Ok sorry for the long post.

My Sister in law bought a Mini Cooper S cause she thought it was cute and fun. She sold her Toyota Corolla for it. First I heard about i was that it had stopped running and had been parked on a side street about a mile from where she worked. So I went with her one day to pick it up and see if it was something simple. I don't know much about Mini's so had no idea what I was getting myself into.

Anyway I attempted to drive the thing and it was lurching badly while starting out. Seemed to run fine once up to speed but the lurching made it virtually undriveable in stop and go traffic and at lights. I assumed it was the transmission so I nursed it to the nearest Aamco to get their thoughts on it. Aamco said the transmission was fine but it seemed to be a timing issue and that I should take it to a Mini Specialist. There happened to be one within a mile with decent (but not great) Yelp reviews so I took it there for an estimate.

Estimate came back with the following:

Oil two quarts lows, having caused timing to slip (apparently this is a thing with MIni's)
Valve cover warped allowing vaccum leak
Intake Manifold cracked, also allowing vacuum leak.
Turbo Boost valve needs replacing (this I can hear when I drive it)
Metal shavings in oil, possible indicating much bigger issues with engine.

They fixed the timing as part of the diagnostic and quoted $2,500 for the rest with the caveat that the engine may still be shot due to the metal shavings and the only way to find out was to fix everything else and then hope.

I advised her not to do the work and to try and sell as a parts car and just get what she could out of it. So in the meantime she has bought a Nissan Sentra and is now mobile again and driving a more suitable for car for her needs. Not hating on the Mini here, just not a good car for girl with no mechanical skill in need of reliable transportation.

Given that situation I took possession of the Mini just to see if I could perhaps do some of the work myself. I figured before I do anything I should giver it fresh oil and filter change, and run the oil through a screen to get a sense of how bad the metal shavings were before going any further. Now here is the the thing. I ran all of the oil through a very fine screen and I found what may have been one single very small metal shaving, I ran a magnet all over the screen and through the oil and did not pick anything up. If there are any shavings in the oil I don't know where they went. So now I am suspect of the shop that gave me the estimate in the first place.

So now the questions, given all the issues, where do I go next?

Also, while changing the oil filter I noticed the intake hose was damaged where it attaches to the turbo. I can see someone has been fighting with it for awhile, added some tape to the end, overtightened the clamp and god knows what else. But I don't believe that hose is seated properly and I have my doubts that it can be. So that is another issue.I drove it after the oil change and it didn't seem to lurch as much. I am wondering if I was able to seat that hose better when I put it back on and if that helped the situation.

So where would you start with this? Hoping to get this running and sell it as a running car rather than for parts.