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The Prince engine started out as an engine in cooperation with PSA which was mounted in cars like citroen DS3 as well as the R56 mini cooper S. In MINI guise it was named the N14 engine. This engine did have a couple of problems:
1. timing chain tensioner which could lead to the death rattle (fixed in 2012)
2. clogged oil feed on turbo (fixed by adding heat shield)
3. cracked piston cylinder 4 which was caused by a badly designed crank case ventilation which dumped the oily fumes right on top of the 4th cylinder altering it's mixture and could cause it to burn out. This could be fixed by just a simple oil catch tank.
The turbo itself isn't a prone to fail item.
In 2011 BMW redesigned the engine and renamed it N18 for the MINI and N13 for BMW applications.
These had redesigned pistons, the new timing chain tensioner assembly, newly designed baffled valve cover to cater for crank case ventilation as well as improvements on oild feeds and heat shielding. These have proven to be virtually bomb proof.
It's a good engine with tuning potential. It's well known that they push 220-230 hp on the stock turbo, 260-270 with the GT28 Garrett and there are even 300+ hp applications. You can basicly take a look at possibilities of mini cooper S.
The N13 114i and 116i/316i have down tuned camshafts.
N13 engine in the 118i, 320i efficient dynamics edition and 520i efficient dynamics edition have the same hardware(pistons, head, valves, camshafts) as the cooper S engine. The JCW mini engine differs in that they have different pistons.
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