Yes you can, the tube to unhook is at the bottom of the car right behind the front bumper (I'd recommend taking the front bumper off for easier access to DP support bolts). Bentley manual has a clear pic and pelican parts does too.

There will be a lot of coolant that spills out when you remove the oil filter housing as well. I don't think I drained all of it either, because when I refilled the tank, I ended up getting about 1.25 gallons back in to the system when it should have been around 2 for a full refill. Also, use a 50/50 mix of OEM MINI coolant and distilled water.

 

You can drain the coolant from the bottom hose, near the radiator , if you want to change which I would do anyway to keep out the cross oil/ coolant contamination when your take the housing off anyway.

 

haha, think I just found it! Thanks! So tonight I'm going to try and get the downpipe off and get the coolant dumped. Heat shield and top o2 se
sensor only took me about an hour due to strategic measures. haha

 

Ok, you are welcome.

 

Okay, getting ready to go back and work on it some more. So my question is, since I'm also doing the filter housing gasket... Can I still work without being in front end service? Looks like I take the turbo off completely for the gasket so I wanted to make sure it's doable. Trying to figure out how to get the down pipe next ��

 

I didn't put the car in service mode, the toughest thing is getting to all the heat shield bolts. No need to remove the turbo, just the heat shields and down pipe. The oil filter housing is accessable from underneath.

Mike

 

someone have a mechanical or something for where all of the heat shield bolts are? I have the top one off, but the bottom one... can only find 2 bolts so far, and thats the one that wraps around the dp

 

have 3/4 out from the lower shield but can't find the top one on drivers side

 

it should be the same location on both sides of the bottom heatshield. Like this except with space between the X's where the heatshield wraps around the DP if you look from the front of the car towards the back
| |
x x
| |
| |
| |
x x
| |

 

yeah I can feel it but...... how do you guys get it without a mirror? (picking one up tomorrow) seems like it has to be moved anyway to pry the turbo inlet off of the studs

 

i had a 1/4 inch drive wrench with a 2 inch extension and that was barely enough to reach it.

 

from the bottom I guess? anyone else seen to have to bend the pipe a bit to get the inlet off of the 3 studs?

 

No, i rocked the DP off the studs after unbolted.

 

The loosen the nuts holding the DP lower brackets to the engine block. The brackets will then move allowing a lot more play to remove the DP.

 

ohhhhh. yeah, I just removed the clamp at the cat, the 2 bolts that hold it to
the support and the 3 ontop at the turbo. So loosen the actual support itself.. gotcha!

 

boom, shield and dp removed!

 

Nice!

 

Watch you fingers , glad it came off.

 

So i'm going to start putting everything back together tonight... only thing i cant seem to get off is the oil cooler to get to replace those seals. I took off the 3 bolts from the bottom which secure it but it's not popping loose. Nothing else is keeping this sucker in there is there? Might just need to use a flat head at the seam and a black of wood to try and crack it loose.

 

Do you mean the oil cooler that's attached on top of the oil filter housing or the whole housing + cooler assembly? There are 4 bolts for the housing + cooler assembly. I had to wiggle it a lot and just push it around before it finally broke loose and spilled coolant all over the floor.

 

I already took off the cooler with the heat sink... (these seals werent in the detroit tuned kit so... guess i'll just clean them up and leave them) it's the actual filter housing that needs to come off now to get to the seals that ARE in the kit. So maybe theres just a 4th bolt i cant find then

 

4 bolts,. Here is the digram.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=11_3930


The old gaskets tend to stick to the oil filter housing with age, so you might need to take a flat head screw driver and pop it out of the recessed gap.

 

Okay, next up is the reassemble. new oil line and heat shiels. can you guys verify I have those hoses put back to the right spots? haha

 

thumbs up? ��

 

Looks good.

Guide diagram.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=11_3946