Buying no running Mini JCW

[Ebo100]

My son has been offered a CS JCW at a very reasonable price however there is no cylinder head fitted.
The story goes that the car went into a garage for some work and removing the head they announced that the engine was f**ked and offered the (female) owner £1500 scrap value. The car ends up with a local mechanical engineer who has a look at it and ended up rebuilding the head. It has been skimmed, valves lapped and pressure tested, the bores have been checked and given a clean bill of health. All that is left is to refit the head which my son is capable of; as the owner has decided to move on; cut her losses and has bought a Porsche.
Reading other threads it seems to me that this could be the problem with the coking up and maybe flashing the eml light or maybe she hasn't been checking the oil regurlarly enough. Does this shout out anything else to any experienced owners?

My first reaction is for son to walk away but the spec and price is desirable to him and it really has had the one careful lady owner from new.

[Feirny]

I assume its an '07 on R56?

[LukeSi]

If he can fix it then go for it. Brillaint cars, needs decating though.

[Ebo100]

Feirny said:

I assume its an '07 on R56?

Yes '07 but turbo'd, is that still R56?

[Feirny]

Ebo100 said:

Yes '07 but turbo'd, is that still R56?

Yep, first of the R56. Whilst it's apart I'd put a new chain tensioner in and also check the turbo is ok. There's a few known engine issues on these so worth doing it properly.

[Ebo100]

Thanks for your reply,

From what I'd read I thought is best to change the chain and tensioner. It seems the assembly was re-designed for 2010 cars. Is this a straight swop or is it best to replace like for like and keep an eye on the oil level?