The 2002 Turbo which had a production run of about 1600 units became available in 1973. This was BMWs first production turbo. Other than that BMW has made little use of turbocharging in its gasoline engines since.

The N54 engine that powers the 335 and now 535 has had some teething pains.

Having said that, regardless of why Mini went to the TC mill, the R56 engine is a nice unit. As time progresses, it should show an ability to take well to mods.

While I am a fan of the R53, some of you seem to be forgetting the horrendous ECU issues that we had over the years - how many flashes did we have to endure to make things right? It wasn't until the end of the production run that BMW finally got close to getting it right.

Hopefully the early reports of BMW having issues wringing more horsepower reliably out of the Prince engine will prove to be false. One big plus for the Tritec was that it was fairly bulletproof and handled mods and big hp gains well.

Time will tell whether or not the Prince will do as well in this regard.

 

I'm incredibly impressed with the initial reliability of the R56 mill, especially since it is a clean-sheet design in its first year and full of high-tech goodies that are relative novelties in the BMW realm and in all of cardom. All reported problems have been relatively minor in scope (nothing like the S54, which was prone to catastrophic, explosive failure in its first year or, like Skiploder mentioned, the 02-03 SC). While it may be more generic, there is a reason for the newfound proliferation of small, twin-scroll turbocharging, especially when paired with direct-injection - unparalleled efficiency!

 

The old engine & gearbox was bullet proof, the turbo has issues , it can sound like a diesel engine on cold mornigs, the clutch/ gearbox has inherant problems on early models . Mine has this problem & is going in to morrow for the 5 th diffent thing since the 1st March, yes its the gearbox thing. If they dont get it right this time iam rejecting it.

 

Skiploder - that's some nice info that I can put away upstairs, thanks.

Don't T/C engines have more tuning potential in terms of mods and stuff? Maybe I'm wrong...

 

Yeeeaaaahhhhh... apparently you never heard of the Midlands Transmission? The explosive excuse for a mechanical malfuncion that plagued the first couple years of the MINI? That said, there have been a few geabox issues here and elsewhere. Teething issues that the warranty will take care of, I'm sure.

And the dieseling sound... good luck getting rid of that. It's been well documented that its the common-rail DFI system ticking away... that is, unless you've joined the BMW conspirocy theorists and are now conviced that the engine is about the blow. Be pretty hard to get rid of it. There's only been one case over on MINI2 of an engine rattle that turned out to be anything of note.

 

3rd to 2nd squeal and notchy gears?

 

symbiotic would be better since the supercharger adds power back after taking some. parasitic device would only take and take.

 

I don't know any hybrid car that can even come close to r56 in terms of performance.

 

let go of the past. r53 is the past. just look how long it took for bmw to come back to turbo engines. 20 years or so? hang around for another 25 years or so and they might go back to superchargers.

 

sounds like a diesal - So? Those are direct injectors.

trans.. does the term "midlands" mean anything to you? everyone who has that tranny has a less than stellar trans.

Sorry that you have a problem with your trans.. it is a very small percentage of the whole however.

 

As some of us already know, the 07 MCS engine is the same as the new Peugeot 207 GTI.
Does anyone know if this was a "joint venture" or if it was a simply BMW purchasing the engines from the PSA group (I'm sure there will be a Citroen using the same engine too) and recalibrating the ECU etc for its implimentation in the Mini ?

Either way, any european will know that Peugeot has an excellent record of making great small displacement performance engines. They have a HUGE amount of experience with turbos, mostly with there awesome diesel engines.

Also, I noted that there is a Mini Cooper D (turbo) in Europe http://www.mini.co.uk/html/model_ran.../techSpec.html

 

Press releases indicate the engine was a joint venture. You can see technology from both companies in the engine.

 

Long live Slag911 for creating the best Lulz in this thread.

 

"I did it for the lulz"
"I did it for the lulz"
"I did it for the lulz"