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Sun Jul 15, 2018 1:39 pm

If you source some low profile magnets, the magnets can be stuck on the inside of the sump plate, under the screen. There is space for a lot of magnets. A large area of magnets collects a lot of junk out of the oil verses a small drain plug magnet.

I used magnets about 3/16 inch tall on my sump plate.

I have a filter minisump on one Bug, magnets would not stick the the aluminum sump, so a steel disc was cut from sheet metal to fit in bottom of the minisump, with a hole in middle of disc for the drain plug. Magnets where then stuck to the disc, and disc and magnets fitted under the filter , at bottom of sump.

Make sure the magnets you use can take the heat. Some magnets, including very strong ones, lose their magnetism at typical motor oil temperatures. You can test them in an oven.

The current 356 Registry magazine has an article written in it about making a large area magnetic sump.

My Bug Has a Magnetic Personality, People Wave at My Bug All the Time.

Bug On!

Sun Jul 15, 2018 2:59 pm

Great Idea, The 356's had a huge magnet! Nowadays you can get the Neodymium magnets too. I should put some on my motors!

Sun Jul 15, 2018 4:51 pm

Use a regular hose clamp to attach a cow magnet (Google it) to the pickup tube. A 5/8 x 2-1/2 inch magnet has a surface area over 12 square inches.

Sun Jul 15, 2018 7:11 pm

Got any bad computer hard drives? Take it apart, pull the magnets out. Stick them to the outside of the metal oil cover. It will magnetize that section of the cover, and particles will stick to the inside. Those are not refrigerator magnets, they are strong.

Sun Jul 15, 2018 7:39 pm

"..... magnets can be stuck on the inside of the sump plate, under the screen."

Have you ever tried putting magnets on the outside of the sump plate around the drain plug and compared the results of inside verses outside magnets?

Sun Jul 15, 2018 7:43 pm

What good are magnets gonna do? Most of the wear surfaces are nonferrous, if you get metal on the magnets the engine is pretty much trashed at that point.

Sun Jul 15, 2018 7:55 pm

bomberbob wrote: Got any bad computer hard drives? Take it apart, pull the magnets out. Stick them to the outside of the metal oil cover. It will magnetize that section of the cover, and particles will stick to the inside. Those are not refrigerator magnets, they are strong.
I removed the magnets on an old Seagate Elite 5.25" hard drive. First time I stuck two of them together I nearly got pinched by the two magnets. It took my shop vise and some locking pliers to get them apart. Those things could do bodily harm if you aren't careful with them. Those things are seriously strong!

Sun Jul 15, 2018 8:07 pm

I use an empi magnetic drain plug. Just a small rare earth magnet. I have no idea if it's worth having a sump magnet at all on our cars.
There is very little ferrous metal in our engines, as someone pointed out. But it was fairly inexpensive, and at the time I had no oil filter, so I figured it was better than just the sump screen. I'm running an oil filter now, but I left the magnetic plug on too. I've yet to see anything on it at all. I guess that's good. The magnet itself is amazingly strong. I think it is Neodymium. Im not sure of more magnets is better here, especially given the brass/aluminum/magnesium components of our engines for outnbering the iron/steel. I guess it's cheap insurance.

Sun Jul 15, 2018 8:49 pm

goober wrote: "..... magnets can be stuck on the inside of the sump plate, under the screen."

Have you ever tried putting magnets on the outside of the sump plate around the drain plug and compared the results of inside verses outside magnets?

The magnetic field is shunted thru a metal plate such that the force of the magnet will be greatly diminished inside if magnets are attached outside of the sump plate.

Bug On!

Sun Jul 15, 2018 8:56 pm

TDCTDI wrote: What good are magnets gonna do? Most of the wear surfaces are nonferrous, if you get metal on the magnets the engine is pretty much trashed at that point.

The are likely more wear surfaces that are ferrous than not ferrous. The bearings and valve guides are half ferrous, half non ferrous. each of equal area. then we have ferrous to ferrous wear surfaces such as rockers, valve to valve seat, rings to cylinders, etc..

But even if non ferrous wear surfaces made up the majority, so long as there is ferrous wear, the magnet can remove the wear bits from circulation. I have magnets in engines that pick up metal bits and those engines are far from trash. some of these magnets have been in use since engine was new build.

Bug On! Use the force, the magnetic force!

Mon Jul 16, 2018 1:03 pm

Magnets are not a bad idea, but you should look into getting an oil filter/pump like CB Maxi 2 or the VW of Mexico one. With using a quality off the shelf oil filter like WIX makes, you will hardly ever find any metal on the sump plate. The one time we did over 30,000 miles of pulling the sump plate at each 3,000 mile tune up found one flake of metal that had gotten wedged under the sump strainer.

Mon Jul 16, 2018 7:41 pm

Eric&Barb wrote: Magnets are not a bad idea, but you should look into getting an oil filter/pump like CB Maxi 2 or the VW of Mexico one. With using a quality off the shelf oil filter like WIX makes, you will hardly ever find any metal on the sump plate. The one time we did over 30,000 miles of pulling the sump plate at each 3,000 mile tune up found one flake of metal that had gotten wedged under the sump strainer.

If you found any metal in an engine with a filter you might want to split the filter and squeeze the oil from the media in a vise and then check it for particles as that will be an eye opener for sure.

Mon Jul 16, 2018 7:51 pm

Eric&Barb wrote: Magnets are not a bad idea, but you should look into getting an oil filter/pump like CB Maxi 2 or the VW of Mexico one. With using a quality off the shelf oil filter like WIX makes, you will hardly ever find any metal on the sump plate. The one time we did over 30,000 miles of pulling the sump plate at each 3,000 mile tune up found one flake of metal that had gotten wedged under the sump strainer.
The only problem with the vw of Mexico one is that it only fits the 4 bolt cams (without modification). Otherwise, it wuld be nice to have "oem quality" for piece of mind.

Mon Jul 16, 2018 7:55 pm

73SlowBug wrote:
The only problem with the vw of Mexico one is that it only fits the 4 bolt cams (without modification). Otherwise, it wuld be nice to have "oem quality" for piece of mind.

Would not be too hard to modify or have such done, but that is why as stated before to the OP "should look into".

Mon Jul 16, 2018 7:58 pm

olspeed wrote:
If you found any metal in an engine with a filter you might want to split the filter and squeeze the oil from the media in a vise and then check it for particles as that will be an eye opener for sure.

Just going from always having metal on the sump plate to only finding one flake in 30,000 miles was enough of an eye opener.

Replaced rod bearings in a used engine with 20,000 miles since last rebuild from a friend, and installed oil filter/pump. Got about 10,000 miles more before crank broke. Found the now used rod bearings in perfect shape with only slight polish to them in the thrust directions!