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Yesterday morning I completed the install of the airbox. First up I took the wiring loom and laid it out in the engine bay to work out the best way to route everything (note the red ties temporarily holding it in place). Once I'd done that I then temporarily installed the TB half of the airbox to get the position and orientation of the IAT sensor just right. I made sure to mark on the loom the orientation of the loom to the connector so that it sat just right. Then I uninstalled the airbox, removed the loom and attached the connectors for the MAP sensor and IAT. The finished loom I then installed the loom for real, cable tying at appropriate points: And here's how the MAF connector end looks: With that done the only wiring left to do was to relocate Pin 1 of the X6003 connector to Pin 18 which was a quick job: Then it was back in with the first half of the airbox for reals this time. All of the hoses and connectors fitted perfectly - I didn't run into any of the issues heinzboehmer did - maybe Karbonius have refined since? The only annoying thing was installing the 10mm nut for the rear vibration isolator - there's not much room to get in there. I clamped up the throttle body boots and moved on to installing the MAP sensor. I'm super happy with how the MAP sensor adapter has turned out - it's worked out exactly how I envisioned it would (I've got more to say about this which I'll do as a separate post). Filter in place: Various top-side connections done: Then it was a quick job to install the front half of the airbox and the snorkel: And finally with the rest of the engine bay back together (you'll have to excuse the dirty car - I'm in the middle of significant landscaping and renovations at the moment at home and it simply isn't worth me spending much time cleaning anything up as the clay dust gets everywhere: Then in the evening I flashed the Terra 0401 program binary to the car (after taking read backups of the current prog and tune) and then the partial binary with what I'm calling the "base modifications" to make the 0401 work with non-CSL cams, code out the DTC for the flap, etc. This morning I started the car briefly to confirm it would start and there were no major issues. A bit later today Dad is coming round to (a) come along for the first test drive and (b) hold the data-logging laptop while I drive. The plan is to take it for a run on the "base modifications" binary, log and make sure things are working as they should be and for me to get a feel for what the base CSL tune is like (my exceptions are for it to be rubbish like everyone says). Then I'll flash V1 of my tune and do the same thing and cross my fingers that it's an improvement. We'll find out 🙂

An 8HP is an awesome trans and I have driven, and owned a few cars that have it. However, it's quite a bit more expensive to buy, and there is no simple "how to" guide to fit it. I dont know if I will need new driveshaft, what trans mounts will work and the fact the Cantcu controller is $2k. The 6HP is a simple bolt-up and the DME talks to the TCU with no programming needed.

HPR 5 half price at SCA, finally. https://www.supercheapauto.co.nz/p/penrite-penrite-hpr-5-engine-oil---5w-40-5-litre/14911.html?cgid=SCN8006450

... and in a similar fashion, this one here : https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/volkswagen/auction-5073349607.htm

From the era when VW were briefly not sensible (the bork potential I’m sure is heroic). A car for @Kees maybe? same KW as a 335d but 750 NM of torque

I am looking to swap the GM 6L45 in my 130i for a ZF6HP. Some of you may wonder whey swap an auto for an auto, but bear with me I do have what I think are solid reasons. Firstly and probably the big one for me, is the GM6L45 is an average box. It's not that smooth, especially when being pushed. It clunks up and down and does have a habit of chopping down when its not needed or holding on when it should drop down. I find it a bit of a guessing game. It does work ok when you use the paddle shifters. My 6l45 has had a service ad works as it should. In comparison the ZF box's I have had are noticeably smoother. The y have a much more refined converter lock/unlock and shifts are smoother. It also seems to be a lot smarter about when it shifts up and down. Finally it can be made very sharp with an XHP flash tune. Having had 6HP boxes in a few cars now and have always been impressed. The question of why not manual convert is a simple one, at best its a 5k job and could easily be 7k plus. One the other hand the ZF swap is a 1 to 1.5k job. Also my wife drives the car in Wellington traffic and is not interested in having a manual. I can get my manual fix driving the E34. Getting the right ZF box is the key and there are a few small parts needed. I am pretty sure I can do it myself (using a lift), and again if the right box is used, no reprogmaing of the TCU or DME is required. I am still gathering information but this article from XHP covers it. I am in the market for a ZF 6HP19/21. https://www.xautomotive.com/blogs/news/from-gm-to-zf-6hp

it's okay mate, heel-and-toe double de-clutch downshifts with blips when I'm pedalling a manual 😁

yep, the ZF6HP is an excellent box, and given it appears to be a relatively simple swap, indeed why wouldn't ya? The ZF8HP is astonishing at its smoothness and intelligence; I can't vouch for more or lesser longevity or reliability of 6HP vs 8HP. I agree with what you're saying John, there's a big difference between swapping in a trans that the car is engineered for, and customising an entirely different trans swap. I'm in the same camp - I certainly love the manual driving experience, a conversion would not get a look in with anything my wife drove even infrequently. I drove manual in Mexico City for ~2.5 years, if I was doing that again it'd be auto all the way. Modern autos are bloody brilliant.

Following @Eagle's lead, I finally got around to hooking up an additional air inlet from the brake duct to the bottom of the air intake box to emulate the full Dinan kit. I wasn't going to bother until Eagle pioneered it, doing some excellent investigative work to discover that the elbows used by Dinan were awfully similar to the ones used on the E39 to connect the airbox to the duct in the chassis leg (part number 13711437886) and matched it up with a suitable hose. I got my hands on a pair of those elbows, a meter of hose, a spare air box, a 57mm hole saw and went to town. The clearance is really tight and with the airbox installed, the elbow ends up kinked. Once you hook up the hose it straightens up but ends up moving the kink further up into the airbox end. Fiddled around with it as much as I could, even ended up getting a spare airbox and drilling a new hole as much towards the edge as possible but didn't manage to get it perfectly straight - the room just isn't there. Not ideal but will still feed air through so very much an improvement. Might benefit from a slightly more flexible hose to help straighten out the kink at the airbox end, will do for now but keen to play around with it a bit if I find something suitable. The Dinan box also comes with a gasket of sorts to seal up the airbox lid better. I filled the groove with some adhesive backed foam to emulate that to finish up. No real way of telling how much of a difference it makes but definitely doesn't hurt. Combined with the ram intake scoop I'm pretty happy with the intake side of things now, near enough maxed out on any gains there were to be had short of any invasive mods. Swapped out for the new spark plugs having gone through the tank that I put some injector cleaner into. Stuck an endoscope down cylinder 2 - still looking slightly gunky but does look to have cleaned out somewhat, no more obvious big chunks in sight so not nearly as bad as first feared. Tried out some NPD100 and clocked up some 50km along back roads with some harder pulls. Can't say it's night and day difference as others have experienced, will need to do some more longer drives to know for sure as there were still remnants of the previous fuel in the tank. There seems to be some sort of weird resonance/vibration when accelerating hard, I'm wondering if it might be due to the headers not being perfectly balanced and the difference in back pressures since they're far from equal length. Or might just be shitty road surface. Neither the intake, the new spark plugs or the different fuel have made much of a difference to the LTFT's though with both banks firmly stuck on -7.8%. Haven't cleared adaptations yet but figured 50km would have been enough for the DME to fully adjust. Don't know what else there is left to try and rectify it, guess it just is what it is. At least it's not running lean.

Absolutely! It is on my list - V10 TDI specifically. Still have my manual W8 and love it dearly. I should do a little fleet update at some point.... things have got a little out of control if I'm honest 🤣

Yes getting the right box is the key. My research, including a good chat with the local transmission guy, painted a decent picture on ZF6 reliability. He really doesn't like the 6L45.

Biggest issue for me would be the used auto box gamble. You'd probably do a service, mechatronic seals etc and probably a few drain and fills so that's another $700-800 on top. Then you kinda have to hope the rest is ok because they do have quite a few potential faults that can occur. Getting one from a damaged working car or something the you can at least test drive, check adaption values and fluid condition would be good, or even having it inspected\rebuilt.