Gyrobob
Serious Thumper
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Posers ain't motorcyclists
Posts: 2571
Newnan, GA
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[quote author=1C3F3735363F3F3621530 link=1314067693/0#10 date=1314436717]Gyrobob,
Thou speakest what thy knowest not what of --- Savage motors when new make a lot of loose ferrous trash that is collected by magnetic drain plugs in the form of a oozy black paste with little discrete chunks inside it.
Our transmission dogs make slivers (yeah little tiny metal daggers) and little tiny edge chunks.
They do this for around the first 10.000 miles .... then the flow declines to just a smattering of tiny particles at each yearly magnet change.
Thus speaks somebody that had a drain plug magnet in at 480 miles and searched out the main magnet trick because he was shocked at what he found on the little spud. The oldtimers back then freely admitted their drain plug magnets always had mud on them and I knew the little drain plug trick wasn't catching all of it by a long shot.
And yeah, I too once thought most of the solids would be aluminum or something from the clutch pack -- but I learned differently by sorting out the stuff from the filter itself. It is almost 100% ferrous.
Sorry. I was speaking mostly of what is found true in aircraft. The manufacturers, and a few million mechanics (and the knowledge obtained from few hundred thousand personally savored miles on our beloved vehicles) understand that the magnet schmagnets do have some value, but that value is only to provide some warning of a motor that is about to die and possibly cause some people to die.
Most of them will testify that as a way to prevent errant metal powder from getting into the oil system and getting pumped into important places, they are not effective at all. The metal stuff that falls to the bottom of the crankcase has very little chance of being sent out to the rest of the engine, schmagnet or not. If it happens to get close enough to the schmagnet, and if it is ferrous, it might stick to the magnet. Whatever.
If we could do a properly documented study of 100 LS650 motors in real life run to failure equipped with a schmagnet, and compare those results to 100 LS650 motors run to failure equipped with a stock drain plug, I would be very surprised if there were any longevity differences between the schmagnet motors and the drain plug motors. This assumes they were run to failure,..... I will admit, still, that in real life, if you were not checking the filters, and if you were checking the schmagnets, you might be able to save a few catastrophic failures by noticing a sudden increase in large metal chunks on the schmagnet. Then again, if the chunks are that obvious you'd probably notice them when they fell out of the drain hole, not to mention what you'd see in a cut-apart filter.
I'll also admit that the schmagnets are cheap, and except in one circumstance, have no downside at all, so it probably is just being conservative, even if unnecessarily so, to buy and use a schmagnet.
The one circumstance to which I allude, is the several cases documented (in autos and bikes and mowers etc.) where the magnet fell off the schmagnet. If you are one of the "i don't want loose metal powder in the bottom of my crankcase" cult, then your angst level might go up a little if you installed a schmagnet, not being able to sleep very well, tossing and turning over the possibility of a loose magnet wandering around inside the motor.
Go buy and install a schmagnet,... feel good about it,... life is great, eh?
The only real value to discussing this issue is the main reason this forum exists: a bunch of guys bandying about various positions on various issues. As a matter of any real importance, schmagnets don't mean diddly.
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