiniCarJack]

Last night I had to remove my cylinder head:

 

 

Want to see why? Well here's what happened...

 

Yesterday I fired up my mini to find it was only running on three cylinders... after spending ages checking all the wiring, coil, sparkplugs, distributor, carb etc, I did a compression test and found that cylinder number 3 had no compression whatsoever.. Oh dear.

 

Got the cylinder head off last night only to find this remarkable sight. The inlet valve, jammed open by the bolt which holds the air filter on! Somehow it managed to find its way through the carb, the inlet manifold and then into the cylinder head.

 

 

 

Safe to say that I was incredibly lucky it didn't make it into the cylinder and cause damage to the piston, nor did it cause damage to the valve or valve seat. I'll consider this a valuable lesson in making sure the air filter bolt is properly tight!

 

[Mini Manannán]

Properly lucky!!!!  Yup, always pays to take your time on the last few bits

[Ben_O]

wow, that was lucky!

[lsto]

When I was an apprentice I was working on an old fiesta with another mechanic. I can't remember exactly what he was doing but we had the air filter off and the carb was open with the engine running. Anyway long story short as the mechanic reached over to do something, because the bonnet opened the wrong way we had a load of tools and nuts and bolts on the scuttle panel, he knocked a nut off and it bounced off the engine and straight into the carb.
It went tink, tink tink, down the carb and inlet, then we heard a metallic ring for a few seconds as I guess it rattled round the cylinder and finally a twang ting ting as it came back out the exhaust.
I remember looking at the mechanic in amazement, he looked at me, laughed as if it was normal and carried on doing what he was doing lol.
The whole time the engine never missed a beat. I left that garage soon after...

[jaydee]

The entire bolt sucked all the way to the inlet valve..thats mental

[CK's mini]

I had a similar thing last year, luckily it never got past the carb. Very lucky. Loctited them on now lol.

[robminibcy]

I had similar with the grub screw that blanks off the servo take off! Luckily it was to big to get as far as the valves!

[Dan]

Check it hasn't bent the carb needle on its way through.

[AlexMozza]

Last night I had to remove my cylinder head:

 

 

Want to see why? Well here's what happened...

 

Yesterday I fired up my mini to find it was only running on three cylinders... after spending ages checking all the wiring, coil, sparkplugs, distributor, carb etc, I did a compression test and found that cylinder number 3 had no compression whatsoever.. Oh dear.

 

Got the cylinder head off last night only to find this remarkable sight. The inlet valve, jammed open by the bolt which holds the air filter on! Somehow it managed to find its way through the carb, the inlet manifold and then into the cylinder head.

 

 

 

Safe to say that I was incredibly lucky it didn't make it into the cylinder and cause damage to the piston, nor did it cause damage to the valve or valve seat. I'll consider this a valuable lesson in making sure the air filter bolt is properly tight!

 

 

I had this thing happen to me...stuck in the inlet of number 1.

Somehow did no damage to anything! 

Mine the bolt had broken off the inside of the pancake filter. Cheap parts I suspect.

[MiniCarJack]

 

 

 

I had this thing happen to me...stuck in the inlet of number 1.

Somehow did no damage to anything! 

Mine the bolt had broken off the inside of the pancake filter. Cheap parts I suspect.

 

 

The design of the bolt on my filter (or rather technically a stud) is bloody stupid to begin with, the threaded ends are very short and the little nut which retains the air filter has barely any thread to tighten on to. So it easily worked its way loose and before long, got sucked in from inside my air filter and probably spent a month or so inside the carb before finally getting through into the cylinder head!

[mk1leg]

Well it could of been a lot worse.....all you have to do is remove the valve anf free bolt and check for damage but from pics looks fine

you were lucky...........

[MiniCarJack]

Well it could of been a lot worse.....all you have to do is remove the valve anf free bolt and check for damage but from pics looks fine

you were lucky...........

 

I was very lucky indeed, having removed the bolt and checked out the head for any damage, it would appear I got away with only having to spend $50 on a new head gasket set rather than an expensive engine rebuild! Finished putting the car back together again yesterday and it's running sweetly now :)

[mk1leg]

good job done ......

[Chris1992]

well now im paranoid about mine! itll be the first thing i check when im next out in the garage