larry47us

I have now completed my second oil change on my Turbo. This time, I decided to do something that I hadn't done before. I bought some drain plug magnets from Dimple Magnetic Drain Plugs. . I had done a bit of surfing, looking at different manufacturers of magnetic drain plugs, and this one is the best. Customer service is wonderful, and the speed with which they ship to you is amazing. Not only that, but their magnets are super strong. We all know that magnets lose some of their power when heated, so you want to start with the strongest magnet you can.

I'd like to see any other magnet pick up an 18 inch solid iron plumber's wrench!!!!!

Richard, the owner, is wonderful to work with. When I called him to tell him that I had ordered the wrong size, he just dropped the right size into the mail to me, and I had them in three days.

Anyway, the Turbo takes 4 drain plugs (if you are going to try to catch iron filings at any possibility.) The Oil tank and the crankcase take a 20mm x 1.5 mm drain plug. The plugs on the Turbos are 18 mm x 1.5mm in size. (BTW, can't forget to thank Dell for helping me with this. He was good enough to measure his drain plugs when he did his oil change just a week before I did mine. This way, I was able to use them as soon as possible.)

These are different sizes than are used on the NA 996's. The magnetic plugs come with crush washers in little plastic bottles that are hard to confuse, and keep the bolts from getting damaged in transit. I used Porsche crush washers instead of the ones that Dimple sent. Just wanted to avoid any potential issues.

The rest of the pictures are just to show you how easy it was to get them installed, and to show you how the magnets look. BTW, the turbo plugs fit inside the hole in the turbo reservoir. Both the shoulder on the OE one and the AM one are exactly the same size, 29mm, so they fit right into the same hole.

I am expecting that using these drain plugs will reduce the level of iron in my UOA. We’ll see. This will be especially evident since my last two UOA have been consistent, and I am now switching from a 3,000 mile change interval to a 5,000 mile interval. Blackstone said that we should see an increase in the amount of iron in the oil with the increased interval. If the magnets truly attract even micro sized particles, then we could likely see a reduction in iron even though the interval is nearly twice as long. That will be interesting.

BTW, you will notice in the pictures that I am using a yellow plastic thread pitch gauge. This is a "gift" that Dimple sends along with their drain plug magnets. It includes measurements for bolt diameter and for thread pitch. If you don't have a thread pitch gauge, this is a nice add-on for your tool box, and it's free.

larry

Dock

Given the strength of those magnets, you're going to have to check underneath your car more often to make sure you haven't picked up metal road debris.

LVDell

Larry, did they accept the OEM alum/copper washers?

No HTwo O

Larry, can you update this post in the future, for example, at your next oil change, can you post pictures of the drain plugs when they first come out ("dirty") and after you wipe them down ("clean")? It would be interesting to see just how much they collect. Thanks!

Land Jet

How is the fit of the 20mm plugs in the crankcase and oil tank?

larry47us

Dell, I used the Porsche crush washers, and they fit just as well as on the factory drain plugs.

I plan on doing just that. This way you can see what effect using these magnets have had. I'm interested in that as well. Between the visual inspection, and the measurement in the UOA, the benefit of these magnets should be pretty self-evident.

The fit of the 20mm bolts is exactly as it would be with the factory drain plugs. They go in easily, snug up just fine, and don't leak. I will be watching the 4 bolts for the next few weeks, just to verify the tightness of the fit (no leaking) but I am not anticipating any issues.

larry

Last930

Not to be negative, but how much metal do you expect to trap? Isn't that what the oil filter is supposed to do? If you catch a pipe wrench in your engine it's probably gonna be a big repair bill!

larry47us

Dave:

Obviously, I am not going to catch a pipe wrench in my engine. But certainly, a magnet that is strong enough to hold up a pipe wrench will be more likely to draw in small, nearly microscopic iron filings than a weak magnet. But seriously, I wondered the same thing. How much metal will I get, and won't those filings normally be caught by the oil filter anyway? This is from the Dimple Drain Plug website.

So, the issue is to catch ALL the metal (iron) filings that are created by the action of the engine. I don't know what volume of filings will be caught by my magnets over the next 5,000 miles, but that's what I'm going to find out. And, for only $125, I have 4 magnets in 4 different parts of the engine. If it catches anything, then it will pay off for me, since that will mean iron filings that don't get in the way of smooth operation of the engine.

Here is a nifty video done by the UK distributor of the Dimple magnets. Remember that this demo was done in cold oil, and in a hot oil environment, the iron filings would move to the magnet more quickly and easily.


larry

Macster

Well, picking up a solid piece of ferrous metal is not the same as trying to hold together a glob of fine ferrous metal particles drenched in oil, but if you're happy with the plug...

Sincerely,

Macster.

Brenton

Well Larry
I am with you on this one.
I can not see how it can damage the car so it can only be the same or an improvement

can not hurt trying, I think I will do it to mine

larry47us

Macster,

You're missing something in that we usually look at friction as the force that is holding things together. Friction is affected by oil, and if it were friction that were holding the particles together, oil would reduce that effectiveness.

But in this case, it is the magnetic force-field that is holding the metal fragments together, not friction. Therefore, the oil is not going to reduce the effectiveness of the magnetic field, so it will have no impact on the magnet's ability to hold the particles together.

I'm not sure what you think would be better - to have a weaker magnet, or not to use a magnet at all? In either case, I think that you are wrong. The stronger the magnet, the better it will work. If you don't think this has any benefit, don't buy one. But Porsche supposedly sells these cars with a magnetic drain plug. That is what I had heard. My car doesn't have one, so I bought it.

larry

No HTwo O

Larry, do they make the 4 magnetic drain plugs for the 993 Turbo?

As a side note, Porsche did put in a magnetic drain plug on our trannys, AFAIK.

Quadcammer

hmm, given the aluminum engine, and only a few pieces of ferrous metal, I'm not sure how useful this will be but it shouldn't hurt.

the trannies do have it, but they have a lot more ferrous metals and actual wear.

jcb-memphis

Their site says Porsche is 22x1.5. Just wanted to check, the main plugs are 20x1.5 per your first post. Ordering....

I think just doing two on the main areas is probably enough...so the tank and bottom of the engine are my planned plugs.


TIA


Jeff

larry47us

Bill:

They make these drain plugs in all different sizes, and have them for motorcycles as well as cars. The issue is that they really don't know what sizes and shapes are needed for the various cars. You really need to measure them. So, unfortunately, I can't help you with the sizes for the 993 Turbo.

That leads me to the next issue, which is that I should probably get one for my tranny when I get the fluid changed next. That would be for my 30K check-up, which is coming soon. Does anyone know what the proper size is for the tranny on a 996TT?

Jeff - Not really sure where Richard got the plug measurement for the Porsche engine that he has listed. I can only say that I measured my drain plugs, and installed the ones that I ordered, and for MY engine - a 2001 996TT, the correct plug is the 20 x 1.5.

As a side note, I can tell you that they are really quick with customer support. When I ordered the wrong size for the turbo reservoir, he shipped the replacement plugs the day that I called him and told him I needed a different size. Hard to argue with that kind of a response.

larry