Thread: Magnets

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One of these days in the near future I'm going to start pulling the '31's engine apart. It gets a new, plain, but painted steel oil pan instead of the leaky chrome plated version. In the past I've seen magnets stuck inside to pick up stray machined steel/iron floating in the oil. I've also seen some wrapped around the oil filter. Anyone here do that as a matter of course?

Magnets will only pick up iron/steel particals---most parts that will wear are alum or bronze material--want to really track whats going on do an oil analise at every oil change---
And you can cut open the oil filters--

I personally have never use magnets on the outside of the oil filter or in the oil pan, though it can't hurt, but I would use the oil pan drain plug that has the magnet instead of having one stuck or epoxied to the inside of the oil pan.

JMO

Edit:
I have seen quite a few cars that have had oil drain plugs with magnets on them that had quite a bit of metal shavings on them.

Even though there's non-magnetic material that can be carried catching any magnetic particles that are there cannot be bad. The tranny pan on one of our past Jeeps had a magnet sitting in the inside of the pan, held there only by magnetic attraction, and after 30K miles it had a thin coating of extremely fine material, almost like a slime it was so small. Like Bug, the magnetic oil pan drain plugs seem to always have a small amount of "stuff" attached. Can't hurt.

I had a magnet in the OEM Ford steel pan as well as the replacement steel trans pan - which did pick up some crud. Probably a better idea to have a magnetic drain plug to clean off at every oil change - have to see if I can find one locally.

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yep used them many times in race builds

Yeah, I opt for the magnetic drain plugs too.
I've got one in the gearbox of my wee tractor too...had to change the oil in that (the gearbox) after it spent some time parked outside and rain leaked past the rubber boot on the gear lever contaminating the oil.
I was pleasantly surprised to see how little gunge was attached to the magnet.
I bought this tractor, a Ferguson 35X, in June 1964 with 300 hrs on the clock.
Its now done in excess of 10,000 hrs and is on its second motor, but original box/back end.
It has earned an honourable retirement, and is not for sale
(It's waaay too handy!)


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Hi Dave, I know this doesn't pertain to your question about the magnets, but I thought I'd go ahead and throw it out here for what it's worth.

If you’re going to the trouble to change the pan, I would strongly suggest that you find an OE pan rather than using an aftermarket one. The customers Fairlane I did a year ago had pan leak problems with chrome pan he had used. After not being able to get the chrome pan to seal, I went ahead and ordered a new aftermarket plain steel painted pan. It leaked worse than the chrome one.

I ended up going to the local wrecking yard and pulling an OE pan which finally cured the leaks. I’ve used aftermarket pans in the past with good luck, even chrome ones. After fighting the last one however, I’m a little leery about using them again.

Originally Posted by Mike P

Hi Dave, I know this doesn't pertain to your question about the magnets, but I thought I'd go ahead and throw it out here for what it's worth.

If you’re going to the trouble to change the pan, I would strongly suggest that you find an OE pan rather than using an aftermarket one. The customers Fairlane I did a year ago had pan leak problems with chrome pan he had used. After not being able to get the chrome pan to seal, I went ahead and ordered a new aftermarket plain steel painted pan. It leaked worse than the chrome one.

I ended up going to the local wrecking yard and pulling an OE pan which finally cured the leaks. I’ve used aftermarket pans in the past with good luck, even chrome ones. After fighting the last one however, I’m a little leery about using them again.

Heres a tip that will solve your chrome pan problems, scuff up the chrome where the gasket sits and glue the gasket in place, It will be fine then, The problem is that the chrome is slippery and as you do up the bolts the gasket slides.
I also use magnets in my engines, costs nothing and can save a lot.

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Originally Posted by Mike P

Hi Dave, I know this doesn't pertain to your question about the magnets, but I thought I'd go ahead and throw it out here for what it's worth.

If you’re going to the trouble to change the pan, I would strongly suggest that you find an OE pan rather than using an aftermarket one. The customers Fairlane I did a year ago had pan leak problems with chrome pan he had used. After not being able to get the chrome pan to seal, I went ahead and ordered a new aftermarket plain steel painted pan. It leaked worse than the chrome one.

I ended up going to the local wrecking yard and pulling an OE pan which finally cured the leaks. I’ve used aftermarket pans in the past with good luck, even chrome ones. After fighting the last one however, I’m a little leery about using them again.

Mike - I gave that a thought. Unfortunately Ford stopped using front sump pans (which my car chassis requires) a way long ago. Any OEM examples left in a rust belt salvage yard are either rusted through or will be the first time I get caught in the rain. I purchased a Summit aftermarket replacement which appears to be at least a steel gauge heavier then the leaky Ford Racing chrome version on there now. The rails seem to be straight but can't really tell about the seal fit - and I use one piece gaskets along with the rail supports that came on the crate engine.

Then that pan isn't the primary reason I'm going into the engine bottom end

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Originally Posted by roadster32

Heres a tip that will solve your chrome pan problems, scuff up the chrome where the gasket sits and glue the gasket in place, It will be fine then, The problem is that the chrome is slippery and as you do up the bolts the gasket slides.
I also use magnets in my engines, costs nothing and can save a lot.

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Steve - that pan rail has been scuffed twice with, I believe, 180 grit almost to the point of taking the chrome off to bare metal. The gaskets were installed with Permatex spray sealer, then tied in place with thread so it wont move then an RTV applied at the seal corners to the bearing cap.

As many cars as I have either worked on or built, this one has leaked the most oils and has take more effort to fix then the rest totaled up, especially the champion of leakers, Ford 'Y' blocks - and that includes way back when I did this part time for a living for years.

For about $50, just going to replace the pan as it was coming off anyhow for other engine pain

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Only experience I've had with chrome pan, I hit the gasket surface with a wire wheel, on a 4" angle grinder, scuffed it up plenty, and no leaks.

I've got a stack of ridiculously strong magnets, I just might drop one in the pan on my next build.

“……I gave that a thought. Unfortunately Ford stopped using front sump pans (which my car chassis requires) a way long ago. Any OEM examples left in a rust belt salvage yard are either rusted through or will be the first time I get caught in the rain……”

Yeah Dave I sometimes forget where I live and that it’s not 20 years ago when I respond. I know what you mean about the pan certain parts supplies drying up.

The pan I eventually ended up using was the last 351W pan in the yard and it was still on the engine in the car. I had purchased the plain aftermarket pan to avoid having to pull the pan in the wrecking yard and all I ended up doing was wasting a bunch of time and eating the cost of the aftermarket pan and a set of gaskets hence my earlier comments.

I realize all the aftermarket stuff doesn’t come from the same factory in china and hopefully you have better luck with your pan than I did.

Mike - unfortunately a 351 W pan wont fit a 5.0/302, also a Windsor built engine - I have an OEM version of one of those.

What happens around here is that where the steel is stretched on the sump, adjacent to the oil drain plug, it's so thin that it really doesn't take too many years for seepage to begin then a full on drooling leak.

The @#%$ Fel-Pro one piece pan gasket costs almost as much as the pan.

I do appreciate all of you folks responses. Sometimes I have the answer buried in the recesses of my OF brain - then just need some assistance with a successful recovery hence these seemingly dum' questions

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