I just gotta stop stressing and put it back together. Heh

Take your time. There are a million bolts. I also stressed about the order of operations. Ended up still making mistakes and had to remove the oil cooler lines once or twice because I reinstalled them too early in the process.

I'm gonna do the oil/water exchanger too. Can't much about it in the WIS but it looks like 4 bolts off swap gasket and 4 bolts back in.

Don't forget the gasket from the oil filter housing to timing cover.

Yep , I have that gasket too. I haven't disassembled any of that yet. Mine is not showing any signs of leakage.

Mine wasn't either. I gave myself a ton of extra work for just a thermostat issue but I think it was all worth doing.

Okay....my drama....my top is off, was it ingested or redesigned in?

The new unit (on the right) has a steel "hat" on it. Is this a redesign part or do I need to figure out where on earth that part is (as in, inside the water pump)????





The $20 "while you are there" cap...yeah, I needed it.

I only ordered 2 of the green o-rings and I'm guessing I need 4 for the 2 lines next to the filter housing.

The oil cooler lines on top? One O-ring per line.

Oh , I got lucky then. Off it comes.

Here's My new one. 278 200 06 15

Some shots I dug up from the job.




I replaced my WP though so I wasn't worried about leaving parts behind.

Thank You @kevm14 - clears it up 100% for me!

OK I 'm putting everything on hold and ordering the oil thermostat plug.

What cap?

This is my before and after. To remove it I simply used an awl to press in the tabs, used a thick screw driver to push the cap inwards and a flat head to rotate it. The spring does have quite the pressure on it. Replacing it was a bit tedious, but, easy enough.



After

Before

Thanks for the info. Thats the plug I ordered.

Replacing the oil cooler thermostat cap will save a ton of money as the dealership just replaces the whole assembly.

Well update,,, even after maintenance done like clockwork at the dealer 67 pages worth and added friction modifier ,Still scoring in hole 5 @108,000 miles , such a bummer as I just inherited the car in October .

Any symptoms? Misfire, oil consumption, funny noises?

Compression #'s ?

Had a miss fire on # 6 scanner said Coil , so swapped 6 and 7 and drive for a week and the miss fire did not show up again .After reviewing maintenance records the coils are original @ 108,000 and plugs changed 30k ago . So I replaced all coils and plugs , (plugs looked pretty good ) . That's when I stopped the holes some hole look great # 5 scored and a couple other back with carbon . No compression test may scanner will but the car wont allow it . The car still has appears to have tons of power . There is a slow response on the throttle. I got a new little check valve for the vacuum line at the rear of the motor ,but the vale I got I can blow through both ends ,I thought they were one way ? Crazy how my old 83 E28 still fires and runs lolol not quite the luxury though .

Oil changes were definitely over 5k and up to 9k after reviewing records .

Not sure if you’ve looked into it yet or not, but you can get decent cylinder compression and leakdown test equipment kits on Amazon. Also, while scoring isn’t great news…you may still get plenty of life out of that engine. Plus, there are plenty of us here working through the issues with this series too

OK , back after it. 1 week delay due to sick relative in another state.

How did You Guys get the bottom long bolt off the oil filter housing out? Mine hits the metal turbo lines and I don't want to bend or damage them.