Best N54 Billet Aluminum Oil Filter Housing Cap?
- Thread starter N54rsenal
- Start date
so the fitment on cage and pressure release system make me want to NOT use this cap and cage 
Anyone wanna buy a polished cap n cage ?
Anyone wanna buy a polished cap n cage ?
Some more pics of the travel on the aluminum cage. Where is the oil supposed to bleed off from ??? The factory plastic cage CLEARLY flows from the center once the plunger is open and travel is about 1/2". Aluminum has 1/8" travel (see pics especially the ones that show the "teeth" on the bottom pics) and nowhere for oil to flow ???
Well, it sounds like the reason for the height difference is resolved. The pressure valve portion is interesting. My guess, without seeing the inside portion of the cage, is that the oil goes through the center of the cap side and then flows out around the ID of the cage, teeth area, when the valve is opened. Given the diameter differences on the cap side, I doubt the aluminum one would be capable of flowing the same rate as the plastic one, but who knows if the system requires the volume or if the plastic was sized bigger than needed and to the closest commercially available size for cost purposes...
Correct. But oil flow just isnt there on the aluminum cage. You would have to see the plastic and aluminum to fully understand. I know I wont be using this unit though for that reason. I can fix the tab issue, but I dont like the pressure relief set up as it really doesnt have one.
1. the pressure relief on the aluminum one is insanely resistant to pressure unlike the plastic version.
2. the gripping tabs of the aluminum one is obstructed from seating all the way down due to the overlapping top part of the two part core cage. At the base of that core cage, you will see a separating line where the base meets up with the rest of the core cage itself. That line shows the top part of the cage is slightly larger diameter that the lower part of the base, thus the super hard metal tabs jam into the edges and cannot go past it to let the core seat all the way.
You can see this because if you insert the cage at an angle, you will be able to seat the lower angled side all the way to the bottom of the cap, while the other side of the cage is obstructed by the tabs hitting the meeting edge and it will not allow passthrough... you might have to bend the tabs open a little to get it to slide through, but those tabs do not seem to be bend friendly.
Correct, this is why I am not going to use this unit and will not recommend it to anyone
Edit: the tabs are 100% to blame. Shaved them down and installed the plastic cage so I can have peace of mind on a solid cap AND proper pressure relief.
I still dont recommend pnp on this unit. Im sure it will be OK until you actually NEED to release pressure......then it will be a different story.
Shaved the pointy part of the tab, but still kept the lip that holds the cage.
Now it sits as factory unit.
Hope this may help someone out in the future.
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Correct, this is why I am not going to use this unit and will not recommend it to anyone
Edit: the tabs are 100% to blame. Shaved them down and installed the plastic cage so I can have peace of mind on a solid cap AND proper pressure relief.
I still dont recommend pnp on this unit. Im sure it will be OK until you actually NEED to release pressure......then it will be a different story.
Shaved the pointy part of the tab, but still kept the lip that holds the cage.
Now it sits as factory unit.
Hope this may help someone out in the future.
Thanks man, I used a dremel to shave those tabs down and went with the OE plastic pressure relief.
ECS said there should* be no issues with the URO one despite the cage and pressure relief differences along with depth of oil filter once seated.
Ill keep it the way I have it for peace of mind. Thats just too many differences for me to accept as a replacement part to "upgrade" a factory part.
Ill keep it the way I have it for peace of mind. Thats just too many differences for me to accept as a replacement part to "upgrade" a factory part.
Do not trust ecs or fcp or any parts seller...they make fitment mistakes all the time. Even simple things they sometimes get wrong. For examples, they use to ship their e46 rear emergent brake rebuild kit with oversized vaico pads that did not fit the rotors unless you ground the pad metal down..or their M Performance e92 rear brake kit upgrade with M3 ecs tuning branded rotors didn't fit the rear wheel bearing receptical as well as the caliper bolts were too big and the caliper didn't fit without grinding the caliper carrier.
Good to know !
Yep, ill keep as is, as it seems to be working fine the way I set it up.
If going plastic, I would do OE. Not because it's more durable or anything but because there will be certainty that nothing was altered.
Just wanted to say that in the last few months I have been heavily interested in these aluminium oil filter caps and have been studying the oil flow through these caps and the bypass function. That being said I have also been in contact with Malo industries and helped them develop an aluminum cap that properly supports the oil filter bypass plate so there will be no chance of failure, and I will be reviewing that product in the spring during my oil change. But I will also do an early review with images and technical info about the oil flow.
Also I wanted to say in regards to why @matreyia had increased metal shavings with the cts cap, the reason is apparent in the video he posted where it was clear that the oil filter bypass plate was damaged, hence why he had to hold the base plate down to prevent it from popping off. When this happens with a cap that does not have a supported bypass base plate the bypass spring will push up the base plate allowing oil to flow over the oil filter and down past the gap of the base plate and into the return side of the oil filter housing. This essentially bypasses the oil filter allowing dirty oil and contaminants to go back to the engine hence increasing wear and increasing metal particulates.
This would not happen with an aluminium oil filter housing cap with proper bypass base plate supports even with a broken bypass plate, because the support tabs holds the baseplate down despite the base plate tabs being broken creating a seal as was intended. This essentially allows for proper oil flow through the filter and thus proper filtration.
Also I wanted to say in regards to why @matreyia had increased metal shavings with the cts cap, the reason is apparent in the video he posted where it was clear that the oil filter bypass plate was damaged, hence why he had to hold the base plate down to prevent it from popping off. When this happens with a cap that does not have a supported bypass base plate the bypass spring will push up the base plate allowing oil to flow over the oil filter and down past the gap of the base plate and into the return side of the oil filter housing. This essentially bypasses the oil filter allowing dirty oil and contaminants to go back to the engine hence increasing wear and increasing metal particulates.
This would not happen with an aluminium oil filter housing cap with proper bypass base plate supports even with a broken bypass plate, because the support tabs holds the baseplate down despite the base plate tabs being broken creating a seal as was intended. This essentially allows for proper oil flow through the filter and thus proper filtration.
But overall I just wanted to say how helpful this thread has been in pointing out a potential issue that I would not have known existed. This essentially pushed me to read alot of bmw technical documents and watch a few helpful videos to fully understand this issue.
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