So I’m at a crossroad. Do I rebuild my N14 or get another Mini.
I do love my 07 MCS but it’s using a quart of oil every 500 miles. Also, I just noticed piston slap when the engine is started from cold. Goes away when warm.

If I rebuild, what will I have in the end? Anything any better? What can I do to make the block last longer? I redid the head when I got the car 5000 miles ago and should have just rebuilt the block then but had no history on the car and thought it wouldn’t need it at 89k miles.

I thinking about just finding a low mileage Gen 1 and be done with Gen 2s.

What do you think?

 

89K and the block is junk?! Having a hard time computing that. I recently gave up on my 136K '07. Suggest you do the same, they were never intended to last over 100K as far as I can tell and they get expensive fast after that.

Unless you have the budget and the desire to end up with a 300+ HP project car, rebuilding an N14 is a fairly poor proposition economically, especially on the east coast. Better (IMO) to spend the bucks on a newer car. Now if you want rebuild because it will be a fun project, that is an entirely different motivation.

15 years after the last Gen 1 rolled of the line seems rather late to find a low miles specimen, consider a low miles Gen 2. I did and am very happy (so far...), even more so after Mario worked his magic!

 

I have an R56S with 260k (km) on it, and nothing serious. Did timing, waterpump pulley, and hpfh by previous owner... other then that its just normal stuff. ((DME i cooked that MY FAULT not the car)) Dunno... ive had the car since 189k km... put 71k on it and spent 1200$... in one year. Sooo cant complain any car in the 5k range is gonna run you about 1000$ a year.