Been reading about attaching Neodymium (Rare Earth element) magnets to the oil filter to attract even the tiniest micons particles that can cause wear & bearing damage that the oil filter may not filter out. Just wondering if anybody is using or have used magnets on their oil filter and if so do they work as well as they claim it does? Checking around & pricing these magnets that are advertised for this use they sure are proud of them.

 

I have a magnet out of a old cb antenna base that I stuck on my oil pan. Not sure it does anything or not.

 

I've wondered what effect these magnets would have on the filter. Seems like pulling all the particles to one part of the filter would eventually cause that part of the filter element to clog, causing a loss of flow and filtering capacity. I don't know for sure though, just my 2 pennies.

Nick

 

From the pictures I've seen I don't think it going to effect the filter with the magnet on the side. The particals are so small the the magnet attacks it only going to be a small build up on the side wall of the fitler. Some magnets stick on the bottom of the filter also. I was wondering what if any effect that would have on the by-pass valve in the filter.....I just wondering if they are worth messing with.

 

Find a couple old computer hard drives and crack them open. There are usually several thin (2-3 millimeters thick) flat kidney shaped very high gauss magnets in there that control the drive's heads. I use them around the house for various things. They are very strong and extremely difficult if not impossible to pull off a flat ferrous surface, usually have to slide to to an edge and lever then off.

 

I have been using 4 Neodymium (1"X1") square magnets on my bypass for about a year now. I have only changed the oil/bypass filter once. When I checked on the inside of the bypass when I change the filter I noticed no metal filings, shavings, dust or any sort of evidence to suggest that the magnets are working or not. That's not to say that I didn't put them right back on the filter after my oil change. Most likely snake oil.

 

I use one on my truck since new but I haven't cut open a filter to see if it is making a difference.
I do have a MX210 with a 8.3 cummins and it has a magnet on the drain plug and it is unreal how much metal it catches. The metal peaces are so tiny that they are kinda slimmey.

 

I usually put a magnet right at the oil pan drainplug. I take it off when I drain the oil so those particals come out with the oil. I put it back on when I'm done. I don't know what good it does but it makes me feel good...

 

I stuck some speaker magnets on my diff covers the last time I changed the oil to see if I could pick up anything. We’ll see what they look like at next change. I think the fill plugs have magnets in them. Don’t some differentials have a magnet built in to the bottom? I think I’ve seem them in the Chrysler units.

 

I remember reading a few stories about magnets on the filter eventually wearing through the filter and dumping oil.

I've got the replacement oil drain plug from Genos. It has a magnet on the tip of it.

 

I bought some magnets for gold mining from http://www.gaussboys.com/
They were quite reasonable and they have a lot of diff kinds. However, so far 7 out of 9 people who have played with the big magnets (they are fun) have drawn blood. Alcohol was usually involved. I think the drain plug magnet is the better idea.

 

I dunno, I haven't bought off on the magnets on the oil filter yet - but have thought about it. How much steel gets "worn" in an engine? I thought its mostly soft metals (non-ferrous) that wouldn't get pulled in by the magnet. If they're really big chunkies, the filter will catch them.

Its not like a differential with the gears in there wearing on each other - thats why those drain plugs have magnets in them.

 

^^^^ what fun is that! LOL!!

I just changed the diffs on my truck a couple weeks ago and the factory mags had junk on them. I would get the magnets, what will it hurt? better filtration and being able to capture any TINY metal particles will only extend the life the the motor or item you are trying to save. call it snake oil, call it what you will. Buy one, use it for a complete oil change interval, remove the filter and cut it open, filtering out the oil of the filter thru cheese cloth so you can report back.

 

I did the same thing about a year ago, researching different rare earth magnets, and looking for the highest strength magnet that offered the temperature ranges needed. After much effort, I found that FilterMag had already done their research, and offered a product as good (or better) than I could put together on my own...and much cheaper than I could have pieced things together.

I've been running magnets on my primary oil filter, on the 2 micron fuel filter, on the OilGaurd bypass filter, and on the transmission. The magnets made for the oil filter, fuel filter, etc, are semi-circle shaped, and contain around 12 or so strong magnets (~Ne48 or Ne52? I don't remember, but they were the strongest available that would not loose performance when subjected to 230° F conditions).





After running these for awhile, I too was curious about their effectiveness. While performing scheduled maintenance a few weeks ago, I decided to cut open a filter and take a look. I removed the FilterMag, and carefully cut open the housing with a grinder cut-rock. Here's what I found:







This was the 2-micron FleetGaurd filter, mounted as part of the GDP system. If I remember correctly, the fluid enters a filter of this type around the outside perimeter holes, goes through the media, and then exits the filter through the center. As such, the magnets in this configuration would have removed these metal particles before the fuel was filtered by the 2 micron filter. However, this fuel had already passed through the 7 micron filter in the factory canister!!!

Is this significant? I don't know, but the filter had around 9,000 miles on it, and it looks like a significant number of metal particles were pulled out of suspension. One might presume that most of these particles seen are smaller than 7 micron size. Thus, I would presume there are quite a few particles here since they can be seen so clearly; however, I didn't take the time to count

How much of this metal is smaller than 2 micron? How much would've gotten through the 2 micron filter if the magnets weren't used? Hard to say, but however you figure it, this is metal that didn't make it through the injectors!

I tried to do the same thing on the oil filter, but the oil was so black and sooted up, that it was hard to tell what the magnets caught. I did have Blackstone run an oil analysis including a particle count, and the results came back extremely well:

ISO Code 14/11

>= 2 micron 277
>= 5 micron 102
>= 10 micron 28
>= 15 micron 11
>= 25 micron 2
>= 50 micron 0
>= 100 micron 0

As for the transmission, I stuck one of their square flat magnets on the PTO cover of the G56. After about 5,000 miles I pulled it off out of curiosity, and didn't see any appreciable build up.

Needless to say, I believe the FilterMags are giving some added benefit, and I feel pretty good about the return on the investment!

--Eric

 

That is impressive man, but didn’t you say you used a grinder to cut open the filter? You took the magnet off before grinding? Hopefully none of those particles are from grinding on the metal case of the filter? Probably not the grindings would be large.

I sure wouldn’t want that trash going through my injectors. I wonder how many non-magnetic particles are getting through the stock filter?