My wife's '97 Safari Van had one stock from GM. "Had" is the
operative word..a goofball at the local lube shop rounded the
shoulders of the hex head trying to remove it with a pair of
channel locks. But I digress..anyway, the magnet did attract
small metal particles but they were so small that they felt like graphite
between my fingers. I am not sure if that is an indication of little
wear - good - or the magnet not working. Anyway, the only likely harm
if it doesn't help is wasting the few dollars you spend (less than a
burger?)
----------
> From: Michael D Gemelke <Michael.D.Gemelke@wdc.com>
> To: dakota-truck@buffnet.net
> Subject: RE: DML: 10w30 vs. 10w40 and syn oil
> Date: Monday, February 23, 1998 5:05 PM
>
> There are lots of these types of magnets around. The most functional one
> that I've seen is a magnetic oil plug. That way, when you unscrew the
> plug to change the oil you can wipe off the metal particals with a rag
> before replacing the plug. Seems like a good idea to me. I saw this in
> either JC Whitney or Summit, I forget which. It was only a couple of
> dollars.
>
> Anyone tried one of these?
>
> ----------
> From: Jon Steiger[SMTP:stei0302@cs.fredonia.edu]
> Sent: Monday, February 23, 1998 4:15 PM
> To: dakota-truck@buffnet.net
> Subject: Re: DML: 10w30 vs. 10w40 and syn oil
>
> On Mon, 23 Feb 1998, Jeff Lee wrote:
> [...]
> > Concerning Syn oil. The 2nd greatest cause of engine wear is not oil
> > breakdown - its DIRT and contamination. The longer you leave the oil in
> > between changes, the more dirt and combustion blow-by gases get
> > suspended in it, regardless of whether its syn or dino oil. Yes the oil
> > filter removes the big dirt particles, but not the microscopic
particles
> > or blow-by contamination.
>
> Yep, garbage in the oil is definitely a problem. I've heard of some
> people who put magnets on their oil filters which supposedly will trap
> some of the metallic particles. Anyone know if this works? Or could
this
>
> do any harm? I'd give it a shot as long as I'm sure it won't break
> anything,
> even if the gains are minimal. The one thing I can think of offhand
where
>
> it might cause harm is, say the magnet has collected a bunch of
fragments,
> and
> then it falls off. Suddenly, all these fragments are no longer spread
> throughout the oil, but they're going through the engine at the same
time,
>
> in one big clump! Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me...
>
> On a related note, does anyone regularly cut open their old filters to
> inspect them? This is done quite often in the aviation world; I was
> thinking
> of starting to do this... I'm too cheap to buy one of those pricey oil
> filter cutters though; I'd have to use a hacksaw and gallons of elbow
> grease.
> :-P
>
>
> >
> > IMHO the best thing you can do to combat the dirt and contamination
> > issue is change the oil and filter frequently. Unless you have
unlimited
> > financial resources (read independently wealthy or a high-paying job,
> > single, and no family to support) frequent syn oil changes becomes cost
> > prohibitive. Like someone said in an earlier post, I use dino oil and
> > change it with the filter every 3K miles. Filter cost aside, I can
> > change my oil 3 times with dino oil for one time with syn oil.
Overkill?
> > Yeah, probably...
>
>
> Well, I am single with no family, but I don't have a really well
paying
>
> job, however... I change my oil and filter every 3,000 miles. I use
> Mobil 1
> synthetic and I've been using Fram filters. Probably overkill, but I
> consider it worth it. Just a quick calculation here: If I assume that I
> will
> keep my truck for 100,000 miles, and that dino oil (Mobil 1) costs $1/qt.
> and
> syn oil (Mobil 1) costs $4/qt, the additional amount of money over the
> life
> of the vehicle would be: (5 quarts per oil & filter change)
>
> ($4 * 5) - ($1 * 5) = $20 - $5 = $15 per oil change
> 100,000 miles / 3,000 miles = 33.333... oil changes
> 33.333... oil changes * $15 per oil change = $500
>
> If I were to drive 20,000 miles per year, that'd be $100 per year, or
> $8.33
> per month.
>
> For me, that isn't cost prohibitive after I factor in the peace of
mind
> that I get from using synthetic oil.
>
> >
> > Just my 2 cents. I can hear the reply buttons clicking as this is
> > probably another one of those religious topics...
> >
>
> :-) The click heard 'round the world...
>
>
> -Jon-
>
> .--- stei0302@cs.fredonia.edu -- http://www.cs.fredonia.edu/~stei0302/
> ---.
> | DoD# 1038, EAA# 518210, NMA# 117376, USUA# A46209, KotWitDoDFAQ,
> RP-SEL |
> | '96 Dodge Dakota v8 SLT Club Cab, '96 Kolb FireFly 447 (#FF019)
> |
>
>
`-------------------------------------------------------------------------'
>
> I do not speak for the SUNY College at Fredonia; all opinions are my
> own.
>
>
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