I want to remove my oil cooler lines and have new ones made. I need to be able to drive the car while the hoses are out. Can I just plug the fittings on the oil filter block or do I have to make a bypass loop?
I know that over the years there is a difference in the number of passages for the oil filter housing at the block. Does a regular (late) M30 housing have the same number of passages as the oil-cooler housing?
All the downwards-pointing ones should work fine. The issue you're thinking of is the fact that the E32/34 filter housing that has the upward-pointing filter uses an extra hole in the block; this hole is where the oil drains out of the housing when the center bolt is removed from the canister (that's what that tiny o-ring is for), and if the block hole isn't plugged, you'll have a massive pressure leak internally. Unless your block has this hole for some reason, you should have no problem; you should just have the input and output holes.
