I recall reading something about a magnetic oil plug. Anybody know if that's a good idea? *NM*

Not a Porsche recommended procedure, but has anyone done this? My indy mechanic recommends me do this at my next DIY oil change, and take pics of anything suspicious looking. Is Ultra Black RTV Gasket Silicon better than blue?

FWIW, I have a 2001 S with 63,000miles on the clock.

Peter



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2013 03:51PM by Petee_C. (view changes)

I have a 2001 S with 73K and have thought about dropping the pan but to date have not. I do cut and spread out the filter element for inspection after oil changes. No shiny or foreign matter yet so I don't worry about it. I think if it were to be found in the pan, it would also end up in the filter. My other motivation for dropping the pan is to make some sort of alteration to the baffles to prevent oil starvation at the track. Not sure if it is effective but did not appear terribly complicated.

Pedro, what do you recommend or not?

It's a good idea to drop the pan because these motors shed sealant throughout their lives and the sealant can clog the pickup tube with disastrous results. Just be sure that you use the absolute minimum of sealant when putting it back together. Less is more. The spec is a 1or 1.5 mm bead.

to a blocked intake from anything including sealant. The engines shed sealant -- the squeezed out portion that extends beyond the mating parts -- that breaks loose over time, but amount that breaks loose drops off quite rapidly from when the engine is put into service. If any engine did have a blocked oil intake it would happen shortly after the car was put into service.

The stuff is quite pliable and in hot oil would not block the screen but get pulled through it into the oil pump and then pumped to the filter housing. Open up a new engine's oil filter housing and see the trash some of it sealant bits. I did with my new Cayman S at around 750 miles.

I say it again there's no need with an otherwise healthy engine to pull/drop the oil pan to look for anything unless you suspect you dropped your wedding ring in the oil filler tube opening.

It is drop the pan here. In the UK there appears to be a growing desire to borescope the cylinders, even for engines that appear to run fine and show no signs of requiring this level of inspection which by itself can can lead to false positives.

Next someone will advise a regular engine x-ray, or head removal to count the valves or some other nonsense.

If I were upgrading the pan (baffled, etc), then I would think about it(dropping the sump/pan). The majority of any debris will make it's way to the filter pretty fast. I check ours annually, and have yet to find anything. We're at 61k on an 01 base, which I'll probably upgrade the chain tensioner's in the next year or two. For sealant, I'd go with what the factory recommends for the application.
regards

a) put in the guardian, or
b) replace it altogether with a more durable version, presumably pedro's but i have not looked into it in any detail

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

[i43.tinypic.com]

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

and it might give a false sense of security.

Again - inspection helps. Or replacement. And from what i've seen, cars that are used hard and maintained well have far fewer problems, so drive it, maintain it, keep moisture and acid out fo the crankcase, dont use hard when cold, change oil, and enjoy.

Onaffected cars i would ( and did, twice) do the LN (or PG) kit when the clutch and thus tranny was out.

Grant

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com

Top 5 reasons:
1) Oil filter will pick up shrapnel
2) Magnetic drain plug won't even capture all iron pieces so it won't save you
3) Drain plugs are designed to be sacrificial. Many mag ones are not.
4) More expensive but no better*
5) Problems can be detected effectively by inspecting the oil filter

Magnetic drain plugs are a solution looking for a problem.

* They are actually better in one inconsequential way, namely that the hex socket doesn't strip as easily as stock. But replacement stock plugs are reusable and super cheap.

By clean, I presume that's a new filter. Never pulled one out of my car THAT clean.

Quote
Petee_C
Not a Porsche recommended procedure, but has anyone done this? My indy mechanic recommends me do this at my next DIY oil change, and take pics of anything suspicious looking. Is Ultra Black RTV Gasket Silicon better than blue?

FWIW, I have a 2001 S with 63,000miles on the clock.

Peter

but it really is just senseless to do for no real reason. It is not even good diagnostics since the chances are it can deliver a false positive that can have one tearing into the engine for no real reason. Seriously the odds are there is some "scary" debris in the pan that has been there since the engine was still in the engine factory.

It can be a useful diagnostics action when something amiss is suspected. All one gets in the filter are tiny bits of debris. In the pan they can be larger and thus easier to classify.

My advice is leave the pan alone.