1998 318ti mtech

[Samsdad]

driving home yesterday and about a mile from my house the engine temp went into the red and when i got home i noticed the hose disconnected from the fitting behind the head. First can i remove the tray like device from below the windshield and centered on the firewall so i can access this area better? secondly being i was in the red for a very short pampered drive did i blow my head gasket even though no white smoke and nothing in the oil? How can i check for a bad head gasket?

[spidertri]

Yes, you can remove that tray. It gives a lot more room to get back there. You can also remove the battery/battery box/plug wires and get some good access from that side as well. You'll pretty much have to swap that connector out by feel.

Edit - For the tray, you remove the small grate and there are two screws holding the wiring harness box to the tray. Remove those and let the harness move around. There are then two or three small bolts holding the tray to the firewall at the top edges. Remove those and then you can pull the tray up while twisting it to get it out. There should also be a thin piece of plastic between the tray and firewall that covers the cabin filters, take that out with the tray.

CirrusSR22 has a great writeup of the whole cooling system rebuild. You might want to consider doing everything if that connector failed.
http://www.318ti.org/forum/showthread.php?t=18066

Driving in the red for even a couple minutes can weaken the headgasket/warp the head. You can rent compression/leak down testers to check the motor.

[Samsdad]

Thanks for the quick reply. Does that hose connect to the plastic connector famous for breaking?

[spidertri]

Yeah, the only coolant object at the back of the head is that famous connector which has two hoses coming off of it.

[Samsdad]

Yes and it was the larger one... And the plastic piece is broke... More fun for me.

Thanks again. Will post more later.