Engine Drivetrain 2nd Gen S Most liked posts in thread: The Magic Bus engine mods journal

yes wheel dyno, added a photo. I am very impressed with those numbers-I expected the high mileage turbo to be giving something away. Next up is a boost tap then a wagner intercooler, not expecting power increases, but checking to see if there is a loss and how much.

 

5000 mile update

I have made it to the 5k mark with the new engine. Just drove it to the sw minifest in Phoenix last weekend, 1600 miles in 4 days. Thus far oil consumption is zero-still full. I got 32 mpg at about 75 mph on the freeway and a hard run up 89A into jerome knocked mileage off to 27 on that tankfull. the runflat tires are just too terrible to run even on trips so I am reconsidering my spare tire options for mtts. I will do another dyno pull soon with a boost tap and see where we are.

 

Updates! FINALLY

It has been awhile since I have added anything here-the new engine in the Shop car continues to perform admirably and in contrast to the original engine. I have now motored over 16,000 miles since January when we resurrected this beast. Including 1600 on Southwest MINI Fest and 5800 total on MTTS 14. There have been oil and filter changes at 506, then 5000 twice then after MTTS at 6000 on that oil. Not one drop of oil has passed between changes-using the Cravenspeed dipstick the level is always the same. I only checked it 4 times on MTTS, every 3rd day or so, but never any change. After a particularly long hard day in west Texas, spent at 4000 rpm or above most of the day in 6th gear, I expected to see some oil burned-nada. Zilch. Nothing. So at this point I am very pleased with the New MINI replacement engine. We will continue to see how it goes.
At 88000 miles as mentioned earlier, (installed engine at 86000) we added a Wagner FMIC to the already installed NM aircharge and discharge tubes and the next dyno pull showed us 166 whp on the same dyno and similar weather. (Engine already had an NM CAI.) I have to say I expected nothing from the fmic so it was cool to actually see an increase. The dyno pulls were exactly one week apart. The shop uses a dyno jet and it is about 200 feet above sea level, near the Pacific. The downside of that dyno session saw the original turbo expire on the 4th pull. Oh well, on ward!

Watch for The next update as it will will include results from installation of a new bugger turbo and tuning, all of which now have 14000 miles motored on them.

 

30,000 miles later

Update on the engine in our shop car, the Magic Bus after 30k of fun motoring:
I just had to add 1/3 qt of oil at 2500 miles since it was changed, the first time any loss of oil occurred. This engine continues to amaze, it is regualarly driven (possibly thrashed) by customers and Steven drove it back and forth to Ventura for amonth when my new Paceman arrived.
A customer currently has it for the upcoming SCMM Sierra trip after he wrecked his R53 pretty badly. As a side note, we installed on of these engines in a customers car that has gone over 50,000 miles with ZERO oil consumption. We also had one customer lose cylinder 2 on one of these engines, which resulted in a parts warranty engine replacement.
Counting my car, I have installed 42 of these factory new engines with the one failure so they look to be a pretty good investment especially for the cost.
After driving my new Paceman exclusively for 2 plus months (left knee issue-using clutch hurts!) I drove the Magic Bus last week and was once again blown away at the wide, deep power curve and overall luxury of this car. :biggrin5: