I'm surprised (and disappointed) to see all the slagging off of Mini Sport. I'm sure that all comments here and on the Turbo forum are true but my own experience is that online orders are delivered within a day or two (sometimes next day if it's a small item) and I've never had any trouble with shortages - touch wood! They are 145 miles from me so I was intending to go down for an exchange engine and take my old one with me so I could check what I was getting and, no doubt, see a lot more to spend cash on when I'm there A couple of comments have been posted above regarding the quality of their machining but is that the general view? Most complaints seem to be about deliveries.

I think a lot of the problems with MiniSport stem from their attitude, back in the '70's they were "the place to go" if you wanted to tune your Mini for rallying etc. These days they seem far more interested in selling bling bits to kids.
I had a loook at the advert for the 1/2 engine - it's a classic example of Bigging yourself up, as the youf would say, looking behind the hype it's just a std rebore /regrind, all this 'carefully matched and selcted' is just marketing bull, you'd hardly put a mismatched set of pistons in would you!

Having said all that, if all you're looking for is a rebore/regrind like any machine shop would do, then if the price is right fine.
Personally I'd rather deal with a local machine shop that I knew and could specify exactly what I wanted - but then I'm a control freak, and I like building engines!

Tending to agree with you, Dino. I'm now leaning towards the local guy whose machining prices are twice Mini Sports but I know that he'll do a great job. I think I might rebuild this engine as standard using the original cam etc to keep costs down and then build a more powerful one when (if!) it gets through IVA. (IVA test has been confirmed at £450 and £90 for a retest )

Slagging off?  It wasn't my veiws, I just thought that it would be of benifit to you, to hear of others experiences with Minisport. (I'm not offended by your comment   , I just thought I wolud explain why I posted the link to Turbominis   ) Trying to be of help   doesn't always come across in forum posts

Raymond,
I did try to steer you away from Minisport some time back, i've no personal axe to grind but i knew of their reputation.
It seems to be an expensive proposition to build 2 engines, why not build one with a balanced bottom end and lightened flywheel + a cam and use your head, carb and exhaust, they can be changed without stripping the motor. If you use something like a sw5 (swiftune) cam it has a very smooth idle and is also very torquey + you can add roller rockers after if you want. No doubt there other cams that will do the same thing.

Sorry, that came across badly What I meant to say was the criticism of/problems with MiniSport which I don't doubt and I was disappointed to find that they aren't as good as I thought. 'Slagging off' infers something entirely different and it made my post come across wrongly. Please don't stop helping - it is appreciated!!

More grist to the mill, Tim I've changed my mind a dozen times already today and now you've gone and set me off again My real problem is that I used to be indecisive but now I'm not so sure...