So yestereday i picked up a blown Cooper S engine for 100 bucks as i want to overhaul it and maybe spice it up a bit before i throw it in my own mini. the engine had a hole in the block and i suspected some of the internals to be damaged aswell, but i still hoped it had some useable parts. now ive never done this before, but thought it seemed like a fun opportunity to learn alot.
picture of how it arrived the garage, the engine did not come with intercooler or ac pump.

i soon began to pick it apart, and discovered the supercharger to be in great condition. (previous owner said he just had it changed as he thought this was the issue before he discovered the cracked block)

removing the supercharger exposed the size of the crack, turns out it was way bigger than i thought, and i can already see the lack of a connecting rod. on the brightside the head seems healty from above.
digging deeper i found the piston to be completly pulverized, the other pistons have definitely seen better days aswell. the valves and cylinder seemed fine from underneath aswell somehow, but im gonna have a closer look tomorrow as its covered in oil

now the time has come to check out the sump (sorry for blurry image)

All in all i think this is a doable project. Damage i found included - Engine block, Pistons and connecting rods, oil pickup, crankshaft, maybe head and/ or valves, and maybe sump.
Now ive been in contact with someone selling a bunch of cooper S r53 engine parts that i got down to only 100$ as he needs the space. from the blurry image he sent me i can spot an engineblock, a set of pistons with rods, a sump, an intercooler and two cylinderheads with camshafts and valves. So im going to pick up the parts tomorrow, i really hope some of the parts are useable.

 

todays update:
Parts arrived. found out that i had bought parts for two engines, so now i have tripple up of alot of stuff. there was a lot of junk there but heaps of reuseable spare parts aswell

turns out alot of the parts had alot of surfacerust, i was able to remove most of it with a towel and light sanding. machined parts (like the top of the block) was harder as i did not want to ruin the surface, so a towel and alot of time did the trick.

alot of the stuff was covered in oil and water, making a greasy tar consistency. sadly i dont have access to a pressurewasher at this time of the year as its too cold, so i had to clean them by hand.


sadly there was no crankshaft or oilpickup in the pile. however im in contact with someone giving away yet another engineblock with the crank installed, but somebody else was gonna pick it up tomorrow, crossing my fingers that they dont show up.
how the garage sits right now: (please excuse the mess)

the next few days ill be cleaning, inspecting and sorting alot of the stuff and be on the hunt for the crank and oilpickup.

 

Nice stuff. I am doing exactly the same and blogging it here: https://www.instagram.com/mini_bmw_mechanic/ (or here, same info: https://www.facebook.com/minibmwhobbyist). In my case the piston in the first cylinder exploded ruining the block and crankshaft. The head survived, just a couple of valves got bent.
I ended up with the second motor but it had issues with the first cylinder as well (spun bearing, worn 1st conrod journal on crankshaft), but the block is fine. Then I had to look for the crankshaft separately, which is not easy to find for our motors, apparently. I ended up buying one from the fellow northamericanmotoring member.
Anyway, checkout my Instagram or Facebook page and I'll keep monitoring this thread as well.

 

very interesting! seems like we are in the same boat on this one. Ive searched the market over here for a crankshaft but to no avail. might have to travel to sweden or germany and pick one up from there, but that can be hard aswell due to covid restrictions. I wish you good luck on your project, and ill definitely be updated on it!

 

good luck with ur build buddy