OIL FILTER MAGNETS ?
New User
Joined: Jan 2003
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OIL FILTER MAGNETS ?
Oil filter manufacturers rate their oil filters according to the smallest particles it can filter out. Generally speaking, an ordinary oil filter can filter out particles that are between 15 and 20 microns. Particles smaller than 15 microns are usually the ones that are most present in your engine oil and those are the ones your ordinary oil filter "Can't" trap or filter out. If you don't think particles that small can create some "Big Time" friction in your engine, then think again partner. So if you think your oil filter does a good job for you, then forget the above. But, if you want to get those particles smaller than 15 microns, then get a good strong magnet on your oil filter and a magnetic oil drain plug.
Just Pass in Buy,
Just Pass in Buy,
Posting Guru
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 1,016
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OIL FILTER MAGNETS ?
[updated:LAST EDITED ON 10-Jan-03 AT 09:10 AM (EST)]That's a good idea. Now all you have to do is put a few resisters in the circuit and plug it in on those cold days and have an oil prewarmer........
>I got an old toaster cord,stripped the ends to bare wire,and
>taped it to my oil filter.Then i plug it in the wall socket
>and magnetize my filter......i figure its good for 3000
>miles...i'll keep ya'll posted
>I got an old toaster cord,stripped the ends to bare wire,and
>taped it to my oil filter.Then i plug it in the wall socket
>and magnetize my filter......i figure its good for 3000
>miles...i'll keep ya'll posted
Logistics Pro
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 4,821
Likes: 19
From: South Dakota
OIL FILTER MAGNETS ?
>If they are so worthless then why do manufacturer's put
>magnets in transmission pans for similar reasons? They
>catch suspended metal particles and they do work, but they
>aren't needed quite as much with the oil because the filter
>catches a lot of it.
Good point Ken,
I'd bet you be suprised on just how many manufacturers are putting magnets in our vehicles today.
I'm not just talking about crankcases and tranny pans, but like differentials, sometimes pwr steering pumps, hydraulics, etc.
For example, my sisters 02 cavalier has a oil drain magnet, my 00 ranger has a diff plug magnet.
Obviously they couldn't hurt.
>magnets in transmission pans for similar reasons? They
>catch suspended metal particles and they do work, but they
>aren't needed quite as much with the oil because the filter
>catches a lot of it.
Good point Ken,
I'd bet you be suprised on just how many manufacturers are putting magnets in our vehicles today.
I'm not just talking about crankcases and tranny pans, but like differentials, sometimes pwr steering pumps, hydraulics, etc.
For example, my sisters 02 cavalier has a oil drain magnet, my 00 ranger has a diff plug magnet.
Obviously they couldn't hurt.
New User
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 2
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OIL FILTER MAGNETS ?
If you have never tried a an oil filter magnet, then you really don't know hown effective they really are. I didn't know until I bought a "FILTER PLUS" oil filter magnet and used it for the first time on my Ford truck. I cut my oil filter open after 3,000 miles of normal driving and found a big ring of iron & steel particles that was trapped by it. I use snythetic oil and a good name brand oil filter too. Now I'm a believer. If you're not using an oil filter magnet, you should be.
Hangnlo
Hangnlo
Senior User
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 120
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OIL FILTER MAGNETS ?
I cut my oil filter open after 3,000 miles of normal driving and found a big ring of iron & steel particles that was trapped by it. I use snythetic oil and a good name brand oil filter too.
If so, then you should reconsider the brand or weight of oil you are using. You're apparently not getting the lubrication protection you seek.
If so, then you should reconsider the brand or weight of oil you are using. You're apparently not getting the lubrication protection you seek.
New User
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
OIL FILTER MAGNETS ?
I'm using "M1" synthetic oil in my Ford truck....I'm happy that I got the "FILTER PLUS" magnet on my oil filter and a good magnetic oil drain plug. At least I'm keeping most the friction-causing metallic particles out of circulation.
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OIL FILTER MAGNETS ?
Posting Guru
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,162
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From: House Springs, MO
OIL FILTER MAGNETS ?
If you've ever torn into an NP205 (or lost the little plug trying to convert it to a twin stick and cussed like a sailor trying to dig it out 
) you'd know there was a magnet in there, and that was 1978 and before!
BTW, make some manifold bacon toast! Right there with the Flowmaster hash browns and Dynaflow bacon...
) you'd know there was a magnet in there, and that was 1978 and before!BTW, make some manifold bacon toast! Right there with the Flowmaster hash browns and Dynaflow bacon...
Junior User
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 57
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From: Fairborn USA
OIL FILTER MAGNETS ?
I put a large rare earth magnet in my oil pan when I had it off. Its so strong I can stick my wrench to the bottom of the oil pan when I change the oil 
I figure it will suck the metal out even when the oil is 4 inches above it.
I just rebuilt the engine and didn't want any metal floating around when it was breaking in.
Ran the engine about 1000 miles and pulled the pan and wala a fuzzy magnet. Lots of metal when breaking in new rings and parts.
My Truck http://mypictures.ods.org/My_Truck
I figure it will suck the metal out even when the oil is 4 inches above it.
I just rebuilt the engine and didn't want any metal floating around when it was breaking in.
Ran the engine about 1000 miles and pulled the pan and wala a fuzzy magnet. Lots of metal when breaking in new rings and parts.
My Truck http://mypictures.ods.org/My_Truck
Post Fiend
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 9,748
Likes: 16
From: Connecticut
OIL FILTER MAGNETS ?
I'm a magnet proponent too, as you can see from my posts in this recent thread:
Fumoto Valve/Pan & Filter Magnets
Fumoto Valve/Pan & Filter Magnets
Posting Guru
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 2,017
Likes: 2
From: Southeast FLA
OIL FILTER MAGNETS ?
I find it hard to believe people are arguing against a magnet for the oil, be it on the filter or someplace else. Such basic misinformation is the primary reason I rarely visit the FTE Oil forum anymore. There are better oil forums (but not Ford truck forums!) on the net that attract more educated posters who generally have excellent, up-to-date commentary and results.
Anyway, as long as an engine is made of magnetizable surfaces that wear, a magnet will always trap some of the smaller debris that a filter can't catch.
From my old post on my experience from:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/dcforum/...arket/354.html
,
"Hi guys - I can finally post my results with my magnet trial.
The results were good to great, depending on what someone was expecting, and how one looks at the stuff it pulled out. I did not have my mum's digital camera to take pics of the results though - sorry.
The description will try to adhere to the terminology as used by the famous http://minimopar.net/oilfilterstudy.html#measure oil filter study.
pic of how the set-up was in my gallery:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...d=7279&width=4
Here's what I did:
(the magnet was left in place throughout this process)
I took off the Purolator Pure 1 oil filter, and drained it pretty well. This included puncturing the anti-drainback valve to allow more oil to come out.
While pulling the filter off I accidentally budged the magnet a few millimeters, so that may have dislodged some of the results, but it probably didn't.
Then I took the filter to a vise and angled the open end downward, with an oil catch pan below it, and proceeded to cut it around the circumference as close to the backplate (the sealing/open end) as I could get.
The oil draining and angle of the filter while cutting were to prevent any shavings from my cutting the shell to migrate up toward the magnet and skew the results.
Upon cutting it apart and pulling out the media, the final spring-plate was magnetized to the inside far-end of the shell. Pulled that out, and saw some blackish areas on the inside end of the shell.
To make sure this wasn't merely a sludge formation, I sprayed brake cleaner (which works as a gum cutter) against the formation to pull out oil and sludge.
Afterward, the formations were still dark. Wiping my finger across it and looking at it showed it was the very same easy-to-mistake-as-sludge very fine metallic particles I saw at the end of both my tranny and differential drain/filler plugs. Not of ton of it mind you, but certainly enough.
Perhaps some of these particles, while really too small to distinguish as individual metallic particles, would actually have been caught by the filtration media if the magnet was not there, but most certainly a part of it, or most of it, was too small for the filtration media to catch. (Even microscopic steel particles can be magnetized, or caught by a magnet.)
My final thoughts are this:
1.) The shell of the high-quality Pure 1 filter seems to be thicker than most other oil filter shells, so that may have decreased the magnet's field of effect. (At least it seemed so for my filter - Russ W. Knize's Oil Filter Study showed the Purolater shell thicknesses to be actually thinner than most - but these were for Mopar-based filters, and our really big Ford filters could certainly be made with some other shell thickness. My observation of thickness was based on the feel of the shell once cut, and in actually cutting through the shell near the backplate - it seemed thicker than all other used filter shells I have cut apart, but I had never cut apart a Ford-sized filter before (mostly smaller car filters).)
2.) Could such a strong magnet, placed where I placed mine, affect the spring plate and possibly open the bypass valve on some filters? Would it be better to secure a magnet to the side of most filters?
3.) I would like to order an even stronger surplus magnet in a while for the end, or side, of my filter.
4.) Cutting used oil filters apart is a messy job.
5.) A future big selling point/feature of some smart oil filter manufacturer could/should be an internal magnet in each one. With a magnet in place I think they could claim to trap magnetizable particles down to under 1 micron - and maybe even smaller?"
Arguing that previous frequent oil changes with Mobil 1 and a Purolator Pure 1 oil filter must not have been giving me the lubrication I desired won't cut it, buddy.
Best,
Anyway, as long as an engine is made of magnetizable surfaces that wear, a magnet will always trap some of the smaller debris that a filter can't catch.
From my old post on my experience from:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/dcforum/...arket/354.html
,
"Hi guys - I can finally post my results with my magnet trial.
The results were good to great, depending on what someone was expecting, and how one looks at the stuff it pulled out. I did not have my mum's digital camera to take pics of the results though - sorry.
The description will try to adhere to the terminology as used by the famous http://minimopar.net/oilfilterstudy.html#measure oil filter study.
pic of how the set-up was in my gallery:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...d=7279&width=4
Here's what I did:
(the magnet was left in place throughout this process)
I took off the Purolator Pure 1 oil filter, and drained it pretty well. This included puncturing the anti-drainback valve to allow more oil to come out.
While pulling the filter off I accidentally budged the magnet a few millimeters, so that may have dislodged some of the results, but it probably didn't.
Then I took the filter to a vise and angled the open end downward, with an oil catch pan below it, and proceeded to cut it around the circumference as close to the backplate (the sealing/open end) as I could get.
The oil draining and angle of the filter while cutting were to prevent any shavings from my cutting the shell to migrate up toward the magnet and skew the results.
Upon cutting it apart and pulling out the media, the final spring-plate was magnetized to the inside far-end of the shell. Pulled that out, and saw some blackish areas on the inside end of the shell.
To make sure this wasn't merely a sludge formation, I sprayed brake cleaner (which works as a gum cutter) against the formation to pull out oil and sludge.
Afterward, the formations were still dark. Wiping my finger across it and looking at it showed it was the very same easy-to-mistake-as-sludge very fine metallic particles I saw at the end of both my tranny and differential drain/filler plugs. Not of ton of it mind you, but certainly enough.
Perhaps some of these particles, while really too small to distinguish as individual metallic particles, would actually have been caught by the filtration media if the magnet was not there, but most certainly a part of it, or most of it, was too small for the filtration media to catch. (Even microscopic steel particles can be magnetized, or caught by a magnet.)
My final thoughts are this:
1.) The shell of the high-quality Pure 1 filter seems to be thicker than most other oil filter shells, so that may have decreased the magnet's field of effect. (At least it seemed so for my filter - Russ W. Knize's Oil Filter Study showed the Purolater shell thicknesses to be actually thinner than most - but these were for Mopar-based filters, and our really big Ford filters could certainly be made with some other shell thickness. My observation of thickness was based on the feel of the shell once cut, and in actually cutting through the shell near the backplate - it seemed thicker than all other used filter shells I have cut apart, but I had never cut apart a Ford-sized filter before (mostly smaller car filters).)
2.) Could such a strong magnet, placed where I placed mine, affect the spring plate and possibly open the bypass valve on some filters? Would it be better to secure a magnet to the side of most filters?
3.) I would like to order an even stronger surplus magnet in a while for the end, or side, of my filter.
4.) Cutting used oil filters apart is a messy job.
5.) A future big selling point/feature of some smart oil filter manufacturer could/should be an internal magnet in each one. With a magnet in place I think they could claim to trap magnetizable particles down to under 1 micron - and maybe even smaller?"
Arguing that previous frequent oil changes with Mobil 1 and a Purolator Pure 1 oil filter must not have been giving me the lubrication I desired won't cut it, buddy.
Best,
Post Fiend
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 5,860
Likes: 4
From: Metro Detroit (Redford)
OIL FILTER MAGNETS ?
A deposit of grey stuff inside the filter can where the magnet was may be meaningless since that stuff likely would have been trapped in the filter media without the magnet.
Ken has a good point about magnetic tranny plugs. I often wonder why they don't have a spin on filter for the tranny, especially automatics, which also should have drain plugs.
Ken has a good point about magnetic tranny plugs. I often wonder why they don't have a spin on filter for the tranny, especially automatics, which also should have drain plugs.