I've also discovered something I wasn't aware of. East and North of Poland it is a legal requirement to have lights on all the time and not just when it is dark. From past experience that means I either forget to switch them off when getting out of the car or switch them on when I start driving. I remembered there is a Daylight Running Light option in the BeCM so whipped out the Nanocom at one of my many fuel stops and went into it. Option are Disabled, Sidelights only or Sidelights and Dipped headlights so I went for the latter. Sure enough the headlights come on as soon as the engine is running and go off as soon as it is switched off. But it is only the headlights, no dash lights (so no green tell-tale on the dash), fog lights won't come on if you poke the button and other than flashing the lights, the dipswitch doesn't do anything so you can't put main beam on. Damn clever this BeCM thing.....

That’s similar to how my Canadian DRL works, except I can still flash the dip switch and get high beams momentarily.

What happens if the headlight switch is on? Because I could really do with the headlights turning off with the ignition. For.. erm. .reasons :)

Yes, my headlight flash works but that is only while the stalk is pulled, you can't change to main beam. If the headlight switch is on, they stay on just the same as if DRL wasn't enabled, sorry.

ah well, thanks :)

fixing the side step trim on my L320 only to find that one of the brackets has corroded fairly bad and will need replacing
old step removed cleaned and had a coat of red oxide paint
and tomorrow will be a coat of black hammerite and reattach trim on with new stainless steel rivets

MOT time has come round again. Seems like I have only just done it. Can't be a year surely?
Booked it in for late Friday afternoon, just before the mechanics clock off. Is that good or bad? Maybe they wiil rush it to finish early.
I am not aware of any issues and have been regularly using the car. I looked at last years certificate. One advisory, handbrake too high.
Not been fixed, still the same 12 months later, so I thought I had better fix it now in case they read the past history. So today I adjusted the bolt on the back of the drum as a starting point, then finally took the slack out of the cable. Handbrake is fixed but I observed a drip from the engine which was diesel from the spill back pipes. Replaced 4 of the pipes this afternoon and promptly ran out of tubing (1m of tubing in the kit !).
Will carry on this week. Stressful time.

Car passed the MOT. One advisory. Ugh. Rubber boot over a track rod end has a split in it.
Tester at least said the car was well maintained.

I have just replaced the lettering front and back lettering on the car and it looks much better. The original letters had gone a dark grey, and the difference between the old and new letters is striking. Just a bit pricey though.

Next job is to change the black upper centre console section, where the switches and clock are, for a printed ABS plastic section that I got from Charlie Nicolas. This will complete the sections from the armrest storage box, which is still black leatherette, to the top of the centre console in walnut ABS trim. It also matches the door sections and the strips across the front bulkhead from the glove box to the small piece to the right of the steering wheel.

Later that day - I am happy to say that I have fitted the new, Walnut Burr style upper centre panel. It was easy to do, and I am very happy with the look. The section that I got off Charles Nicolas was a very good condition one, but it was a Sat Nav panel with the large opening beside the clock. I was lucky enough to get a large storage box from the US, new old stock. Now the centre console section is all matched to the original Walnut patterned gear shift panel, which seems to be a wood pattern in all P38's.

I am not bothering with the speedometer/instruments binnacle because I think that it is too much having that done in walnut pattern.

Pierre3.

Good nice looking!

Me, I finally got around to change that pesky brake switch which was giving me continuous beeps and errors.
Hope later to get it out on the highway and see if the cruise control came back as well ...
Next in line refit door cards.

spent this afternoon putting exhaust manifold bolts in my L320 4.2 SC sport bloody pig of a job as not much room to get to the front bolts as they behind the alternator

Finally took delivery of my new (used) engine yesterday. Never buying anything big from a man on Facebook again! It took almost a month and a half, endless excuses and no progress at all until I asked for my money back.

Started taking off all the accessories and the exhaust manifolds. Found one of the manifold bolts suspiciously loose, barely finger tight. Turns out whoever did the recent head gasket job has stripped out the threads and didn't fix it. Now I'm doubting the quality of the rest of the work done, especially seeing the oil filter used. It's a brand I've never heard of - anyone know anything about Fujitoyo filters?

The thread on the oil cooler is also completely and absolutely mullered. I was planning on hooking it up to complete the oil circuit so I could do an oil pressure test. I guess I'm not doing that now!

Water pump pulley is wobbly too so it'll need a new one of those too. Other than, I think it looks ok on the surface. A bit dirty but cleaner than I expected.

Does this look like a new flex plate? The rear end of the engine is really clean. Worth disassembling further to replace the rear main seal or assume it's been done looking at these images? Part of me says do it anyway just to be sure but another part of me says if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Oh wow, I’d say it’s worse than doubtful. Can you get your money back by complaining to eBay? It’s too bad that people will try to sell shoddy parts that they know aren’t up to snuff.

I doubt eBay would be willing to help, I got it from a guy on a Facebook group :P

I think I'm fairly stuck with it. This guy wasn't on the list of "approved sellers" (I didn't know such a list existed until after the fact) and I didn't even use PayPal goods and services :(

I knew upfront that it has been worked on recently. He told me it had head gaskets done recently but no paperwork wit it. He did also tell me upfront that the oil cooler thread was damaged. I didn't really expect the thread to be completely gone though lol.

I think at best I might be able to work out a partial refund on it to cover the cost repairing the stripped manifold bolt. If it has low compression and low oil pressure I'll push for a full refund but I think I'll be out of luck.

Edit: just messaged the guy. He doesn't want to know. I've told him the bolt was loose and I found the thread stripped and he said "I personally believe you've stripped the thread on removal". Yay, this is going to go well if I find anything more serious wrong :(

Oh yes I see you said Facebook not eBay. The seller is certainly a shmuck! That’s all too bad.

He's just been trying to convince me that every bolt in the engine is imperial. I had to show him the Land Rover classic parts website to prove the exhaust manifold bolts on a Thor are M8 rather than 3/8 UNC. Even then he's trying to say it looks like a coarse thread rather than a standard M8. I'm amazed, there's not enough thread left in the photo to tell anything lol. Feels like he's trying hard to appear like he knows more than me to try and make me believe he's right stripping it myself on removal.

I can deal with a stripped thread, it's not the end of the world. It's a used engine and I can't expect it to be in perfect condition. I only mentioned it to him because he said to let him know if anything is broken and he'll sort it. Apparently not. Low compression/oil pressure would really be a problem though.

Lesson learned though, buy from a platform that offers you protection as a buyer and use a payment method that offers you protection!

Sorry to hear about this misadventure ... I had this happening to me on a engine that was "using a little oil" and ended up being worse than a 2stroke ... I am very wary now of buying such a complex item such as engine secondhand ...

Me progress? Well, after endless time I finally refitted the tubing for the cruise control ... it works again!
I noticed sometimes it raises and dips the engine revs, like "hunting" to stabilize the right speed. Might be normal, but I do not recall this behavior before.

I also re-sync the fob ... finally I can remote open and close the car, like every other modern car!
Unfortunately I was met with a "key battery low" message, but the lid in the fob is truly stuck! I will have to destroy and get another one .... darn

Replying to David (RutlandRover) as I've not been here for 3 days due to driving my car again (Tuesday afternoon drive to Portsmouth with a Brian James transporter trailer on the back, Portsmouth-Caen overnight ferry, drive to La Rochelle, collect a BMW 330d that had almost died while the owner was on holiday a few weeks ago, drive back to Caen, night ferry last night, dropped BMW off at the owners local garage who have quoted considerably less than the €4,000 that the BMW main dealers in La Rochelle had quoted, and back home about 3 hours ago. Turned over 468,000 miles just before getting home too).

Anyway, flex plate isn't new, for some unknown reason, LR put a mark in yellow paint on them so the fact it still has it means it hasn't ever been changed. Spark plugs look to be some dubious make (Beru?) so probably came from the same place as the dodgily named oil filter and need to be changed. Stripped exhaust manifold threads aren't uncommon, usually the rearmost one of the RH bank or front one on the LH bank as these are the ones where it is awkward to get a socket on them square. Threads may well be 3/8 UNC if the heads have been changed and heads originally from a GEMS were fitted (see my reply to your other thread in Oily Bits). Easy test is to see if a 21mm spark plug socket will fit in the hole where the plugs go. If it will, they are GEMS heads but other than the machining identical to Thor heads.

I have repaired stripped manifold threads in the past using cut down Toyota head bolts. They are M10 thread (so a stripped 3/8 UNC thread hole will take an M10 tap perfectly) but have a slimmer bolt which is about spot on to cut an M8 thread on. That way I ended up with a stud that is M10 at one end and M8 at the other. Using a stud makes putting the manifold back on easier too.

Today I've changed my exhaust system. A couple of weeks ago I went to the car, started it and realised I'd left something inside so went back for it leaving the car idling. As I came back to it thought it sounded like I had an exhaust leak. A quick check showed the outlet pipe on the middle silencer box had pulled out by about half an inch. Inside the car you couldn't hear it but figured I should do something about it. This was the Saturday before going to France on the Tuesday so figured I needed to do something a bit quick. EuroCarParts used to do a Klarius centre box but shown as out of stock in all the branches near me and while I could have had it delivered, wouldn't have got the 45% discount on their current deal so it would have been £120. So I bodged it. It seems that the brackets and mounts for the silencer boxes were pulling the whole system towards the back of the car so it was under constant tension, hence pulling the outlet pipe out of the middle silencer box. A piece of steel plate and some tekscrews to hold the two parts rigid and a big dollop of GunGum to seal it. Didn't expect it to last long but at least it wouldn't get any worse.

Ordered a silencer box, expecting it to arrive while I was away, then started thinking about the rest of it. The rest of the system didn't look too bad but wouldn't last forever. Getting 50-75k miles out of an aftermarket exhaust at around £250 isn't that bad for most people but that's only 2 or 3 years for me. What I really needed was a stainless system that I could fit and forget. eBay showed a few well dodgy looking secondhand ones and new systems at £600+ were a bit pricey. Plus all of them seemed to come with the big horizontal pipes which I think look ridiculous, although not a ridiculous as the quad pipe outlets (it's a Range Rover, not a bloody Ferrari!). Then I found this https://www.gravityperformance.co.uk/product/exhaust/cat-back-exhaust-system-range-rover-p38-mk2-v8-td-94-02/. Discrete tailpipes just like the original, lifetime warranty and the price includes VAT and shipping. It also doesn't have the Tee connection where the pipe splits to the two sides that I've always thought can't do anything for gasflow. So I ordered one and have been out there fitting it today.

I suspect my aftermarket downpipes and Y piece section is about half an inch shorter that it should be as the centre box was under tension until I adjusted the brackets with a club hammer. However, that then meant that the connection at the back of the centre box was still slightly too far forward but it all went on reasonably smoothly. I may slice the inlet pipe to the centre box and put a sleeve joint in it to make up the extra half inch. that way there will be no tension in the system at all. Being in 3 pieces the shiny stainless bit was easier to fit than normal where it comes in two parts. It also means that the two pipes can be set at the same height. The very heavy duty clips that came with the system are only just small enough to clamp the pipes together securely but a smear of exhaust assembly paste before bolting them up, means the joins are gas tight. So for the final test, what does it sound like? At idle it has a bit more of a burble to it, driving it and there is no drone which I was dreading (and would have caused me to be offering it for sale to anyone that wanted it) but it does sound a bit louder when floored in Sport so I'm happy. It'll look standard once I get it a bit dirty too but at the moment there's just two shiny tailpipes showing.

Well done! Was this a twin to start with? These seem to have fitted up nicely.