Neat Oil Filter Trick

[Locke]

I believe the idea here is to have the magnets on the oil-filter to catch metal shavings prior to the filter media, improving the life of the filter media. A magnetic drain plug would catch metal only as it wandered near it in the pan. On the filter would catch them as they were picked up and pumped into the engine.

As pointed out, though, there should be very little metal shavings in your engine to begin with. During break in, you will get a lot from the rings and cylinder walls, but this is why you change the oil so frequently during break in. After this period, you have other serious problems if you think you need to be concerned.

Magnetic drain plugs and magnets on the filter will definitely not hurt anything though, and while there may not be a big reason to run them, there is no reason not to. If it matters any (heh) I don't have a magnetic drain plug or magnets on my filter. This is one of those "if you want to" things.

And of course when speaking of magnetics, every mention of "metals" I just made refers to Fe- metals.