First I went and picked up some rhino ramps the 12000 series. the 8000 was too narrow for my 225 and 255 18 inch rims.
I ordered the filter and the replacement hoses from autohauze or somethign in arizona. tbey sent in the parts from san fran so it wasn't as long as I was expecting.
the job was a pain.
FIrst you have to lift the car up(i used ramps).
I opened my fuel cap to release some pressure.
put cardboard on the cement and slide under.
removed the shield, then remove the vacuum hose, and the clamps.
slowly twist the hoses off. the one towards the back will pop with a little gas coming. Although I had my safety glasses on, i got some gas in my eye.

about 10 ounces came out. it had some black stuff in it. I think it was a good idea to remove the filter although bmw thinks it is lifetime... whatever.
after i cut the new hose to size, i put the new filter in place and bolted everything up.
When I started the car up, it sounded horriblef or about 3 minutes as there is air in the line so the engine stumbled abit. not a big deal...
what to do with the fuel collected?
I used it in my lawn mower.
take some coffee filter and stuff it into the fuel filler hole in your lawn mower, then pure the gas into that filter. it will remove the black stuff. and your mower is fine. I used the mower afterwords to mow the lawn. it actually sounded like it like the gas better than what was in there before... so maybe I'll start running the lawn mower on 91 octane 
Car seems fine. maybe it's in my head but it seems atad more responsive now on the throttle.
This filter does contain a fuel regulator as well. so who knows... it's a simple enough diy I recommend if you got 90000 miles on your car to change it out.
gas