This will be an ongoing series of videos that will document my journey troubleshooting and repairing a timing chain malfunction and replacing bent valves on a Mini Cooper S r56 chassis. Timing chain failure was a common problem on these second generation mini cooper s with 1.6L N14 turbo engine.
Whenever the timing chain fails, you can expect to require an engine rebuild due to the valves becoming bent as they interfere with the pistons that comes into contace. You can expect more damage with a 6 speed manual mini cooper s versus an automatic 6 speed transmission mini because the automatic cars have a torque converter that will automatically disengage the engine from the transmission once the engine suddenly stops running. In a manual transmission car you need to push the clutch to disengage the transmission from the engine and 9 times out of 10, no one will be able to push the clutch in the moment their timing chain suddenly fails. As the car continues to coast down the road in a manual transmission car, the momentum of the car along with the direct engagement of both engine and transmission will force the engine to continue to rotate even though your timing chain had already failed causing the pistons to continue to hammer away at the valves!
You will find many great videos online that shows you how to do this job step by step. My video is more of a blog where I will point out and talk about certain details that I may come across as I am performing the repair. I will include detailed photos and will zoom in on certain components as I am inspecting the damaged areas. I hope you find some things in the video to be useful and/or entertaining as this is by no means an easy job, but definitely not the hardest car I have ever worked on.
