[kaboom28]

I'm not understanding why you didn't remove the fuel rail and disconnect the fuel line before you removed the intake manifold. IMHO, you've made your life much more difficult when you did that. If you're worried about putting the last nut back (in your other thread), remove the fuel rail so you have access. Problem solved.

Stick a shop vac with a crevice tool into the intake runners on the block side when you reinstall the intake manifold just in case something fell in.
I think 10 posts ago it was recommended that you change the upper and lower o-rings to the injectors. If you decide to do that, my personal preference is the label the injectors so they go back in the same sequence or better yet, do them one-at-a-time so they don't get mixed up. Having said that, I'm sure others will say it doesn't matter where they go back in
I tried P21 per MrMCar's recommendation to clean the engine. Holy crap I was impressed.
Don't forget the missing vacuum hose to your vacuum canister. It goes from the canister to a port on your firewall. 3.5mm ID vacuum hose.

 

[kaboom28]

Not saying my way is right, but I never pull the fuel rail out when I remove an intake... I simply unplug (carefully) the electrical harness that plugs into each injector, and disconnect the fuel hose that connects to the fuel rail.

100% agree that there is not one single way to this . Each person does things differently.

For me, the only reason I would ever remove the intake manifold is to replace the hard coolant pipes or the starter. Both of these should only be done once (other than the factory) unless you get to 400k+ miles or more. Therefore, I always replace all rubber parts including o-rings. Since I always replace the injector o-rings, I always remove the fuel rail.

 

[kaboom28]

I didn't remove the fuel rail to save time and not to mess with the injectors. I was following the ShopLife video. I may have to take the fuel rail off because of that last nut on the intake manifold.

Good idea to shop vac the intake runners before reinstalling.

I wasn't planning on changing the o-rings on the injectors since I wasn't taking them out but now I may have to.
Is this a good kit with Using Viton Fluoropolymer O-rings? $16.99 with Two Day Prime Shipping

Or should I just get the ones at FCP Euro?
$10.14 for 6 BMW Fuel Injector O-Ring (9.2 x 2.8mm) - Elring 13641437486
$5.36 for 6 Audi BMW Mini Porsche Fuel Injector O-Ring - Elring 893.889

Never heard of P21. Is the one you got?
$26.29 P21S 13001R Auto Wash Refill, 1000 ml

What missing vacuum hose to the vacuum canister? Do you have a picture or diagram?

I bought my injector o-rings from FCP Euro. I know nothing about the ones you linked from Amazon. It's really up to you to decide what you want to do.

Yes, that's the P21 that I bought. Worked well for me. You can of course use any of the 1000's of engine degreaser that you can buy and I'm sure they would work just fine.

This is the vacuum canister that I was referring to. Note the vacuum hose that's broken off on the left side of the picture? This vacuum canister takes vacuum from the back of the intake manifold and sends it to a connection on the firewall that is to the left and maybe 10 inches down from the brake booster. This vacuum is used to open/close the exhaust flap. You may of course simply not use this and plug the vacuum connection on the back of the intake manifold.

 

[kaboom28]

It looks like there is a hose from the back of the intake manifold that goes to that vacuum canister. It may have come off when I took off the manifold because I don't remember disconnecting it. It almost looks like it may have broke the tip of the canister when I took it off. I plan on replacing all of my vacuum hoses today so should I get a cap for vacuum reservoir/cannister and the back of the intake manifold?

$3.49 BMW Vacuum Cap - Genuine BMW 11611437560

Your vacuum canister tip did not break, the vacuum hose simply crumpled due to age.

If you're going to basically "delete" the exhaust flap, then you need to plug the vacuum port on the back of the intake manifold. You already purchased a mixed packaged of vacuum plugs based on your other posts, just use one of those that fits.

 

[kaboom28]

I realized that once I started taking off the hoses on the intake manifold and they just crumbled.

I didn't purchase a mixed bag of vacuum hoses...just the big one for the back. Now I have to order a couple of this 3.5 mm caps, fuel injector o-rings and some extra intake manifold nuts in case I lose one. Anything else?

This is what it looks like so far. The secondary air vacuum hose hard line broke so I'm just going to use a silicone hose all the way from the back to the cannister. The hoses were falling apart. :-(

Don't confuse vacuum hoses with caps . If you go back to some of your old posts, there was a recommendation that you should get a mix package of vacuum caps. Something like this you can get at your local auto parts store. For example:

https://www.oreillyauto.com/shop/b/hardware---fasteners/vacuum-caps---connectors/vacuum-caps/54514302ba88?q=vacuum+caps

Amazon.com : vacuum caps

Some have epoxied the vacuum port shut completely at the back of the intake manifold. Personally I would never do that, but it's your choice. You can't un-epoxy something easily

 

[kaboom28]

I missed where they said to get a mixed bag of caps. :-(

So cap the line behind the manifold (where I have the blue silicone hose) and the cannister under the intake? Benefit is less vacuum leaks. Any cons?

If you cap the intake manifold port that goes to the vacuum canister, your exhaust flap (in the muffler) would stop working. Some folks prefer that since they get a slightly louder exhaust sound at idle and lower RPM's. In doing so, you would avoid potential vacuum leak between the canister and the muffler.

Side note - I always wondered if that vacuum canister has a one-way valve built in ....? Any reader knows if that's the case?

 

[kaboom28]

I will take another crack at it in the morning. I thought I was being so careful, only to wind up in this mess. The funniest part is that this all started trying to replace the purge valve.
Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Sorry to hear about your mishap :-(. Did you drop them in "A" or "B"?

 

[kaboom28]

Unfortunately in B

Have you consider pulling the thermostat housing and peek in there? I wonder if a flexible wand with a magnet at the end can get through from the thermostat housing opening to where "B" is. See my crude drawing with a black line below.

 

[kaboom28]

I found this picture of what the coolant channels look like behind the thermostat. There's a channel to the left, one to the right (red arrow) and one downward. They are in agreement with the picture Effduration posted above in post #90. From the looks of it, the channel to the right goes to one of the hard coolant pipes where you lost the screw and washers (labelled "B" above). What I would do is use a magnet on a flexible goose neck and probe from the thermostat housing right channel since there's more room to maneuver.

Picture captured from this:

 

[kaboom28]

Better picture from another YouTube video:

 

[kaboom28]

When I replaced my hard coolant pipes, the ends were already broken off and remained in the bores. I used a soldering iron with a "cut off" attachment and sliced through the plastic parts the long way, including the o-rings that were left behind. After slicing the plastic parts into many smaller pieces, it was then very easy to remove them. Doing it this way did not damage any of the aluminum. Once the plastic parts were removed, I used very fine wet-dry sandpaper glued to a long socket of the appropriate size and sanded the bore smooth. I dunked the wet-dry sandpaper in water frequently for lubrication. The bores came out smooth like a baby's bottom. Since I used 500, 1000, then 2000 grit sandpaper, I did not remove much, if any aluminum from the bores.