This is where I think I'm going to look next. Overall I found a few things that needed fixing:

1. The Left Bank intercooler coupler collapsed which is definitely my fault as I was missing the bolt there on the lower left side
2. The Left Bank exhaust cam was probably half a tooth off which I got fixed
   1. I didn't use the straight edge but relied on the lockout tool which was making up the slight gap
3. Ran another smoke test, and no leaks at all

After the above, I went through and started the car yesterday afternoon and....same exact issue. Terrible smoking, and was absolutely misfiring on the left bank, decided to let the car warm up and no change at all. Cleaned up the garage a bit, and then decided to restart the car and...it ran absolutely perfectly. No smoking at all, no rough idle at all; completely smooth.

This morning I went and started the car cold and naturally the rough idle and smoking came back, let it warm up to temp then shut it down and immediately restarted and perfect again. We'll see how it goes tomorrow, but there's definitely a theme where the car doesn't like a cold start.

 

Hey Everyone,

So far, it looks like it was indeed the Left Hand Crank Position Sensor! So far it's been running absolutely fantastic.

This week I've spent a ton of time installing the new Amp, Speakers and Head unit, While doing so, I went ahead and wrote up some documentation on how to get the Steering wheel controls working (Link). As far as the Audio setup, I used the below:

• 2x Morel Maximo Ultra 602 MKII's for the front
  • Link
• 2x Morel Maximo Coax 6 MKII's's for the rear
  • Link
• Axxess ASWC-1 for the Steering wheel controller
  • Link
• 1x Alpine S-A32F for the amplifier
  • Link

Ultimately, I decided against a double din solution for the time being and settled on the Power Acoustik CP-71WA (Link) and using the front and rear 4v RCA outs to the amplifier, and to be frank, it sounds incredible. Just a joy to be in. For the most part, I was able to get away from not doing anything destructive to the wiring outside of making a new connector for the old amplifier to speaker harness in the trunk. The new connector I made looks pretty much factory, but could not find any in stock and available adapters for the trunk 18-pin OEM connector, something like this would work instead if you can find them in stock: Link. Instead of running RCA and Amp turn on cables like I did, you can pick up an adapter (Link) to really simplify things.

Today I was able to get the fender side indicators installed, as I really think they help for general visibility and make the car look a lot better as well as a new passenger door handle cable installed. The steering column speaker looks to have broken and I plan on picking one up tomorrow to install now that I've confirmed that's the issue. Also, I had a small evap code thrown that I think I was able to get squared away and should be sorted now.

I've got to say, installing all new bushes, ball joints, wheel bearings and suspension components up front as well as in the subframe have made the car several leagues better than the 2001 silver one I have. While an absolute pain to install them, they have been by far and away worth it! The car drives utterly brilliantly and truly transformed the characteristic completely in comparison to my other XJR. That alongside the Goodrich stainless brake lines make the car feel so much better overall.

Still a number of things to do though:

1. Looks like I have a small leak at the front of both oil cooler lines
   1. Wondering if this went unnoticed and is what may have killed the original engine
2. Install a new driver side door handle cable
   1. Will likely have the driver door switch replaced as well as I know the micro switch for auto-unlocking tends to fail and it doesn't appear to be working now
3. Install a new speaker for the door chimes / turn signals
   1. Should have this done tomorrow, old speaker is already pulled and confirmed to be done tomorrow

 

Been working on a lot of paint correction / cleanup for the car, and it's looking incredible! Was able to remove the vast majority of the swirls in the paint and seal it up with a ceramic coat.

Also, was able to remove the plasti-dip on the window trim and have been removing all of the old tint from the car.

I've got a few drivability issues that I've got to sort out though. Last week the ASC light came on while on the highway and I was losing speed. Additionally, I've been receiving random stalls at very low speed. From what I can see, it may be related to a failing TPS.

You can really tell a difference on the paint correction from the left and right doors. Also, the Plasti-dip black molding and window tint had to go:


Paint correction done, front door window tint removed and plasti-dip gone!

 

Great work and great pictures! Thanks for the updates.
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This sounds interesting so it's a shame we can't see imgur pics anymore in the UK.

I can't recall why they blocked the UK, it was some law that came in & imgur said 'sod that'.