I have N16 motor that I acquired cheaply($150) and would like to find out information about the vehicle it came from, mainly I would like to find out how many miles it may have gone. Are there any of the numbers on the block or head, etc that would tie it to a specific VIN for the car?

I am considering doing a engine swap with it and my 2008 N12 that has 205K on it so I can continue to drive it. I understand there are very little differences between the N12 and the N16 so my thought is instead of spending over a $1000 to rebuild the N12 I could just put newer gaskets the in the N16 and install it in my 2008 assuming it has low miles. I would just consider installing it but the guy I got it from started disassembling the motor.

Thanks in advance
Scott.

 

there are no vin traces on the engine. the person who sold it to you should know, if not, there isnt really anything to go by. if it came with the ecu, maybe the vin can be extracted from it.