What a treat to work on the cooling system. The manual tranny E46 has no engine-driven fan and the dreaded fan-clutch. I had no idea. You basically snap out the electric fan and you have a ton of space to all your work. Piece of cake.
If I didn't need to take care the needs of an almost 5-yr-old, I sure I could have done the Thermostat in 25 minutes.
That took me like 2 hours on the E36 first time I needed to figure out how to remove that awful fan and ripped my knuckles to shreds.