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Brian's fJCW

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Brian's fJCW

Postby briancork » Wed May 31, 2017 3:27 pm

Hi all!

Having owned an R50 One D for about 3 years, my insurance company finally decided that having turned 23 they would quote me on an R56 Factory JCW. Amazingly, I got a refund on it for the remaining 6 months of my policy :S not that I'm complaining!

So a week later I took ownership of a 2008 FJCW in Astro Black with 61,000km on the clock. (pics will be uploaded once i work out how, it seems this website doesn't like my Dropbox account!)

It has the red lounge leather interior, factory xenons and a few other bits and pieces like the bluetooth phone connectivity.

The body wasn't great, lots of dull paint and a few marks, thankfully only one of which seems to have gone as far as the base coat. A quick hand polish and wax improved things massively, so a going over with a rotary polisher is on my to do list when time allows!

The timing chain tensioner was done at 47,000km and there's virtually no rattle audible from cold, still going to pull the cover over the weekend and have a look at the guides and the chain itself.

As far as I'm aware the HPFP was never done, and there is a tiny hint of a lumpy idle from cold so that has me slightly concerned, will try and get a gauge on it soon and see what pressure it's putting out.

The engine was also never de-coked, so im planning on rigging up my own walnut blaster and giving the intake valves a good cleaning along with fitting a catch can to try and reduce the build up in future.

Front discs and pads will need doing soonish also, so looking at possibly Nitrac discs from the UK and Ferodo pads, have to say these brakes are fantastic!

The previous owner had also installed roof racks and the roof gutter is butchered, so that needs sorting too, almost afraid to ring the dealer for a price on them tho! :1icon_redface:

Other than that, this car is a massive hoot to drive and it really does go when you put your foot down, and to me it still feels like a mini, something that in my opinion, the newer F56's have lost a little.

On the list of things to be done are coilovers at some point in the future, a panel filter (which is in the post), a bigger intercooler, possibly a resonator delete from the exhaust and a remap, when funds allow!

Hopefully I'll manage to get some photos up soon, and i look forward to meeting ye all at future events!


Brian.
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Re: Brian's fJCW

Postby briancork » Wed May 31, 2017 3:52 pm

Think I have the image thing sorted!

Firstly, 2 photos of my old One D, what a great car this was, but i decided I wanted to move away from the 'Stance' scene in the quest for more horespower!
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And now for the new baby, will be sure to get some more pics when I get a chance!
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Re: Brian's fJCW

Postby Daniel S » Thu Jun 01, 2017 8:09 am

Still no pictures here
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Re: Brian's fJCW

Postby briancork » Thu Jun 01, 2017 10:26 am

Hmmm, they are showing fine for me on my laptop, but not showing up on my phone.. strange.. anyone have any pointers?
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Re: Brian's fJCW

Postby Daniel S » Thu Jun 01, 2017 12:45 pm

Upload them to Flickr
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Re: Brian's fJCW

Postby irlmin » Thu Jun 01, 2017 6:51 pm

Hi Brian ,
Welcome to the site , Congrats on your R56 , one thing I would recommend is 7000 km oil changes forget about MINIs recommended intervals . also a major problem with R56S models is the lack of decent high octane fuel available here .carbon is another major problem and will in extremes will get inside piston rings and blow bits off the pistons , carbon build up in the turbo again common , Everytime we do the walnut blasting process it amazes me how so much carbon can build up , in some cases when we stick in the camera you cant even recognise the valves or valve stems , We have looked at many options including chemical to clean the chambers/valves and none works like the walnut shell blast . you mention tensioner was replaced this is a very common 'fix' by MINI dealers and I would never just replace the tensioner without the chain etc , HPFP issue is another common one , in fact we think the life of both the chain and HPFP is 40 to 50 thousand km . btw MINI say gearbox oil is 'for life' --its NOT and change it every 30k and box problems will be rare .
You mention future mods , tried and tested ones are decent remap , K+N type air filter , DO NOT do decat and be careful of any aftermarket rear exhaust system not tried and tested --- turbo issues can follow .larger intercooler is ok but for a road car not really necessary , I assume your car being a FJCW has the 'Brembo' 4 pot brakes with 316mm discs these are excellent and we have never had any fading with std discs and pads , when worn we usually fit the drilled/grooved versions . suspension wise forget coilovers !! despite what people say on a certain MINI forum , they are NOT suitable for Ireland's roads and indeed will destroy the handling , you might have better roadholding but the compromise is not worth the effort ,in fact we have removed a few sets from customer cars recently where the owners couldnt live with them any more . if you must change the suspension stick to Koni or Bilstein with Eibach springs again tried and tested . another major issue where improvements can be had is wheel weight which is 'unsprung' weight --- std MINI wheels are really heavy and its amazing when changed to lightweight wheels how much better the car is , Tyre wise dump the runflats and fit Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tyres really good in the wet and decent life as well . anyway enjoy your MINI and get some photos up
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Re: Brian's fJCW

Postby briancork » Fri Jun 02, 2017 9:18 am

Hi Ger, thanks for the detailed reply!

On the oil change front I couldn't agree more! For the sake of it changing the oil at a more regular interval is a much cheaper solution to running into problems down the line.
No intentions of going for a decat, they sound overly obnoxious to be honest! Was unaware they caused turbo issues though so cheers for the heads up.

Im kind of dreading popping of my intake manifold to be honest, I can only imagine what I'm going to find. The car did plenty of short home-work-home trips with the previous owner and he didnt strike me as the type to enjoy driving it on, so I'm sure thats going to have casued a fair bit of build up!

Mainly going for the intercooler to aid cooling after the remap. Im not looking to make massive numbers, just to give it a little extra! Actually, is mapping a service ye offer?

Also, have ye found oil catch cans to be of any benefit? I know you can buy the blanking caps from Pug dealers, would ye think this is a better solution to sort the PCV system?

Must say even before I joined up here I'd only ever heard good things about your establishment! :)

Brian.

PS photos will be sorted once I get to grips with Flickr!
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Re: Brian's fJCW

Postby irlmin » Fri Jun 02, 2017 2:09 pm

Hi Brian ,
The Peugeot 'blanks' we tested a few years ago didn't work long term and we stopped using them . good quality catch tanks do work . Our maps are Sedox performance which we are agents for and are really good with no issues ,we have never had a problem , In fact they supply many of the specialist tuning companies in UK and Europe who brand the maps as their own . anyway be pedantic about Oil and Coolant and you will have a good chance of avoiding problems .
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