A guessing game - what's Humphrey broken now ?

Out on an event (Morcambe Illuminations rally) last night and Humphrey decided to have a serious case of indigestion that caused our retirement . I haven't looked into it yet, and won't have time probably until next weekend, so in the mean time I thought of you chap's could have a bit of fun guessing what may have failed

right the scenario - pulled of a roundabout in third (trying to decide which lane so never had chance to change gear) got the usual mild pinking that says wrong gear change me down please, dropped into second and accelerate, straight into a serious misfire and a serious metallic rattle/pink that sounds like a piston is trying to brake for freedom, pulled into the layby and call the RAC while I mess about with the electrics hoping that it is something daft.

symptoms - miss fire, feels like running on 3 cylinders - serious rattle when running (but does decline slightly with choke out !) - slight puffing noise on turn over

the only thing I can rule out at the moment is the electrics as they checked OK

The investigation will start next weekend, so in the meantime what do peoples reckon I will find when I drop the head off - I am hoping for a simple head gasket, but have not had one go with the aforementioned banging before

Not happy... definiatly...

I'll have to disagree with you Catmint. My first mini popped two head gaskets with me and both of them sounded like your description.

I hope I'm right and you can get it fixed quickly.

Good luck.