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aja540i You can tell if it was him... he'll be in front of everyone. All the time.

So I finally got the fan off thanks to Brad suggesting my access and leverage could be better with blades off. Duh. I didn't know you could take them off from the front. Not very pretty but it's all being replaced... Genuine BMW composite water pump, no axial play but you can never tell with these things. And boy I tell you want, it's a PITA with the "large" radiator that they chose to wind two hoses through the fan cowl. Even though I was replacing all of the hoses it's a massive challenge getting the hoses, clamps, cowl and expansion tank all in at the same time. Hint: assemble expansion tank, both tank hoses and cowl together as one then install after radiator into car, finally attach tank hoses to radiator overflow and engine block (remove airbox). But I still can't flush it because the damn threads on the temp sensor socket need to be chased, I can't screw the sensor in. Threads themselves look fine but there's a bit of a lip at the front that prevents engagement. So it's mostly reassembled and if I get time between chores and Bathurst tomorrow I'll finish it and flush. Otherwise Monday which I've taken off to recover from Bathurst, Japanese F1 and UFC 204 tomorrow (13+ hours of sport).

Picked up the donor vehicle today. An SA spec'd 318is with a Getrag 250 in it. Was a bit of a mission but worth it in the end!

Definitely the correct plate for the car, VIN matches up and says 3' E46 BMW 320i So not a false plate, and not surprising that they have it as what it has been (incorrectly) registered as, considering Trademe fills those fields in automatically when listing if you supply the plate number. But they should definitely know better as well!

Front spacers courtesy of Dan - thanks bro IMG_7979 by Christian Taylor, on Flickr IMG_7982 by Christian Taylor, on Flickr

Bathurst pop-up channel on Sky Sports, lots of extended highlights of old races, heaven. just been watching JR in the JPS M3 in '87.

320i coupe paddock basher from a few years back loads of fun even as a auto . also had various overs like 316ti 5spd 318is 5spd etc etc but the stripped down coupe went quite well