I was talking to Kevin at Knowledge Performance in Kennesaw GA and then Randy Webb and an interesting notion appeared in my head.

Kevin was saying that the iron block E36 engine is about indestructable and can be modded to make great power reliably..... He said the new 330 HP version aluminum engine likes to spin berings and all kinds of other problems.

Randy told me that the engine in the Elise is a bit finicky with regards to mods and has some issues...... he also said that the new Mini 07 engine shares some of the same technology and he has concerns about how well it will "mod" and that the Mini engine we have now is incredibly resiliant

I'm wondering if our 02-06 Minis will be the ones everyone will look back and say these "are the ones to own."

Just a thought

 

I haven't been around the MINI scene long enough to be very knowledgable about their engines, but do know a bit about the M engines. His comment is somewhat misleading...the E36 engine was pretty conventional with lots of "room to grow" built into it, Euro versions always made lots more power than US models. On the other hand, the newer S54 was pretty much a maxxed out design to begin with. The bearing issue is well documented, has resulted in two service actions, and the result was all S54's from 2001-2003.5 were given 6 year/100K internal warranties. The cause was more a case of bad batches of lower end bearings and oiling issues, not an inherent design flaw. It is well known in E46 M3 circles that great gains just aren't possible with the engine, it's already pretty awesome stock. Modding the earlier engine is just bringing it up to its potential. The question on the new MINI engine is how stressed is it to begin with? If it's anything like the VAG 1.8T, then it will have plenty of overhead, the Toyota engine in the Elise is probably pretty similar to the S54, maxxed out to begin with.

 

Thanks for all that good info........ I was really curious....still am about the new engine......