Interesting Magent on Filter result

[woodlandfarms]

Darn.. Misspelled Magnet and now I can't change it...

So, After 50 hours I pulled all my filters (new to me tractor). It is an all hydraulic tractor. I had placed on the engine and hydraulic filter a series of magnets when installed. On the hydraulic filter, when I cut it open, I noticed 3 grey bars where the magnets where placed. Running my finger through, I did not notice and gritty or sandy texture, just slimy. What was also interesting was that the filter itself was dark in the areas that the magnet was in, and light (normal) colored everywhere else.

On the engine filter, there was no markings on the inside whatsoever...

Carl

 

[workinallthetime]

nothing really weird about that, allison spin on trans filters have one mounted by the threads that has to be transfered to the next filter

 

[joerocker]

So...you're thinking it's REALLY small metal particles?

Hmmm...maybe I'll add some too.

 

[woodlandfarms]

I have to say I am not sure what it was. Clearly ferous (cause it stuck the the magnet). PT has a 10 micron filter, a lot of guys in PT land are working on secondary filtering to take the machine to 2 microns, usually by using a filter cart. So, It did remove something out of the system so additional filtering is always a good thing, just not sure how damaging something like that sludge really is...

Carl

 

[Slacker]

I'll be adding some magnets on my filters this weekend. I just busted up a few old hard drives, the magnets are pretty strong and I hate to waste them.
BTW, how did you attach the magnets to the filters? Tape? The magnets I have are strong enough to stay put, but brush may take them off.

 

[woodlandfarms]

my engine is in a cage so no brush worries, and yes, I used the same magnets...

Carl

 

[3RRL]

So...you're thinking it's REALLY small metal particles?

Hmmm...maybe I'll add some too.

There's no doubt about it JoeRocker.
My Kama had a magnet inside the suction strainer and it collected microscopic particles of metal. It felt just like described, kind of a gray sludge. When I changed it out to put the Northern Spin on Suction Strainer, I added magnets to the spin on filter, because I didn't want to lose that feature.
See post #10 in this thread:
Spin on Filter added Magnets too

 

[mrutkaus]

VERY interesting, THANKS a lot for the scientific results!!

Been using various magnets for several years, never took the trouble to check on them.

At a yard sale once I got some finely made metal blocks onto which you put a substance; you scrape it with another block and the scrape trail shows on markings on the block the size of the particles in microns.

If you want to send me a nice quantity of that stuff I could try it.

Mike
Winchester VA

 

[KICK]

imagine????, ferrous particles were attracted to a magnet.


dont get too worked up about it. LOL.

 

[john_bud]

Getting particles out is a good thing.

Will a particle that escapes a 10 micron filter do bad things? Depends.

First off, a 10 micron filter could be "nominal" filtration and it will only catch about 80% of the particles 10 microns and larger. It will pass 25-50 micron particles. A 10 micron "Absolute" filter will be better, but will still pass large particles. A high quality filter will have "beta" information. That is the % of particles that are caught. So a 10 micron absolute filter with a 0.97 beta will catch 97% of the 10 micron particles. If you miss oil changes and the by pass opens, unfiltered oil goes right past the media and to the bearings.

Remember that bearing clearance is about 35 microns. The crank also bounces around in that space on the oil cushion. That 35 can slip down to 25 or 15 or 10 or even near zero. Many high hour engines have scrape marks in the bearings from "stuff" getting embedded and scratching the crank and insert. Cleaner is better, no question. I too have old HDD magnets and have 2-3 on the HST, Hydraulic and engine oil filters also on the truck's oil filters. Cost is about free and why not?

But with that said, it's probably more of a "feel good" solution than any thing else, but I like to feel good!

jb