Hi all. First time posting. I have been driving my company 1997 F250 7.3 for about a year now. We usually have our mobile mechanic take care of our trucks but for general service its so much cheaper for me to do it all. Any-way's, I bought a new Motorcraft Fuel Filter (4595) from Oreilly Auto parts and a special fuel filter cap wrench.

Today I took the fuel filter cap off, removed the gasket and pulled out the fuel filter. I pulled the new one out of the box and they looked different. The new filter has a metal bottom with a black gasket in the center on one side and the other side was a red/orange plastic with two tabs on the side that should catch the cap with a small hole in the top.
The filter that was in the truck was about the same height, about 1/2 inch smaller diameter, and both ends were metal with rubber gaskets through the center. The numbers on the old filter were 042911C2, 17-31287, 4595.
Both cap gaskets were the same same.
The filter cap had a post in the center of it that fit down the middle of the old filter but it wont fit through the center of the new one. The top has a star in the center that you can fit a 1/2 drive into.

Do I have an aftermarket cap? Where can I find the filter that was already in there? Any help will be much appreciated.

 

Seems so. Probably best to pick up an OEM cap.

 

That's the right filter(new one)

Napa has the own cap for five bucks.

 

The filter and cap you're describing sounds like the ones sold at the big box auto parts stores (Auto Zone, Advance, etc.).