hi everyone. my first post. I recently acquired a 2007 just a with a dead N12 engine. only 80K km on the car. the cost to rebuild and replace parts is astronomical, and there seems to be a shortage of good N12s at the wreckers. Ive seen posts where people have asked about swapping an N16 into an N12 car, but no real info. Im about to buy a 2013 N16 with only 23K km on it at a wrecker. from other threads and my own research, the oil pump and its flow control solenoid are the hang up. Im hoping this swap is a thing. wondering if you can just remove the solenoid from the pump and plug it with a threaded plug of some type? same with the hole in the block? some type of threaded plug? or swap the pump to an N12 style. Im going to run as much of the N12 accessories as I can, including the oil filter housing as I think theres a relocated oil pressure switch in the N16 one. hoping to squeeze a magna flow 553028 into the project budget as well. any assistance or guidance here willl be greatly appreciated. Im closing in on 60, and this is my first mini. my dad was a BMC factory sponsored racer back in the early 60's. racing Cooper S, Healys and MGA's. lots of memories.
thanks!

 

What killed the N12? what was done to diagnose it?

[size=3]N16 swap is doable. if you want to just drop it in and go, then you need the wiring harness of the engine AND the ECU. since N12 and N16 have the same ECU file format, I believe you can clone the N12 ECU into the N16 ECU that way you can start the car.[/size]

 

I called a local mini dealership and asked if they could clone an ECU. just crickets on the other end. I did buy my N16 today. 2013 with 47K km. the wrecker had run it and it has 210 comp right across. on a pallet waiting to go. gets delivered tomorrow. lets hope for the best. one suggestion given to me was just run the 2007 harness and ignore the oil pump solenoid. if I knew what the default position of it was ( high oil pressure or low oil pressure ) that might be the ticket. a call to a different dealership provided the same results. um, er, ah. so does anyone know what the default position of the oil pump solenoid is? is it variable voltage for different positions or on/off? hoping for some mini techs here that like to think/work out of the box.

 

the lady I bought it from overheated it. drove it until it quit. the valve seats are falling out, about .010 of warp, and there is an amazing amount of piston slop. it was all original parts. when I put coolant in it and ran it a few minutes, it leaked somewhere around the water pump.

 

Got you...

To your questions:

the oil solenoid is variable and the idea is emission control.

The N12 harness might not be compatible as some sensors have evolved to have a different plug like the oil pressure sensor and perhaps the MAP sensor.

I recall seeing a plug on the cyl head that MIGHT be used for the N12 oil sensor. Not sure though.

The dealer wouldn't know how to clone, they will sell you brand new items only. Cloning can easily be done using Ktag or galetto 4.

Check newtis.info and compare wiring pin assignment. My N14 to N18 swap had only 3 wires relocations.

 

so far I've noticed the plugs for the therm housing are different. easy to splice. the N12 has a one wire oil pressure sensor, the N16 is a three wire. going to see if I can find a newer one wire/pin sensor that will fit in the N16 filter housing.

if the oil pump solenoid is truly variable, I just need to find out what voltage would provide about 40-ish psi. does anyone have an oil pressure gauge on a similar? whats the max oil pressure you've seen? I hope I can get some pics up soon.

 

Im actually shocked at the lack of info here. there was tons on others when modifying my Z3M. Ive pulled the pans off both motors. they are in fact two different design oil pumps. I will be installing the '07 pump on the '13 engine. just need to figure out how to plug the hole in the block where the oil pump solenoid wire went through.

the oil pressure switch are tricky as well. looking up the two, the '07 mounts in the head and supposedly has a 16 x 1.5 thread. the '13 mounts in the oil filter housing and supposedly has a 12 x 1.5 thread. in keeping the newest parts possible, the vacuum pump and thermo housing on the '13 are different, and block access to the oil passage plug. maybe thats why they moved it to the oil filter housing. Im hoping to find an adapter to swap over the older sensor. the craven speed adapter has 3/8 and 1/8 npt thread. how does that work? no reply from them yet.

got all my new bolts and seals now. hoping to make some progress this weekend.

 

ive been driving a few weeks now. it can be done! fired right up and no codes. still need to sort the oil sender. needs a rear hub and abs sensor. kinda fun to commute in. now how do I fix the sunroof??? it won't open. it clicks and theres the finest bit of movement when you put the switch in open or close.but it won't open.pushing up don't help. pulled the glass panels and tried again.nope. no visible damage or hangups. what next?

 

You just dropped in the N16 DME?

Haven't done anything with my sunroof yet, but if I was faced with the same issue, I would pull any parts that could bind and keep testing until nothing binds.

 

Hey I'm doing this swap this week. A little info I have two 2009 mini Coopers both dropped a couple of valve seats and damaged the pistons and damaged the engine block sleeves so the blocks are useless since they don't sell those parts to repair it. I have a leftover longblock from a 2011 mini cooper n16 from a previous project and I just tore it down to inspect what happened. The short block is clean no damage since the issue was with the camshaft. With the parts I have I'm thinking I can send the cylinder heads to a machine shop and have them fix one so I can bolt it on the short block of the n16 since the head gasket is exactly the same. Reading your post I'm thinking of using the oil pump from one of the 2009 n12 engines since the issue wasn't with oil lubrication im thinking I should be fine. The engines are completely torn down with no acceories as I'm using everything from the 2009 n12. Basically my question is what else needs to be changed besides the oil pump. I know there's the plug for the oil pump solenoid but I'm thinking I'll just cut the internal plug and leave it as is. As for the cylinder heads from the n12 and n16 the only difference I found is where the oil pressure sensor bolts in the n12 the n16 has it plugged. I removed the plug and it's the same size on the n12 and n16 I even poured gasoline in the hole to trace where it comes out of and its the same not that it matters since I'll be using an n12 head on the n16 shortblock. Only other difference I see between the the two blocks is that the n16 has a sort of pcv tube right below the knock sensor which I plan on just not connecting it. Hopefully I'm not missing anything and if everything goes well I'll be buying another n16 engine so I can drop it in the other 2009 mini Cooper since I have 2 that I need to fix.

 

so have you installed it yet? my N16 came with an intake and the hoses in place. for the oil pump solenoid hole I used a 24mm frost plug. cleaned the new plug and old hole with some iso and ran a film of black sealer on the plug before tapping in. I have seen a pic of a factory plug. it comes in the N12 version of a mini crate motor. five different dealers said its not available separately. didn't feel like dropping $9G for a crate motor to get the plug. so far its running like a champ. about 3000 km's on it. I still haven't figured out how to sort the oil pressure sensor. I've got the N16 oil filter housing and sensor on. its a three wire. I found a diagram of the out pins on it. theres oil pressure, power and a ground. the two extra somehow let the fuel pump start after pressure is detected. (?).I ran a jumper from the oil pressure pin to the one wire plug of my hybrid harness. I get no check engine or oil warning light when it starts. if I unplug the wire it makes no difference and still no lights. I might be wrong about how the three wire sensor works, but I haven't found a one wire that fits. are all oil sensors the same for output voltages and stuff? no adapters either.

 

I installed the n14 short block with a n12 head on a 2009 mini and it's been running great so far. I rebuilt the block replacing piston rings, rods, and honing the cylinders. Machine shop took did the Cylinder head. Compression is at 150 psi. I stripped the n14 block completely down and used everything from the 2009 mini intake, exhaust, wiring, hoses etc. On the short block I used the oil pump from the n12 block and used a universal freeze plug to cover where the connector came came out of the block. As far the hose comming out of block I just plugged it with a piece of rubber I had laying around that fit perfectly. Next I'll be buying a complete n14 engine to install on the other 2009 mini and not sure what I'm going to do if I install it complete or tear it down also but the engine is being delivered on Thursday so I have some time to decide.

 

what was the resolution to the oil pressure sensor? did you use a fitting and placed it on the oil filter housing?

did you use the N12 wiring harness or kept the N16 in place?

I'm thinking about keeping the N16 untouched and marry the N16 ecu to the '07 CAS.