[Spenny_b]

I've got the bumper off, well worth spending less than an hour to get it removed, access is an order of magnetude easier.

It's also been a good exercise to perform an inspection of the components. A couple of points I've picked up...

1) Despite adding the various heat control measures, like the gold foil and Nimbus sheet metal shields, there's obviously significant heat travelling upwards...the rubber lined P-clips that hold the Lambda sensor harness in place on the top side of the engine tinware, are shot - the rubber completely burnt and crumbled.

2) At the time, it looked like a good idea to retain the Lambda harness in place; saves it getting caught, or dropping somewhere where it shouldn't. In retrospect, this makes it completely unserviceable should the Lambda fail. It's a bumper-off job to change it - that's no good, so I'll re-route it in a simpler way before reassembling everything.

3) I found a loose bolt on the silencer hanging bracket - needs split washers under the heads.

4) A few of the bumper fastener screws, that engage into the speed fasteners, have vibrated a little looser than I'd want. I'll fit new speed fasteners, clearly the original ones have lost their strength to hold tension against the screw.

5) Have now found an ideal route to thread the oil:air separator tank drain hose. It will now run down under the AC pump, where there's a spare rubber grommet in the tinware. From there, I can fasten it to one of the major engein oil lines, right up to the -8AN fitting that the turbo oil feeds into the drip tank. Perfect.

6) I may replace a lot of the thermal sleeving I've used on the various hoses that run near to the turbo and the silencer. I used the aluminised cloth sewn sleeves, but the extremes of heat have destroyed the reflective aluminium already. The material itself it holding up fine, if a little scruffy. Perhaps it's time to switch these sleeves for the orange silicon type. Doesn't look as nice, IMO, but it's about function not form.

I have to say that upon inspecting the components at the rear end, I'm stunned just how much heat has clearly been generated; lots of evidence of it, and I've only done 450 miles in total! In fairness, there's been an unnatural amount of idling whilst we've been tweaking the maps, so lots of static hot air, but even so...

Right, the night shift is about to start, no rest for the wicked.