Anodized, Chromed, Polished, Billet Oil Filter Cap

[SaltyNC]

Just curious if anyone has a fancy oil filter cap. I remember seeing one that Ron Stygar had polished and chromed. Since it is aluminum, I wonder if anyone ever did anodized colors.

Salty

[GuidoK]

I'm working on one (you know, one of those chinese glossy/polished aluminium things for 15 bucks of aliexpress) to fit extra oil pressure and temp sensors, but I bead blasted them trying to give them an OEM look.
So I'm trying to achieve the opposite of your goal

I have doubts about anodizing the stock one. It's from a cast aluminium, and when anodizing that can become very uneven in surface (spots etc) as it probably has high contents of silica and maybe zinc etc. That chinese one I have is billet and milled, so that would be a better candidate for anodizing and coloring imho (I'm in the plating business )

[SaltyNC]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

I'm working on one (you know, one of those chinese glossy/polished aluminium things for 15 bucks of aliexpress) to fit extra oil pressure and temp sensors, but I bead blasted them trying to give them an OEM look.
So I'm trying to achieve the opposite of your goal

I have doubts about anodizing the stock one. It's from a cast aluminium, and when anodizing that can become very uneven in surface (spots etc) as it probably has high contents of silica and maybe zinc etc. That chinese one I have is billet and milled, so that would be a better candidate for anodizing and coloring imho (I'm in the plating business )

Guido,

Thanks for the info. I'm not sure if I want to do anything with the oil cap, but it is one of the less refined pieces on the S54, and I was hoping to see some examples on which direction I might want to take. Do you still have the source for the Chinese milled cap? I've searched and can't find one.

Here is the link to Ron's polished cap. I think it looks good. He later had it chromed, if my memory serves me.

http://www.unofficialbmw.com/e36/eng...ilter_cap.html

And here is a custom one on an M3:
http://www.superstreetonline.com/fea...w-m3/#photo-04

Salty

[GuidoK]

Are you sure he had it chromed?
It looks polished, and chrome plating aluminium is not easy. (not impossible of course, but not any chrome plater can do that)

For the s54 I bought this cap:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/time-...49599658.html?
Very cheap as you can see.
You can probably get it on ebay for 3x the price

I think it's already electropolished and anodized, but it could be re-anodized and coloured ofcourse.

I beadblasted it for a matte finish:


still no OEM look but that's virtually impossible as OEM is cast aluminium (with a totally different composition)
Maybe it'll darken/smudge over time


next to a m54 oil filter cap:


the sender plugs that it comes with are pretty horrible sizewise, so maybe use some brass quality 1/8"NPT blind plugs. This cap is as I said used for fitting an extra oil pressure sender and temp sender.

[SaltyNC]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

Are you sure he had it chromed?
It looks polished, and chrome plating aluminium is not easy. (not impossible of course, but not any chrome plater can do that)

Thanks for the pics and link. The link I showed was the polished aluminum cap, which looked good, I thought. But, I seem to remember another post on possibly a different car where he talked about having it chromed. Maybe I was dreaming. ;-)

Salty

[DEG]

nvdmotorsport.com has carbon fiber oil filter caps.

[inTgr8r]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

Are you sure he had it chromed?
It looks polished, and chrome plating aluminium is not easy. (not impossible of course, but not any chrome plater can do that)

For the s54 I bought this cap:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/time-...49599658.html?
Very cheap as you can see.
You can probably get it on ebay for 3x the price

I think it's already electropolished and anodized, but it could be re-anodized and coloured of course.
......


next to a m54 oil filter cap:


the sender plugs that it comes with are pretty horrible sizewise, so maybe use some brass quality 1/8"NPT blind plugs. This cap is as I said used for fitting an extra oil pressure sender and temp sender.

Had you considered a separate oil distribution block picked up from the spare port?



I currently have the spare port occupied with a pressure sender.
I plan to add an oil temp sender as well.

I thought I 'd look into running a line from the spare port and install both senders on a separate distribution block.
One thing I'm not sure about is if there would be an air lock to contend with.