Trying to get my bearings!

This engine parts replacement business is taking more time than I thought A couple of problems I created myself so I'm actually to blame for most of the delays. New water pump and thermostat arrived and were duly put in place, something else to tick off. Sump gasket, inlet and exhaust gaskets arrived from BMW as well as new big end bearings so I could get on with the next stage.   

Water pump and thermostat in place.

I've put off doing anything with the bearings because the ARP bolts I ordered took longer to be delivered than expected. They arrived today BUT are the wrong ones! Will have to order them all over again! But anyway I decided to check the crankshaft as well as check the clearance of the new bearings.

New standard bearings for my M44 engine. The two on the top are old, showing slight wear. 

New torque wrenches, wrong ARP bolts, plastigauge.

Sump removed,  con rods 2 and 3 sticking up ready for bearing checks.I marked each con rod and bolt so as not to get them mixed up.

A small amount of Plastigauge placed across the face of the crankshaft ... 

 ... before bolting on the bearing and bearing cover and torquing to 20Nm and 70 degrees

Dave mentioned the tolerance for the M44 big-end bearings (conrod) is between 0,02 - 0,055mm. Mine, at least nr. 3 as you can see is 0,025 which is very little wear. I hope the other 3 are just as good.  

I'll clean this off with some WD40.

While waiting for the parts I continued to clean up the wiring. I intend to shorten the spark plug feed and ODB II connector as well as many others.

Unnecessarily long cables. I'll cut and splice them.

I'll continue with other parts of the car until the new ARP bolts arrive. I hope they don't take too long!