Engineering at its best Mike - at least there will be a much bigger pool of engines to source a good used one 👍

 

n12 engines are getting old now and harder to find good ones, so n16 or the psa same engines plenty out there, this car i refreshed it 3 years ago or more after 2 years a garage where it comes from worked on coolant system never bled the system correctly ,, car over heated so bad at time the car would not start after stopping from the heat , at least it was nothing to do with my refresh ,

 

today i have had time to get on with doing the refresh work and stripped it and honed bores and new rings also done the head and stems seals etc, as per pics below,, should have this ready to fit in car by weekend but got other stuff arriving weekend to juggling them all at moment, ,

abive pics notice the oil burning crud on all the valves ,, this engine n16 b16 has 21.000 miles 2012 even with small miles still burning oil,, hence why its best to refresh these early on get rid of of crap bmw rings before it does damage,

above head and pistons in the cleaning tank i made ,

above bores honed and scotchbrite cleaned ready for pistons with new better solid rings

above pistons cleaned ready for rings

above new rings i use these are what i would fit to forged pistons and have better tensile rings cope with the heat better , also the oil rings are 3 piece , stops the oil burning

 

two back in, when i use the rings compressor i always lag everything in oil i also run some 180mm wet dry sandpaper around the top lip of bores helps rings to slide in when you firmly push them down , also ad engine builders grease to big end bearings

abive the modified sump i do , i weld a shallow thread nut on outside of sump and then cut a slot inside the sump to allow all the oil to drain out when do oil changes,, as before its a 25mm left in the sump of dirty sludge ,

above head after a few hours in cleaning tank , i have done zero scrubbing or any of my time cleaning this just heat and and bubbles ,

above the head surface where retang rings sit , i always 1200mm wet dry and then polish them back shiny,

above polished the head with dremel and polish pad, if you dont do this the rings will wear away,

new stem seals i use these are not the cheapest but they are very well made ,

 

View attachment 293821
two back in, when i use the rings compressor i always lag everything in oil i also run some 180mm wet dry sandpaper around the top lip of bores helps rings to slide in when you firmly push them down , also ad engine builders grease to big end bearings
View attachment 293822
View attachment 293823
abive the modified sump i do , i weld a shallow thread nut on outside of sump and then cut a slot inside the sump to allow all the oil to drain out when do oil changes,, as before its a 25mm left in the sump of dirty sludge ,
View attachment 293824
above head after a few hours in cleaning tank , i have done zero scrubbing or any of my time cleaning this just heat and and bubbles ,
View attachment 293825

View attachment 293826
above the head surface where retang rings sit , i always 1200mm wet dry and then polish them back shiny,
View attachment 293827
View attachment 293828
above polished the head with dremel and polish pad, if you dont do this the rings will wear away,

View attachment 293829

View attachment 293830
new stem seals i use these are not the cheapest but they are very well made ,

 

above retang rings for camshafts vanos system part numbers always soak in oil before fitting,

above head finished ready to fit, I also modified the vac pump so can use the newer better n16 vac pump on n12 car and be able to use oil pressure switch in side of head , as n16 is on the oil filter housing,, I also fitted a new oil pump as n16 is piloted and n12 is not ,

 

As good as new that will be Mike when you have finished with it - those pictures show the level of fine detail you put in to each refresh. Being able to retro fit N16 into N12 engines opens up a whole new world of options and donor parts - great move and will save a load more minis in the future.👍

What I find kind of scary is that this engine has 21k miles on it and yet it was burning already. I know with the hone and the 3 part FAI rings, with seals, it will not burn any more, but wow, oil burner at that low mileage

At least it is sorted by you now Mike 👍

 

it will be by time i have finished with it,

 

so finally got this one back in unit today and pulled front off and pulled engine and gearbox out so its all moving forward again, so far i have done a mod so can run the n16 vac pump so avoids the oil pressure switch, also sorted oil pump as cant use the n16 pump , got head back on ready to fit just got to do timing chain timing when i fit the flywheel off n12 engine, also going to use more the n16 bits as low miles and newer as i can , couple or ecu updates iron couple of things needed to run these correctly, the old engine got so hot that two bell housing bolt snapped off on the torx head so had to weld a nut on them get them off , not big deal,

 

another sunday and under a mini lol, got engine back in sat in car done all the hardware changes i need to do to make the later engine run right in earlier car , put a new timing chain kit on it and water pump and pulley and belt ,also fitted new oil pump as well as thew n16 is piloted and n12 is not , when it back running ill drop ecu off at map guy who will update the software to make it run and fuel correctly , i refreshed the engine even thou its only got 21k on it but is 2011 so age was not in its favour, so now should do another 60k before timing chain change again maybe , that said what i do stops the oil use so they dont suffer low oil running which early n12 with plastic rings all do,


engine ready to go back in

above subframe had some rust so i wire brush on angle grinder then etc primer then two coats of under seal stone chip, will do the other side of subframe as well before mot,

above engine sat in car i have used all the 21k parts i can, alternator and aircon pump also vac pump after i modify the case to fit around the oil pressure switch, 3rd one i have done now it works well

above you can see i got vac pump from n16 engine to fit ,

above i always use elring seals for filter housing try all the other found these to be the best ,
tomorrow ill get front back on and fit new aircon rad etc maybe get it back running by end of day

 

Another big step forward for that mini, and teh N16 conversion is the way to go

Quick head sup Mike, it may just be me, but I can not see the the pictures

 

i got all the driveshafts in and gearbox and some additive make it smoother, tomorrow i'll refit front end and get it running again then do a few hours of running and two lots of 2500 revs for 20 minutes before dropping break in oil and refill with oil ready for its first 200 miles before change oil again, i also got a couple ecu updates to do as running different engine ,

 

Looking good Mike, and way to go for a larger source of "new" engines - I can see the pictures now too 👍

 

thats what i thought as n12 engines are getting old now , at least this way I can also fit psa engines which are being used to this date can be made to work , i'm doing more timing chains now on bmw engines now as well, everyone in the trade thinks i'm bonkers lol

 

another most of day on this today its now ready for for start up , which will be tomorrow now then shake down and live data runs make sure its all behaving etc, should be a cracking engine now ,

 

Having just got my Cooper back from Mike, or “Magic Mike” as I think he should be called I’m over the moon.
The old n12 in my 08 car bit the dust through the complete incompetence of a local garage causing extreme overheating and boiling it beyond repair , so Mike suggested and successfully fitted an N16 engine it is place !!!
Car pulls better , is quieter , more responsive and overall a better drive. Mike has pioneered something here that should extend the lives of many mini’s with an improved option available - so nice one Mike , you’ve made my wife happier than I ever could ( with the car ) 🤣🤣👍👍

 

happy to have been at service and sorted the journey with it lol,

 

Just shows what a true engineer Mike is - that solution is defo the way forward

Well done Mike 👍 👍 👍

 

i just like a wall that have to climb or knock down or go around or dig a tunnel , always away with anything in life,

 

little update on this car its done around 700 miles now and owner says running lovely so much better, he is sending me the ecu and we are going to remap it its a non turbo engine 1,600cc cooper 120bhp it should end up around 140-150bhp and better pick up throttle response it does change them for the better , I have asked owner once he gets it back and uses it for a few weeks to maybe put a review on here of what he thinks of it and whether its given them what I expect it will, like a more peppy power as such, and also how effects mpg, I know it will work the vvt system harder so more revs etc from past cars I have done,

 

That is a brilliant way to source more engines for the early minis - looking forward to the owners update 👍

 

Just as an update to the work Mike did, I had a minor issue with EML due to a sensor - he he now uses BLACK MAGIC PERFORMANCE CENTRE, so I took the ECU out sent to Mike, he took it to Black Magic, who flashed the ECU did away with the “non fault” AND did a remap at my request

if you have a standard Cooper (non s) then do this now! It’s a different car, acceleration is immediate , both from the lights, and motorway which is now much safer as I can overtake much more quicker - wierdly fuel consumption is pretty much the same and it’s still a smooth drivable engine when on local journeys - but just so much more the car it should be now - AND I had the ECU back in 3 days !!!

it’s made me fall back in love with a car that I thought was slow and sedate at best - do this if you want to improve the driving experience !!

 

Excellent feedback from an "end user"

Goes to show just how good Mikes work is and how he stands by his word

If you can keep us updated on how things progress going forward, that would be great

 

When you put head bolts in did you clean out the boltholes in the block and lightly oil the head bolts, head bolts torque,30nm plus 90 degrees plus 90 degrees of torque angle, I mark each bolt as I do them up with paint pen to ensure not missed one easy to do,

 

We'd definitely recommend Mike too, did a fabulous job on our n47 diesel