And what about magnets on an oil filter

[woodlandfarms]

Patrick G mentioned putting them on his oil filter... A friend of mine (ksimolo) is putting one inside his oil tank. I would love to just put a magnet on the filter but am looking for opinions.

This filter on my machine is taking 3000PSI at 30GPM. My tractor is totally hydraulic (like a skip loader) and it has a 25 gallon oil tank.

So this is my edit of this post. I have looked at the various companies who sell these and see the claims. One thing they all say is that they take your 10mil filter and make it into a 2 or a 1 by magnetically removing particulates.

My one big concern is that these filters have anti flow valves and some sort of spring / plate at the bottom, would this magnet effect that?

And if this all that it is supposed to be, anyone have a brand they can recommend for a large (5") filter.

Carl

 

[DieselPower]

Hmm, let's see a totaly hydraulic tractor, 3,000 PSI and 30 GPM. Must be a PT.

In NO WAY can a magnet change the delta rating / micron rating of a oil filter. The magnet only holds ferous metal particles so it will not hold silica, lead, copper, brass..... They do however work rather well at trapping ferous metals.

By far the one of the better ones (and the one I use on a couple vehicles) is the Filter Mag. FilterMAG: Magnetic Oil Filters finish the Job Your Filter Started. The only downfall is they are not cheap but they do last forever.

 

[KICK]

like DP sed, it will only catch iron particles.

FWIW,you could always bust open an old permanent magnet lectric motor and use the magnets out of the motor on the outside of an oil filter.

of dubious value in either respect, particles generally get caught in the filter media anyway.

 

[cp1969]

What is the point? The filter media will trap the particles more efficiently than a magnet.

 

[DieselPower]

A filter will NOT catch all particles. Filters have beta rating's that measure their filtering effiency. Most regular filters only filter in the 25-15 micron range. The magnet can catch particles to small for a filter to catch. Remember particles as small as 2-3 micron can cause damage.

 

[KICK]

I've often heard that particles that are smaller than the minimal clearances inside an engine simply flow thru without causing much damage.

1 micron is .000254" or 1/25400 or one millionth of a meter or 1/1000ths of a mm for you metric fans.

so it follows that if you had .002" clearance between a bearing shell and a journal a particle smaller than 10 microns will probably flow right thru the passage and bearing surfaces without being lodged where it will start to grind away at things.

doesn't preclude wanting to filter the oil as cleanly as possible but apparently the stuff that is just big enuf to get lodged in between moving parts but not so big that it cant get wedged in that same place are the most bothersome contaminants in a lubrication system.

but its all a big whatever, in the end.

 

[cp1969]

A filter will NOT catch all particles. Filters have beta rating's that measure their filtering effiency. Most regular filters only filter in the 25-15 micron range. The magnet can catch particles to small for a filter to catch. Remember particles as small as 2-3 micron can cause damage.

The manufacturer's recommended filter will catch anything worth catching.

 

[DieselPower]

There usually is a .002" clearance on parts like bearing's. However, under load these clearances can shrink quite a bit. The crank bearing is a good example of that. Under full load the clearance can shrink well under .001". There are other parts like lifters, rockers, gears, chains... that have no clearance at all save a hydrodynamic layer of oil.

 

[DieselPower]

The manufacturer's recommended filter will catch anything worth catching.

Your free to believe whatever you like. Numerous test have shown over the years how long equipment life can be extended by simply installing bypass filtration systems. Sometimes good just isn't good enough.

 

[john_bud]

I have been putting magnets on oil filters for about 10 years. But being a cheap SOB, there was no way I was going to PAY for some magnet. Fortunately, old hard disc drives have some very strong magnets used to move the slider head assembly. Go to your IT department and ask them if they have any non-functional HDD. You need a wee little torq driver to get them apart, or a drill. (I use the drill to drill the torq heads off).