IPSC

My father is a horse trainer who uses magnets to treat injuries in horses legs. He buys these magnets from Russia that are stupid strong. They were devlepoed for the Russian space industry. The are so strong that if you get two together they are very hard to pry apart. Anyway he takes two of these things and tapes them to the outside of his oil filters... his theroy is that if there are any metal shavings in the oil this will capture them. My question to him is what about the drain plug and it's magnet, plus you get to see if there are any shavings.
His counter to this is that 1. the plug is at the bottom of the oil pan out of the direct flow of the oil and 2. this will "capture" any iron filings that if allowed to remain in the oil, would hasten engine wear.

So is the old man off his rocker or what?

IPSC

callmethewanderer

"Father Knows Best"

WolfeMacleod

Those magnets would be called Neodymium. They're dangerous. The same kind that's been killing the children that you may have been hearing about on the news.

Theorectially, it can work...if the material shavings are ferro-magnetic.

cjeckert

The only thing to thing about is if its going to cause the high pressure bypass and anti flow back valve to malfunction i venture a better place would be attacted to the oil pan near the oil pick up and drain plug, remove them when you do an oil change to let the bits o metel to drain out

IPSC

I had not heard of magnets killing any children. What is causing this?

IPSC

cjeckert

Aparently a kid swalowed two of those magents with a time period between to one was in the intenstines and one in the stomich and well they riped trough his stomich and instine and attached to each other.

MPD47

Holy ****!

rickb20

I think a magnet that strong would tend to magnetize the shavings so that they then resist leaving the pan. From that standpoint it might not be a bad idea to put them on the filter so that they are at least removed from the system.

Somewhere (autoparts store?) I've seen an elastic band with 5 or 6 smaller magnets embeded that are meant to be put around the filter for the same purpose.

Rick

Mike C.

Note to self: do not eat magnets...

SamGrant951

User 41221

Mike just won "best post of the month" award, I think... lol

Dick Ruddell

Is there much ferrous metal in our motors that is apt to show up?

cjeckert

Mainly in the bearings but again i'd be hesitent in putting such a large magnent near the oil filter as the valve asemblies inside arnt especailly strong not to mention i doubt its going to collect alot alot of metle while the shavings are in suspension ie why there is a magnet in the oil plug as the suspended particulates seperate out and fall to the bottem of the pan to that magnent.

IPSC

humm maybe make some drain plugs with these "super magnets." The things that make ya go hummmmm.....

IPSC

KuHL 951

rare earth magnets are cool to play with. I picked up a grab bag of them from a scientific surplus. The 1/4" dia. ***** will attract each other across 36' of smooth flooring. The smaller ones on an oil filter might help but most metal wear in the motor is non-ferrous unless the crank or rods are rubbing against the caps. I keep a set of the small flat discs 3/16" x 1/32" and put them in the bottom of sockets when I absolutely can't drop a nut or bolt. Some are so strong that the socket will get pulled to the another larger ferrous part while trying to seat the socket. I was able to get a sphere about 3/4" dia. If I even walk into a room with a CRT on it will deguass the entire screen from about 3 feet away. I do not let that one get anywhere near steel or small parts it will crush a finger or shatter. Great fun huh?