Magnetic oil drain plug. First change

[MajorCavalry]

First of all, I never really expected this to do very much. Put it in on a whim simply because it did not cost too much. My car is a 2012 Acura TL with 3.7L engine. This engine does NOT have cast iron sleeves in the cylinders but rather an aluminum silicon alloy, thus no magnetic wear particles. The only wear particles would be from the rings and valve train. I ran G-Oil 5W30 (not really the correct weigh, but this oil has been shown to shear rapidly to a 20W oil) with a NAPA Platinum oil filter. 6000 miles on the oil change with 10% left on the oil life monitor.

I was shocked when I wiped the magnetic tip of the drain plug to find grey/black material similar to what one sees when wiping off auto transmission magnetic drain plugs. Wiping the material on a paper towel left a 1/8" wide x 1" long black streak. I was going to take a picture, but my son helped me clean up and tossed it. Next time.

I guess I am a beleiver now. Maybe the filter would have picked up these particles, but who knows. Maybe it also makes no difference, but it certainly can't hurt.

This oil change was with Royal Purple 5W-20 SN rated oil and a Mann ML 1008 filter. Should be interesting to see if the filter makes any difference. I know, too many variables.

 

[Artem]

Agreed, if it catches even the slightest amount of material, i think it's worth the $15-25 investment for the plug. You can always resell it later when you sell the car, or simply through on $20 to the selling price to cover the cost of the plug, so the new owner basically pays for it.

Here's mine after 5,000 miles in my 06 Scion tC.

 

[Artem]

Here's another one from my other car...

It amazes me as to the amount of stuff that's stuck on it!

 

[Artem]

 

[Artem]

 

[Artem]

 

[Artem]

Transmission drain plug... This is after 15,000 miles in a transmission that had by syncronizers and would grind gears often.

 

[Artem]

^ Those are all pics i've collected over the years. The black plug is from another car that i service that has a similar plug.

The question is, would the oil filter have caught any of this stuff had it not stuck to the magnet...?

 

[crashtestdummy]

May I ask where did you guys buy your drain plugs?

The magnets look strong in those pics.

 

[FoxS]

Thanks for sharing those pics Artem.

Now I expect some folks to come on and post that those drain plugs are designed to shed metal filings when they come into contact with oil.

 

[MajorCavalry]

Mine is a Gold Plug.

 

[Artem]

Originally Posted By: crashtestdummy
May I ask where did you guys buy your drain plugs?

The magnets look strong in those pics.


The Black one in the pics i posted came from a company called "M Factory"

Here's their site link: Team M Factory Magnetic Drain Plugs

I don't see them being made for every make and model, mostly Hondas, Nissans, and a few others. You might be able to cross match a plug to match your car, if the threads and size is the same.

 

[UNC017]

Magnetic plugs sure don't HURT. But IMO, virtually none of those particles is small enough to get past the filter, so its not really a wear issue except for the oil pump itself since it sees the pre-filter oil. Also probably helps in the rare event of a faulty oil filter with a hole in the filter media.

My '69 440 has a magnetic drain plug. I'd expect an old-school big-block with an iron block, slider cam, ductile iron rings, etc. to shed a LOT of magnetic material compared to a modern aluminum block roller-cam engine... but those oil plug pics all look just about how the one in my 440 does. Except the transmission plug pic- its far worse.

 

[DaHen]

Originally Posted By: MajorCavalry
Mine is a Gold Plug.


Using Gold Plugs here as well.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: Artem
^ Those are all pics i've collected over the years. The black plug is from another car that i service that has a similar plug.

The question is, would the oil filter have caught any of this stuff had it not stuck to the magnet...?


Simply? Yes it would have, but it would usually have to go through the pump first.

My thoughts are GM would not include these as standard equipment on our fleet trucks if they could save a nickel by deleting them.

 

[MrRPM]

my plug in my wrangler's I6 looks worse then all of those plugs except the trans plug(almost similar to trans plug but not in color or size) but I'm still not really concerned as it corresponds to a bad UOA 2 fills ago due to silicon contamination from the air box. Been doing short OCIs on defy and will re-sample after a few more OCIs. Lots of Iron components in the I6 to give particles

 

[friendly_jacek]

Originally Posted By: Artem

The question is, would the oil filter have caught any of this stuff had it not stuck to the magnet...?


The answer is no. I put these particles under a microscope and they were very similar in size to graphite, 10um and under. That is not reliably filtered by oil filter. If they were, you would not see them on the magnet in the first place.

 

[[email protected]]

Interesting pics!

I bought a magnetic drain plug for my Prius, am going to put it on tomorrow when I change the oil.

Everybody keeps mentioning a "gold plug".. I assume thats a brand name (gold)?

I bought my magnetic plug on Ebay for $6 and some change, free shipping. The magnet seems really strong, I can pick up and dangle a screwdriver with it. Any downside to the cheap Ebay magnetic drain plugs?

 

[harry j]

Originally Posted By: Artem
^ Those are all pics i've collected over the years. The black plug is from another car that i service that has a similar plug.

The question is, would the oil filter have caught any of this stuff had it not stuck to the magnet...?



The oil filter would have caught some of these metal particles....after they ravaged their way through your oil pump. The sharp edges of the metal shards could have possibly cut through the filter media under velocity and pressure. It is always a good idea to use a magnetic oil drain plug to remove wear metal and to moniter metal wear. Be sure to use a high powered magnet to retain the debris so it does not re-enter the oil flow.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: friendly_jacek
Originally Posted By: Artem

The question is, would the oil filter have caught any of this stuff had it not stuck to the magnet...?


The answer is no. I put these particles under a microscope and they were very similar in size to graphite, 10um and under. That is not reliably filtered by oil filter. If they were, you would not see them on the magnet in the first place.


An amazing answer considering you have no idea of the sizing of HIS particles. Please explain how they should be equal to the ones you so carefully analyzed.