The last time I had anything to do with Minis was more than 30 years ago and, at the time, it was great fun. Perhaps I was in a dry part of the country and the vehicle was still (relatively) recent and thus was spared the problems described above.

The only extra thing I'd suggest Laura check out (if she's really serious about one is the idler pulley in the timing chain. From memory, this pulley had its bearing mounted in a pressed metal sleeve that was just inserted into the relevant part of the engine block and, over time, the mounting would wear an irregular hole in the cast block; the irregularity would prevent any "proper" adjustment of the timing once it had appeared.

A mate of mine made a fair income from developing a jig into which he could place all models of Mini engine block and mill out a precisely located and durable bearing mount for the idler pulley, thus reconditioning the motors for a much extended life.

But you can't see this from the outside.

Cheers, Rowan