Wow. I live adjoining a National Park. I had a deer jump off a berm and over the hood of my Mini at night. Another night one shot across the road in front of my WRX. Those were close enough for me.

Re: Moose, a co-worker's son was killed when he hit one in the snow at night. It came right through the windshield of his Camaro. The guy behind him said he'd never even hit the brakes. State Patrol (AK) said with the snow stuck on their lower quarters and their backs blending into the night, they can be darned near invisible. (shudder).

Peter/elpez-

"Were any animals hurt while filming this movie"

BIG AL (try taking on a MOOSE)

I've hit a possum,a racoon, and parts of a deer with mine, at least body parts don't get caught in the engine compartment.  Has a nice cut out for the oil to drain.  Installed with  spacers for clearance, used old poly bushings.

@ Se7en, Uh, yeah. Think how good it will look ON the car! It'll probably work better that way, too. 

And it looks darned good on my workbench after I bought it from you post-VTEC transplant.  With all this banter, maybe I need to fit it!

After seeing Jim Sperry's trans case post impact, I was glad I had a sump guard. I cut a notch in it to allow the oil to drain straight out/down.

Me? I'm partial to the original factory sump guard. You could run into a circus tent stake and not damage the sump. I've never even bothered to install the "sled" attached to the bottom of the transmission case.
Nothing in the way for an oil change* and the sump guard multi-tasks as an excellent tie down point.
It's a tough part to find. Shame nobody fabricates the things now....

*-Well, nothing is in the way on the bottom of the car... But, changing the oil filter on a Moke without a removable grill is gonna make a mess....

Once upon a time some thirty years ago I was driving around in the middle of the night.  I flipped a u-turn in the middle of an intersection and hit a metal board put down by the city of LA to cover a hole they dug in the road.  Stopped me dead in my tracks and left a nice hole in my tranny.  Granted the car had been lowered according to vizard...a little.  Anyway I have never driven without one since.  ...and the scrapes and dings speak for themselves how it has saved me over the years.  It was all painted when I put it on there.

All went well - got the sockety in there and just removed 2 sump bolts - it came down just lighly and worked perfectly.  Of course all the oil now likes to travel down the sides of the sump - lovely.

Myself, I don't like sump guards. I don't do much off roading and I'm always looking for man hole covers and bricks in the road. If you take it off, remove enough material to allow easy oil draining. These things should not be a PIA.

CTR

Turn or grind the socket down to get the clearence you need.

The socket doesn't need to be superstrong provided the sump plug isn't stupidly tight.

Just use some spacers or washers between the front edge mounting points of the sumpguard and the sub frame and that should give you enough clearance.

Welcome to the world of Mini ownership.
Where even the simplest of tasks has you disassembling half the car to get at it.
You will learn to enjy the phrase; "First disconnect the battery. Then, refer to chapter 2 and remove the radiator...."

Thanks guys - looks like I will need to remove the sump guard for each oil change now as the thickness of the socket just will not get in there due to the heavu gauge steel.  It is a crappy design and I wonder if I can adjust it out a bit.

15/16" is correct. But a deep socket isn't necessary.  A standard socket and a short extension (or even a swivel may be long enough) should work as well if you have both of those already.

Yes, it's 15/16 for the standard Mini sump plug.
(But is 13/16 for the extended magnet plug often used with a centre oil pickup pipe).

I have a sump guard that is interfering with met getting to the drain plug and need to buy a deeper sockett.  Does anyone know what the SAE size is for the drain plug?  Maybe 15/16?