Friday, November 2, 2012

Magnetic Drain Plugs

Magnetic engine oil drain plugs were not an option on any English Ford vehicle, to at least, up to the 1970's.
I've seen a few automatic transmissions that had a prolonged small iron magnet pressed into a drain plug but these are very weak compared to a new style magnet.

Attach a "rare earth magnet" ( Neodymium-Iron-Boron ) size: 3/8 x 1/8 to the threaded end of a drain plug by either drilling a 3/8" hole, approx. 1/8" deep for an Anglia 105E  3/4" x 24 plug type or epoxy to the end of a 1/2" x 20 plug i.e. Cortina MK2.

Once installed, this will allow you to observe any ferrous metal particles in the engine oil after an oil change.
Too much metal attached to the magnetic may indicate a problem with i.e. the camshaft lobes.

Manual transmissions have a cup-style drain plug to trap metal particles which are mostly syncro ring brass particles. By the way, the flat-end fill plug should not be installed as a drain plug.
Add a "rare earth magnet" or remove the old iron magnet on the drain plug for an Automatic Transmission.
Some of these transmissions had a iron slug magnet welded to the inner bottom of the pan which should be left in place.