I've been thru about three or four minis on my car. I will say that up until the current one all of the others have been used before I bought them. They all seemed to last a few years before they started to heat soak. I sent the last one( an MSD) to be rebuilt. The guy said it looked like it had been burned up by cranking it with not enough voltage supply to the starter. Had to upgrade all the battery cables to get more juice to the starter. Bought a new mini this time. We'll see. Those headers put out a lot of heat.