New to mini's but have been a mechanic for years. Anyway, I may have found an amazing deal but it doesn't start. I'm looking to get my girlfriend a car for grad school in Philly. I wanna be able to take the car to the track on weekends and have her drive it during the week so obviously ive been looking for an S. Anyway looking at the worst case scenario, the car needs a motor. Its an 03 non-S. How much work would it take to get a similar year S motor in their or am I better off just dropping another N/A motor.

OR

How much of an aftermarket is their for N/A builds. Ive done a couple motors before so I'd be interested in doing a mini as long as it isnt over complicated.

Any help, advice, or links to threads or reading material would be greatly appreciated.

 

Don't even think of turboing a N/A car...weaker internals.
Its been done....BOOM!!
the swap would need more than a motor...
Tranny...CV joints...computer... Wiring harness....hood...radiator...lots of bits.
Unless you bought a rear ended S cheap....would be $$$$.

 

I guess I miss-spoke. I would be swapping in a S motor, not turboing the NA motor. Ive seen to many people slap a turbo on any car, blow it, then wonder why. As for all the other stuff I did not know that so It looks like it'll be getting another NA motor. My girlfriend wants to learn about this money pit of a hobby we call cars so I guess we can start by tearing down the bad motor and seeing what went wrong.