The Mitsubishi Pajero Owners Club®

[Nick63]

If you are concerned about small amounts of metal filings getting through your oil filter,
try an old trick that I was taught by a guy that builds race engines for dragsters and
rally cars.
Find an old, standard fit, car door speaker, an 8 ohm weeny one will do, then bash the hell
out of it and get the magnet off.
Then stick the magnet to the outer casing of your oil filter, and it will magnetise the whole of the
filter, and therefore, retain all of the foreign metallic bits that would otherwise have your
oil-seals for Hors d'oeurves.............

Sounds great in principle........

Nick.

[Google]

[DawnH]

wow...that sounds so simple...it must do some good surely!!!! can't hurt it anyway!!!!

[Paul83c]

Why is there metal bits in it in the first place?

[gegs750k4]

surely the filter is there to collect all the bits out of the oil?

[Nick63]

The thing with most engines, is that you never know when something is starting to
wear out until it's too late............and IF something starts to break up or worse,
any bits would be retained within the filter housing, I guess....
Just a bit of added protection. I would have thought that it would be good for those
people that may have just had some major engine internals repair or replacement,
i.e, new pistons, rings, big-ends etc.

You would be surprised at how much metal is floating around in your oil that you drain for an oil/filter change.

[Nick63]

[mick1969]

sounds a good logical idea to me

[Shiny]

[Paul83c]

Me too, will try it out and see what i find when next doing the oil change.

[4ePikanini]

then it is necessary to cut the filter open to see if there is any.

I like the magnet oil drain plug as that will tell me of impending damage as well.

[Nick63]

[mimauk]

I used to work on some engines many moons ago where there was a small cylindrical magnet actually in the drain plug so that every time you changed the oil you could see if anything untoward was happening.

Getting old now can't remember which engines it was.    

Just had a google and there are plenty of hits for buying them and here's a how to make your own.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5703188_make-magnetic-oil-drain-plug.html

[minesapasty]

Helicopters have magnetic plugs strategically positioned in their gearboxes for the same reason........ they pick up any particles, and will warn the pilot, giving several valuable minutes to get the helicopter onto the ground before a possible gearbox failure.

The engines tend to be made of aluminium and other non ferrous metals, so magnets aren't a lot of use on them.

Part of the regular servicing carried out on helicopter gearboxes is/was to remove the plugs and check for debris collected on the tips, giving a sign of wear related issues and imminent problems. Sea Kings are still flying, so I wouldn't think that the process has changed in the 20+ years since I was last climbing around helping the grubbers (mechanical engineers) when they were in need of an extra pair of hands.

I also remember having a car with a magnetic "drain plug", but can't remember which car it was now

[mimauk]

Oh Dear ! I must be getting Alzheimers.      

Seeing minesapasty reply triggered the remaining memory cell - it wasn't a car engine that had the magnetic plug, it was the Rolls Royce RB211 engines we had to drive the gas turbines we used to build. The hydraulic starter motors had them in.

It was only ten years ago !!! duh!!!

[Shiny]

Most bikes have a magnetic sump plug.