Mini engine tear down complete

Amazon delivered the Draper Verto Clutch puller in the late afternoon and I immediately took off for the garage. After unpacking the tool I was a bit unsure about the quality. The supplied bolts were 8.8 grade ones.  My previous tool was second hand and came with really solid 12.9 bolts. But the three metric M10 bolts looked ok.

Pulling the clutch/flywheel on a Mini is a job most Mini owners don’t really like. The clutch and flywheel assembly can sit very tight. It is important that the engine is at TDC – as the half-moon washer could fall out otherwise.  As this is the third time in my life that I am doing this – I already knew that quite a bit of force might be needed.

Even though it is tempting – no impact driver should be used. So after setting the engine to TDC the pry bar with a 24 socket came to use. The last two times the entire assembly popped out entirely. This time I was prepared and had some old towel’s to the left of the engine.  And after a while and a few tabs with a rubber mallet on the center bolt, the clutch assembly popped out.

But the clutch plate interfered with the half-moon washer. So I took this apart, pushed the flywheel back in a bit and was able to pull the washer. Removing the transfer case as well as the engine-2-gearbox bolts was straightforward. To separate the engine and gearbox I attached the block to the hoist again and simply lifted it up. That worked out perfectly. We will inspect the gearbox later, but my first impression is that it looks quite good.

What didn’t work out was removing the center bolt from the puller afterwards. The threads of the bolt weren’t great – just as I expected.  The bolt sheared off after I tried to unscrew it in the vise. I will need to drill this out , retap the threads of the tool and get a proper 12.9 center bolt.

With the block turned over I first measure crankshaft end float. The tolerance of 0.07mm is quite good and within spec. The thrust washers also looked alright. Piston bearings looked really good – maybe the crankshaft just needs polishing for new ones. The pistons have almost no scratch marks – just a lot of carbon deposits.

The main bearings all show expected wear after 110000km. Next up is doing a few more measurements removing core and gallery plugs, cleaning parts and getting all to the machine shop.