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Three Tech Twos

As I'm not that well versed in electronics, I took my sweet time sorting the wiring. Wanted to make a tidy job of it and pretty happy with how it turned out. Started with dissecting the EGS wiring, using the donor car harness as a guide to what's safe to cull. Cut off the plugs going to the old transmission and got rid of the excess wires by pulling them through the tubing, leaving only a few that I reused for the reverse switch wiring. Crimped on a generic plug that I'd lifted off a temperature sensor and shrink wrapped it in place. Took me a while to figure out the fuse box side of it. There seemed to be two different ways of doing it - hooking up the two reverse switch wires to Pins 2 & 6 of X6325 according to this guide OR tap into the black/brown wire (Pin 4) and ground the other as shown in ShopLifeTV's & 50skid's videos. Had to educate myself on how relays work to figure out that both ways will work. Decided to go with Pin 4 and ground, retaining the relay so as to not run the main current through the light switch. The black/brown wire was the last one remaining on a EGS plug after getting rid of all the wires going to the transmission so that got spliced together. For ground I just plugged into the one of the other abandoned EGS plugs. Will do for now, will tidy the remaining loose ends after I've gotten the car up and running. On the inside I ended up also removing the steering column as I noticed the steering angle sensor being a bit too loose for my liking so wanted to check it out. Not sure how much play is normal but did notice the plastic bit on the column where the end of the pin is held in place was slightly cracked. Strengthened it with a bit of epoxy which seems to have solidified it a bit. Also fixed the annoying orientation of the column where the positioning slots on the end of the column and the steering wheel would end up on opposite sides. PO's attention to detail is a joy to behold. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ec2uskchmfbs6w9/2022-11-04 12.11.18.mp4?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/bmg6ngv6po6y1h8/2022-11-04 13.04.49.mp4?dl=0 Clutch switch wiring was pretty straightforward. Also did the reverse light dip wiring as per this guide. Reused the discarded wires from the auto transmission looms. Had two to play with so managed to string longer runs together with matching colours. Also disconnected the previously run cruise control wire to route it more properly. Fished the wires along the factory wiring routes wherever possible, using an old wire coat hanger to route the wires through in behind the heater core. Blue - cruise control to DME Pin 27 Green - clutch switch Pin 2 to DME Pin 23 Yellow - reverse dip X11176 Pin 7 to X428 Taped together the loose wires previously going to the auto shifter and cable tied them out of the way. Also tidied up other wiring where the tape had come loose over time with some new OEM-looking cloth electrical tape. The shift cable hole got plugged with an OEM blind plug (Part #07147140849 but and 35mm plug should do) and threaded some short bolts I found to the other shifter mounting bolt holes. Figured out why the wiring around the steering column had looked pretty hectic previously. While digging through the newest parts car I noticed the black plastic channel bolted to the side of the steering column - on Barbara it was missing completely. Lovely. While in there... I also took out the heater core for a thorough flush and some fresh O-rings. Getting the pipes back in is an absolute prick of a job, would recommend a second set of hands when tackling this. Ripped out the dash from the parts car that, underneath all the filth, looked in better shape than the old one. Gave it a good thorough clean with a steam cleaner and applied 2 coats of Aerospace 303 protectant to make it look nice and crisp. No more footprint or phone holder dildo smack in the middle of it. Love it. Dug out the armrest-less center console bit and set of cupholders I'd picked up from the wrecker's some months ago and spent a good few hours rubbing off the scratched up rubberised coating to expose the clean plastic underneath. Those also got a couple of coats of 303 to freshen them up. Cut a hole in the underside dash panel for the clutch pedal and pretty much put the interior back together. All that's missing is the shiftknob. Three pedals at last.

Did somebody mention.... 8-Bit?! 😁

I'm just chucking each fill into a logging app. Mainly to track how much money I am burning on cars. All of it...

Black Friday sales in NZ. Waste of time. Most of the stuff I have found on sale from Repco/Supercheap is not actually as cheap as it has been in other random sales. If you are going to embrace a big sales day from another country at least put some effort into it. All they have seem to have done is change the title of their normal every week sales.

Yip, it was at O'Reilly's - saw it when I had my car serviced. Such a lot of car for the cabbage.

Least its all sorted now in one go.

Interior is looking sharp. Big fan of the sport seats in that fabric/alcantara in that generation bmw.

Had an ex-engine builder mate come round one evening with his set of micrometres to check over the bearing clearances. All seem to be sitting towards the upper end of the spec. Not ideal but she's also not a drag racer so happy enough. Main bearing clearances sat around 0.050-0.055mm - spec is 0.020-0.058mm. Con rods were around the same. Also rechecked them with plastigauge later on and all sat bang on 0.050mm. These are the piston rings I ended up using, as recommended previously, complete with M52TU-style bottom rings. Checked the ring end gaps with a feeler gauge and to my great relief no grinding was required. Spec is 0.20-0.40mm, both top rings were bang on 0.40mm in all 6 sets out of the box. The oil control rings were between 0.60-0.75mm but they're also a 3-piece instead of the stock 2-piece so probably fall under some other spec. Gave the block a last clean and blast through wish some compressed air, wiped down the bores and got to installing the crank. Bearings went in with a little coating of assembly lube. Sacrificed a brand new detailing brush to oil duties and painted a bit of oil on all the journals as well. Main caps went on and torqued to spec - 20Nm + 70 degrees. Made sure to remember to put the brace plates on the first time around after watching 50skid step on that rake. Piston rings got clocked to different sides and not to match oil openings, brushed on some oil onto the bores, piston & ring compressor and gently tapped the pistons in place. Caps torqued to the same spec as the main caps, with brand new oiled up bolts. All turns over beautifully without much effort. Happy to have gotten to this point. Called it a day at nearly 11pm on Wednesday with a great sense of accomplishment. Best sleep I had all week. Another weekend of wrenching ahead, hoping to get her up and running before Christmas ✌

Always a chance the car has had a Vin swap. Do a thorough check around the Vin stamps.

More pics of workshop please 😍

Webbs has informed me the car will be on site on Monday.

The open road driving in it is really good. My last 3 fills. 68.61L @522km's (Mostly Town Driving) = 13.14/100km 67.24L @607km's (Mostly Open Road Commute) = 11.08/100km 70.83L @616km's (Mostly Open Road Commute) = 11.50/100km NZ new, well looked after, new tyres, 98 or above. Tried NPD 100 and it made zero difference. I have however seen 28L/100kms as my average use. When towing the old E30 series car to Taupo. The laser jammer did save me from a ticket that trip. But I mainly use my 130i as my commuter. Is perfect for the job bar not having any cruise control. High 8's is the goal without having to feather it around. Ton of road works at the moment is seeing that number climb quite quickly.

If I remember correctly, the date of first registration in Japan is often used as the vehicle year, possible explanation.

Was it as bad before the MILV flash? FWIW I got https://www.injectortech.co.nz/index.htm to clean and bench test the injectors I have (still) sitting on the N52 on stand here. Was fast and good service.

Also, major development on the engine output front !! Had been feeling like it was no where near as potent as it was lately although it was driving much better (idle, rev hang etc). Have been trying to data log my a/f ratios or voltages via Android app NCSIII and OBD2 dongle but alas they only have readings in 'alpha' ... this was on the thought that my sensors are much further back in the exhaust than previous and may not be getting hot enough etc, hence skewing things. Annnnnnnyyyhoooooo ... via the phone app I could at least reset the fuel trims, so I did that. Idle and drivability back to been a bit pants BUT it must have picked up 100hp !! Back to ripping like it used to. So will have to get it on a dyno with some calibrated wide band and see what the story is some time soon ... great that I was not imagining it slowing up at least !! Now, these may look essentially like the same photos but ... they're not 😆 Did a ceramic spray coating, dressed the tyres and finally cleaned under the bonnet. Its probably looking about as good as its going to for a while !!

Maybe its just me but i don't even think its even worth 20k.

Here’s something you certainly don’t see everyday, especially on a grey Thursday morning! First Lagonda I’ve ever seen in person.

Meant to give the car a machine cut today (yet to do one) but with the rain decided to refinish my steering wheel properly - I had given it a quick spruce up previously using colour lock by hand but I wanted a better finish. I used the ‘professional’ Furniture clinic products I used to refinish my E46 seats with a spray gun and air compressor including their exceptional matte clear leather sealer that gives everything a beautiful soft touch silky matte finish. Came out great - also did the door armrests and pockets too while I was at it - no shiny 80s plastic in this car!