trap door on the underbelly stiffener plate ?

[tmaxx445]

Originally Posted by wpoll

And it's 100% NOT the oil drain on mine - oil drain is the rear hatch and the front one is for access to the plate securing nut.



It depends on which engine you have...

It seems pretty clear that BMW designed a plate that could be used on both I6 and V8 E53 and allow access to the oil drain bolts on both. Hence the two hatches. The one closer to the front is used to drain V8s and the one rearward is used to drain I6 cars.

Now when it comes to the HP E53s (4.6is and 4.8is) since they are both V8s it appears BMW designed a specific plate for them that allows air flow to be directed at the transmission. This provides additional cooling at speed since they didn’t need the second access point that is used to drain the oil on the I6 variants.


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[wpoll]

Makes sense...

[crystalworks]

To further complicate matters... I looked into this once wanting to change my stiffening plate to the lighter aluminum one vs the heavy steel one I have on my 4.8is. There are different plates among the 4.6is, 4.4i, AND the 4.8is. Each has a different one. So, my steel plate is still on the truck.