[F87source]

Introduction:

So in this product review I will be taking a look at the turner motorsports titanium magnetic drain plug, and why this is the only magnetic drain plug you should buy for your bmw. Before we begin I must thank ECS tuning/Turner motorsports for giving me a partial discount on the products that I will be using in this review, however I will be as unbiased as possible despite that.

Disclaimer:

Any technical advice, installation instruction, or product installation is done so at your own risk I will not be responsible for personal injuries, injuries to others or any living being, or any damage to your car, or any property damage.


Credits:

Images and videos used in this review are all property of their rightful owners as credited below each image, I am just using them for the purpose of this review but if you (the owner of the image) would like them removed please let me know via pm. Otherwise thanks to the owners (I made sure to credit your online name and link where I found the photo) of the photos, without you this review would be so much more bland.


Quick intro for those of you that don’t like long articles:

Cheap magnetic drain plugs made of brass or aluminium commonly break leaving the body of the bolt inside your drain pan resulting in alot of struggles to extract it. Cheap magnetic drain plugs can also have incorrect thread pitches and diameters that will result in damage to your oil pan threads. These cheap magnetic drain plugs can also utilize cheap neodymium magnets that loose their magnetic abilities at temperatures lower than what your engine oil gets to during operating conditions, this means that the magnetic drain plug will let go of all the metal debris it has stuck to until it cools down meaning it is essentially useless. The turner motorsports titanium magnetic drain plug address all of these issues and provides a magnetic drain plug that has no flaws that a cheaper plug or even a more expensive drain plug may have. Overall if you are looking for a magnetic drain plug this is the best magnetic drain plug available in my opinion.


Table of contents:

1) Risk of a Cheap aluminium or brass drain plug

2) Benefits of titanium drain plugs over aluminium and brass drain plugs

a) Defining metal tensile strength and yield strength

b) Metal tensile strength and yield strengths

c) Summary of why cheap drain plugs fail

3) Turner motorsports titanium oil drain plug
a) Quick overview with pictures
b) Specs
i) Thread pitch
ii) Diameter
iii) Hex size
iv) Copper washer fitment
v) Magnetic strength and talk about surface area

c) Images of the drain plug fully installed

d) Addressing some concerns
i) Stripping threads
ii) Drain Plug diameter
iii) Drain Plug thread pitch
iv) Magnets coming loose
v) Head rounding off

e) Additional stock drain bolt images

f) Summary



Risk of a cheap aluminium or brass drain plug:

So why should you use a titanium magnetic drain plug over a brass or aluminium drain plug? There are a few reasons for this, but one reason is cheaply made plugs often found on aliexpress can have the incorrect thread pitch or bolt diameter leaving your oil pan threads stripped (and if you own an ///M vehicle the oil pans are $1000 USD so it is best not to risk it), more on this later on. Another reason is because the weaker brass and aluminium drain plugs are susceptible to breaking at quite low torque specs and this can leave the end of the plug stuck in the oil drain pan threads resulting in a huge hassle to extract this portion of the bolt.
Here are some examples of this:

https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...84&postcount=7
This m2C owner has had an aluminium magnetic drain plug snap in the oil pan long before the torque required to crush the copper washer was achieved.


Credit: Diamente Post #16 https://www.toyotanation.com/threads...#post-13124826


Credit: Diamente Post #16 https://www.toyotanation.com/threads...#post-13124826


In these images you see a toyota owner with a broken magnetic drain plug from Greddy which is also aluminium.


The benefits of titanium drain plugs over aluminium and brass drain plugs:


Defining metal tensile strength and yield strength:

To explain this we must go into terms such as yield strength, and tensile strength.


Yield Strength: How much force it takes to induce plastic deformation and permanently deform the bolt, meaning the bolt is permanently stretched and will not spring back to its preloaded length after releasing (unscrewing) the fastener. This is an important metric because if the yield strength is too low you can end up stretching a drain bolt over and over again while torquing a plug resulting in its fatigue and eventual failure.


Tensile Strength: How much force a bolt is able to resist in its axial (lengthwise) direction before failing aka snapping/breaking.


Before we go into the strength comparison below we need to note that the turner motorsports titanium drain plug is made out of grade 5 Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy.


Metal Tensile and Yield Strengths:

Titanium Grade 5 Ti-6Al-4V Alloy: Tensile strength = ≥ 895 MPa, Yield strength = ≥ 828 MPa
Credit: https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=9299


Brass: Tensile strength = 360 MPa, Yield strength = 140 MPa
Credit: https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=6380

Aluminium 6061 Alloy: Tensile Strength = 310 MPa, Yield Strength = 276 MPa
Credit: https://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=6636


So looking at this data we can see titanium (Ti-6Al-4V alloy used by turner motorsports in their drain plug) is nearly ~3X stronger than both the 6061 aluminium alloy and brass alloys in terms of tensile strength. The titanium is also nearly ~4x stronger than aluminium in terms of yield strength and nearly ~8X stronger than brass in terms of yield strength. So straight off the bat we are dealing with a significantly stronger metal meaning it will take much higher torques to break a drain plug made of this material, and you are more likely to strip the threads out of your aluminium drain pan before breaking the plug in terms of maximum torque you can apply. This is great because the common reports of failure was that cheaper plugs broke before the prescribed torque specs were reached, so making these plugs out of titanium will prevent that from ever happening, and prevent fatigue induced failures. This is even more important because magnetic drain plugs are hollow inside for magnet placement, so they are already weaker than solid bolts so a strong metal is really vital to avoid breaks.


Quickly looking at the cheaper plugs we can speculate that they fail due to the following reasons:

1) The problem normally occurs because of the fact that alot of people working on these cars do not use torque wrenches or poorly calibrated torque wrenches. You commonly hear of owners saying “it is tight when it is tight”, “wrist tight”, “one ugga dugga” etc. When gauging how much torque or how tight they should have their drain bolts. Well this is a problem especially on cheaper magnetic drain plugs because they are made of aluminium or brass which has a really low tensile strength which you can easily exceed if you are not being careful and thus end up breaking the bolt.

2) Reuse of old copper washers. I can’t believe I even have to bring this up but the copper washers are single use only, once they are crushed down they are finished. If you reuse them at the bmw prescribed torque they will leak and if you try to stop the leak with more torque to crush it down more then you will either strip your pan or break your bolt.

3) Even if tensile strength limits of a bolt is not exceeded one can still reach the yield point of the bolt which can cause permanent plastic deformation of the bolt forever weakening it due to fatigue (this is why you should never reuse torque to yield bolts). Over time if this is done alot your bolt will snap.

4) The bolt gets a bit seized due to road debris (this one is not very likely because bmw puts a nice cover to protect the drain plug, unless you have an M car because the stiffening plate does not have a cover, but the situation as a whole is also no likely unless you live in a really dirty environment) and the force it take to break the bolt free is higher than the tensile strength of the bolt resulting in breaks.

5) Metal impurities weakening the metal

Overall I have seen alot of horror stories of aluminium and brass drain bolts snapping inside of the oil sump, and this is what prevented me from buying a magnetic drain plug until finally Turner motorsports solved this issue by releasing a magnetic drain plug made out of titanium. This stronger metal that the turner motorsports drain plug is constructed out of should prevent any breaking issues regardless if you over tighten it (you are more likely to strip out your oil pan threads so please use a properly calibrated torque wrench these sumps are expensive to replace at $1k for M vehicles and alot of labour costs as well if you cannot diy, and the walls of the drain hole are so thin you cannot timersert or helicoil it), the bolt gets seized from road debris, and even if there were small impurities in the metal the overall strength of titanium should be high enough to compensate and prevent failure.


Turner motorsports titanium magnetic drain plug:


Quick overview - with pictures:

So lets begin our over view of this magnetic drain plug!


Credit: F87source


Credit: F87source


Credit: F87source


Credit: F87source


Credit: F87source


Credit: F87source


Specs:

Now lets discuss some of the specs of this titanium magnetic drain plug.

i) Thread pitch: The thread pitch of the turner motorsports titanium magnetic drain plug is M12 X 1.5 X 20, so the pitch is 1.5 mm. Comparing this to the stock plug that has been used pretty much on all bmws for the last couple of decades, the stock plug is M12 X 1.5 X 16 (https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/par...&q=11137535106).

Here are some images of the turner motorsports titanium magnetic drain plug and stock drain plug having their thread pitch measured, and being meshed together to ensure there are no thread pitch anomalies. Note that metric bolts have a 60 degree thread angle so my thread pitch tool will also verify this angle if it fits snugly.


Credit: F87source


Credit: F87source


Credit: F87source


Credit: F87source


As you can see by these images the turner motorsports titanium magnetic drain plug’s thread pitch is exactly the 1.5 mm as required by the bmw oil pan, and is perfectly meshed with the stock plug and thread pitch gauge. This means that the thread pitch of this drain bolt is perfect and will not cause any issues. The only difference is that the turner motorsports titanium magnetic drain plug is 20 mm long vs 16 mm of the stock plug. The length discrepancy however is not an issue due to the fact that the there is nothing the plug can hit even if it is longer.

ii) Diameter: Next we will examine the diameter bolt of the turner motorsports titanium magnetic drain plug compared to the stock one with digital calipers, and with a swiping technique to get the maximum diameter (major diameter) of a cylindrical object.


Credit: F87source


Credit: F87source



As you can see by these images the turner motorsports titanium magnetic drain bolt has a major diameter of 11.90 mm and the stock drain bolt has a major diameter of 11.77 mm.


iii) Hex size: The turner motorsports titanium drain plug also features a 17mm hex which is the same size as the factory drain plug. Here is an image of the hex being measured with digital calipers.


Credit: F87source


Credit: F87source


Credit: F87Source


As you can see the hex is exactly 17.00 mm so it will fit perfectly in hex sockets (which are actually slightly bigger than 17.00 mm by a small amount) with nearly no play, this means that the hex will not suffer from damage by being slightly too small which means there will be play in the socket. The hex also has a decent depth of 7.51 mm as well so it will be able to better fit hex sockets without “slipping out” even when flush against the oil pan. The stock drain plug actually has a hex that is 16.56 mm so a bit off of the 17.00 mm so it actually has a bit more play vs the turner bolt in a 17 mm socket as those (like I just said) sockets are slightly bigger than 17 mm to account for bolt tolerances.

iv) Copper washer fitment: I was not able to get images of the various washer fitments while performing the oil change but here is what I noted:

a) The included copper washer with the turner motorsports titanium magnetic drain bolt had a larger diameter compared to the genuine Bmw copper washer that was present from my last dealership performed oil change. However the thickness remains the same. With this washer it will be larger than the hex of either the turner or stock bolt and stick out.

b) The genuine Bmw copper washer was the exact same in terms of diameter and thickness as the copper washer that was included in the mann hu8011z oil filter (this is the exact same one as the genuine Bmw oil filter minus the ///M logo, all the part numbers on the filter from mann were the same). With this washer it will be smaller than the hex head and stay quite hidden underneath the stock bolt or the turner bolt.

c) What I noticed was that despite the Turner provided copper washer having a larger diameter it doesn’t really perform any differently than the stock or mann supplied copper washer. This is because there is a small circular raised lip underneath of the titanium plug’s hex, this is the only part that contacts the copper washer and it is a bit smaller than the genuine Bmw/Mann copper washer. So having a larger washer wouldn’t really benefit it too much as all the force that crushes the washer down is in a diameter smaller than the larger turner washer. The stock drain bolt behaves the same way with the washer being actually smaller than the hex just like on the turner drain bolt, so a larger washer wouldn’t really benefit anything in terms of providing more seal as the outer edges wouldn’t be crushed down anyways.

So overall I opted to use the mann crush washer and there have been zero issues/leaks.



v) Magnetic grade strength and surface area: Not many people think about the magnet type itself when purchasing a magnetic drain plug, but I am here to tell you that not all magnets are the same for the reasons below.

The turner motorsports titanium magnetic drain plug utilizes a neodymium grade n42 type SH magnet (https://www.albmagnets.com/neodymium...ts-grades.html) which retains its magnetic efficacy up to 150℃, however when talking to an engineer from Turner motorsports he informed me in their testing efficacy of the magnet was not lost until 204℃. These numbers are incredibly good especially since bmw starts to cut power at 132℃ and full limp mode occurs before 150℃ - so you will never have to worry about the magnet loosing its ability to cling onto metal particles even at high track temps. This is fantastic because some cheaper magnetic drain plugs utilize cheap magnets which lose their efficacy at 80℃ meaning it will not work even when the engine is below operating temperature (operating temps for oil is at 90℃). So essentially when your car warms up those cheapo magnets let go of all the metal they have captured and let it free directly into the oil pick up.... Then the only time they will capture anything is when the engine is off and the oil has cooled down and that means they are only able to catch particles that have settled onto the magnet, as opposed to when the engine is on and oil is sloshing around. So here you can see not all magnets are made the same and thus if you cheap out on a drain plug you could essentially get a useless paper weight.

The strength of this magnet is also really impressive, it can hold a large wrench and still provide a decent bit of retention even when I pull against it with the help of gravity. So that is really nice, and note even if those cheaper magnetic drain plugs can hold alot of weight if the magnet grade is not designed for high temps then all that strength is for nothing.



But speaking in terms of a numbers side of things neodymium grade n42 magnets have a Br rating (it is the magnetic property that is independent of magnet shape and is the magnetic induction remaining after a magnetic field has been removed from a magnetic material it is trying to induce a magnetic field in) of 13,200 Gauss (https://www.kjmagnetics.com/blog.asp...20the%20magnet.) while offering the highest operating temperature possible. So essentially it is a really strong magnet even compared to the competition which offers neodymium magnets in the low 4 digit gauss ratings.


Finally I must mention surface area. This magnetic drain plug has some of the best magnet surface area out there, because the not only is the tip of the magnet exposed but the magnet also protrudes out giving it more surface area than even some of the best brand name plugs out there. This helps the plug capture more metallic debris than any of the other competitors that may rival this drain plug.


Images of the drain plug fully installed:


Credit: F87source


Credit: F87source

So here are my install images of the turner motorsports titanium magnetic drain plug on my bmw m2. The first image shows a view directly underneath of the drain plug and as you can see it fits perfectly in the hole, and has plenty of clearance all the way around for a 17 mm socket. There is nothing abnormal with the way it fits and does not cause any issues. Overall it fits perfectly and looks quite nice.

The second image shows a side view of the drain plug and you can see the mann hu8011z supplied copper crush washer underneath of the drain plug fitting perfectly just like how it would on the stock drain bolt. There has been zero leaks after 2 weeks of my pennzoil platinum euro 5w40 oil change and the drain plug being installed, a lot of hard km’s have also been put on it with oil temperatures reaching 98C and there has been no issues whatsoever. So I am very happy thus far with the fit and finish of this drain bolt it has given me no issues at all.



Addressing some concerns:

While doing research for this review I have stumbled upon a couple of concerns and a bunch of misinformation regarding issues with magnetic drain plugs and I would like to address them.


1) Stripping threads: I have heard so much about how after market plugs can strip the oil drain pan plugs, but this generally is not the case. If the aftermarket drain plug has the same thread pitch, and plug diameter as the stock drain plug stripping can only be due to these reasons I have listed below (note aluminium pans already have weaker threads than steel pans):

a) The threads in the oil pan are not cleaned out during oil changes and residual oil acts like a torque multiplier and you end up putting more torque on the drain plug than what was required resulting in faituging of the threads. This over time and repetitive cycles will cause the drain pan threads to fail.

b) Reuse of the factory crush washer, again you have to over tighten the drain plug as a result to compensate for any leaks due to the crush washer already being crushed down, resulting in stripped threads.

c) Not using a torque wrench and using the bmw prescribed torque specs and thus over tightening the pan (this is the big one).

d) Cross threading the drain plug because it was not put in by hand first.

e) Use of impact tools or any power tools on the drain bolt.

2) Drain plug diameter: Before we can discuss this I must include an image demonstrating diameters.


Credit: Site admin from all America thread products, August 28, 2015. https://330zpr17apfr1j45wba4i5dj-wpe...-1-768x327.jpg

From this image you can see there are a couple of different parameters that a bolt may have:

a) major diameter: the outermost diameter and the one that classifies what type of bolt it is eg m12 or m8 etc. (I measured the turner motorsports titanium magnetic drain bolt’s major diameter above).

b) minor diameter the innermost diameter the pitch diameter the midpoint between the major and minor diameter

c) the thread angle this is another factor that determines if a bolt is metric or inch based, for eg. metric bolts have 60 degrees of thread angle (my thread pitch tool was 60 degrees so it also measured thread angle as a result of measuring thread pitch).

d) pitch which determines the spacing between the threads (as we have measured earlier).

So I have also heard chatter about how aftermarket drain plug major diameters are smaller than stock or smaller than the required 12.00 mm of an m12 drain bolt causing the drain plug to strip. Again this is complete nonsense, every bolt even the factory one (as measured above) can vary from the perfect 12.00 mm spec (actually no bolt should be exactly 12.00 mm in terms of major diameter otherwise it might get cause too much galling due to it being way too tight, or seize up from being too tight, and thermal expansion differences can play a problematic roll) of an m12 bolt due to manufacturing tolerances. So as long as the bolt is within the tolerance range for an m12 bolt which is generally around 11.732 mm - 11.968 mm (as per this source: https://www.engineersedge.com/hardwa...ead-sizes1.htm). Every source is slightly different in the hundredths or thousandths of a mm range so nothing too major as the general range is the same. Also note if your bolt has a thread that is a bit more round instead of sharp this can impact major diameter measurements as well adding to the mostly benign variation that we see bolt to bolt, so again this shows how major diameter can fluctuate alot so you should not panic if your bolt is not exactly 12.00 mm or slightly smaller than stock. When we look at the measurements I took above my turner motorsports magnetic drain plug is at 11.90 mm so it falls within this acceptable tolerance range as well so no issues with this plug. My stock drain bolt is 11.77 mm, so even smaller than the Turner bolt, but again in the acceptable tolerance range. Right away this debunks the “myth” that smaller bolts cause issues. It is simply not true and likely the reason for stripped threads was the mechanic did not torque to spec properly, or did not clean the threads of oil which acts like a torque multiplier.


What is more important is the pitch diameter which determines how much surface area of the thread makes contact with the oil pan threads, and this is verified via measuring minor diameter and major diameter and determining the average. Unfortunately the blades of my calipers were to thick to obtain the minor diameter of the drain bolt so I could not calculate pitch diameter. However I did perform a “wobble test” on both the stock and TMS drain plug. What the wobble test is - is that you thread in the bolt down the same number of threads and wobble it to see if it moves. If the bolt doesn’t move it is extremely tight in the hole and this could mean the minor or major diameter was too large and is touching the drain pan threads too much preventing any wobble. Since we know that the major diameter is acceptable for both bolts the minor diameter is what we would be testing. The stock bolt did have some wobble and from what I determined so did the TMS bolt to the same degree. This obviously isn’t super scientific but it did verify that nothing was out of spec to the point where there was alot of additional friction on the oil drain pan threads to where it would cause galling and potential stripping.

I also did mesh the two drain plugs together as seen in the images above and you do not see any gaps meaning thread pitch was good (also verified by my thread pitch gauge).


So in general if the major diameter is different than the M12 spec do not panic so long as the major diameter and all of the other diameters are within the acceptable range it is perfectly fine, remember when machining occurs there will always be minor error nothing is perfect when mass produced hence why a tolerance range exists. So don’t panic if you see posts of individuals saying a smaller bolt is bad and will strip your threads (most likely their pan threads were either already fatigued, or it was over torqued, or cross threaded, or maybe their bolt happened to be defective who knows), the engineering side of things says otherwise so long as your bolt is in the acceptable tolerance range you will be fine.


3) Thread pitch: This has also been a concern for alot of people. But with the turner motorsports titanium magnetic drain plug the thread pitch is the correct 1.5 mm as verified with my thread pitch gauge in the section 3 sub section 1. So you will not run into any issues with thread pitch when using the turner motorsports titanium magnetic drain plug.

4) Magnets coming loose: Ok this is only a concern with cheap magnetic plugs that rely on adhesives to hold the magnet in, because when the oil gets hot the adhesives fail and the magnet can come loose. Some cheaper plugs may use really weak adhesive and rely on the magnet to also stick to the metal plug, but the combination of poor adhesives that fail in high temperature situations and cheap magnets that loose their magnetic properties (as discussed earlier) at low temperatures will also cause the magnet to come loose. But honestly despite alot of research I did not see this issue too frequently.


Now with the turner motorsports titanium magnetic drain plug it is fit into the body of the plug using an interference press fit technique. This means that the hole is smaller than the size of the magnet so the retention of the magnet is unparalleled compared to any adhesives and will not weaken over time, and you should never have a magnet fall out unless you crack it or damage the plug body. Now turner motorsports have also informed me that they performed alot of thermal simulations so that the different expansion rates of the different metals (the neodymium magnet and titanium plug) will not be able to cause the magnet to come loose even at temperatures higher than what the engine will see. Another benefit of titanium for interference press fits is that the metal is extremely durable and strong, so you won’t have to worry about titanium fatiguing over time due to use and possibly stretching or deforming to the point where the magnet may slip out. So overall the magnet coming loose on this drain plug is a nonexistent issue.


5) Hex head rounding off: This is a really rare issue but I have heard complaints of this online. This issue is mainly due to the hex on magnetic drain bolts being alot smaller and shallower than the socket that you’re supposed to use which creates alot of play, or the user using an imperial socket instead of a metric one. This combined with a soft metal like aluminium can eventually result in the hex being rounded off. But this is a non-issue with the turner motorsports titanium magnetic drain plug which has an exactly 17.00 mm hex as shown by my caliper measurements in section 3 sub section iii labeled hex size. The depth of the hex is also sufficient enough that when used with a 17 mm socket there is no play and the sect doesn’t want to slip off the drain bolt (due to a lack of depth). Combine this with the fact that the plug is made of titanium means there is no chance that you will round the hex on this plug, you’re more likely to strip the threads on the drain pan before damaging this hex.


Additional stock drain bolt images:


Credit: F87source


Credit: F87source



Overall summary:

Overall in my opinion this is the best magnetic drain plug currently available due to its titanium construction which should prevent any breaking issues from ever occurring. It also features the correct thread pitch and diameter as previously described so no thread stripping of your oil pan should ever occur. The magnet itself is also the correct type to withstand higher oil temperatures that your car may ever experience without loosing magnet efficacy meaning this magnet will always work and be able to stick to any metal particles in your engine. The magnet also has more surface area than its competitors. So all of these features literally make it the best magnetic oil drain plug available imo, there literally is nothing else that I could find that I would say even comes close to this plug. It also is a really nice cheap mod every bmw owner should get because it can also help protect your engine from experiencing any additional wear and tear from metal debris.

[F87source]

Reserved for future posts

[aerobod]

A $10 steel magnetic drain plug from companies such as Dorman works perfectly fine, too.

[dradernh]

What is the galvanic corrosion potential between this titanium alloy and (what I assume is) the aluminum alloy of the oil pan?

[F87source]

Originally Posted by aerobod

A $10 steel magnetic drain plug from companies such as Dorman works perfectly fine, too.

No not true at all.

1) with cheaper magnetic drain bolts they compromise on magnet grade so they loose all efficacy at high temps. Essentially when oil gets hot the magnet let's go of all the metal shavings it has picked up. Then when it cools down it can stick to magnetic particles once again, but only within it's surroundings so the capture efficiency of these magnets are poor and equal only to just simply draining your oil sump. The metal has already circulated causing all the additional wear thus those cheapo magnets are useless. Why do you think all the good brands are so expensive? Because hest resistant neodymium magnets are expensive.

2) quality, those cheap steel plugs could have poor tolerances which is why you hear of stripped threads so often.

3) magnets are held in my adhesive so they can fall out, have fun recovering that. This was a huge concern for me looking into magnetic drain plugs, turner uses an interference press fit meaning the hole is smaller than the magnet - thus no adhesives are needed and zero risk of it falling out. Thermal expansion was also calculated for both materials so that is compensated and the titanium plug will never expand enough for the magnet to fall out. At the temperatures that it would expand enough for the magnet to fall out your engine would have failed from over heating and oil degredation would have been immense, at that point I'm worried about the engine not the plug.

4) poor fitment on the washer and oil pan. These cheapo plugs are made for universal fit not bmw specific applications.

[F87source]

Originally Posted by dradernh

What is the galvanic corrosion potential between this titanium alloy and (what I assume is) the aluminum alloy of the oil pan?

I don't suspect this to be an issue:

1) the stainless steel and aluminum pan have the same potential for galvanic corrosion and the bolts aren't seized.

2) there's a thin film of oil always present so that'll help form a barrier preventing any sort of corrosion.

3) it's an aluminum alloy and titanium alloy, not straight titanium and aluminum so I'm not sure if this affects galvanic corrosion.


Overall I'm not worried but I can ask the engineers at TMS to verify things.

[aerobod]

Originally Posted by F87source

No not true at all.

1) with cheaper magnetic drain bolts they compromise on magnet grade so they loose all efficacy at high temps. Essentially when oil gets hot the magnet let's go of all the metal shavings it has picked up. Then when it cools down it can stick to magnetic particles once again, but only within it's surroundings so the capture efficiency of these magnets are poor and equal only to just simply draining your oil sump. The metal has already circulated causing all the additional wear thus those cheapo magnets are useless. Why do you think all the good brands are so expensive? Because hest resistant neodymium magnets are expensive.

2) quality, those cheap steel plugs could have poor tolerances which is why you hear of stripped threads so often.

3) magnets are held in my adhesive so they can fall out, have fun recovering that. This was a huge concern for me looking into magnetic drain plugs, turner uses an interference press fit meaning the hole is smaller than the magnet - thus no adhesives are needed and zero risk of it falling out. Thermal expansion was also calculated for both materials so that is compensated and the titanium plug will never expand enough for the magnet to fall out. At the temperatures that it would expand enough for the magnet to fall out your engine would have failed from over heating and oil degredation would have been immense, at that point I'm worried about the engine not the plug.

4) poor fitment on the washer and oil pan. These cheapo plugs are made for universal fit not bmw specific applications.

There are plenty of good quality steel magnetic plugs used by OEM manufacturers which have not posed any problem in use. A standard 8.8 metric bolt from a reputable source with a rolled thread should not pose any problem to a full depth thread in an oil pan, unless substantially over torqued (25Nm is a standard torque for a drain plug, an M12 8.8 bolt can be torqued to 100Nm without say a 6mm diameter magnet in it, or 65Nm with one in there, about 150% the torque you could put on a titanium plug of the same dimensions, so strength isn't an issue).

Even a ferrite magnet will capture any microscopic steel particles in the oil without a problem, anything bigger and the engine is going to be ready to fail anyway, so a magnetic drain plug isn't going to save it, besides there must be an oil filter problem in an engine that passes debris larger than 20 microns, anyway.

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by F87source

Overall I'm not worried but I can ask the engineers at TMS to verify things.

Yeah, I didn't figure ECS/TMS would sell a part if this was likely to be an issue.

FWIW, I'm not in the market for the plug. I was just curious as it looks like the two metals are a ways apart on the table. I'm no expert in the matter, though.

[F87source]

Originally Posted by aerobod

There are plenty of good quality steel magnetic plugs used by OEM manufacturers which have not posed any problem in use. A standard 8.8 metric bolt from a reputable source with a rolled thread should not pose any problem to a full depth thread in an oil pan, unless substantially over torqued (25Nm is a standard torque for a drain plug, an M12 8.8 bolt can be torqued to 100Nm without say a 6mm diameter magnet in it, or 65Nm with one in there, about 150% the torque you could put on a titanium plug of the same dimensions, so strength isn't an issue).

Even a ferrite magnet will capture any microscopic steel particles in the oil without a problem, anything bigger and the engine is going to be ready to fail anyway, so a magnetic drain plug isn't going to save it, besides there must be an oil filter problem in an engine that passes debris larger than 20 microns, anyway.

The major problems still lay here:

1) Ferrite magnets are alot weaker than neodymium, so it depends on how fast the oil is moving in this area, and since it's near the pick up oil flows quickly and is extremely turbulent, so in a stationary situation Ferrite magnets may have no issue. But as the oil becomes more turbulent a stronger magnet is desired to enhance the ability to catch more. Remember magnetic field strength is inversely proportional to distance from the magnet so a stronger magnet is your friend to be able to pick up particles more effectively.


2) Ferrite magnets are also temperature sensitive, if you get a crappy Ferrite magnet which is highly likely in a cheap magnetic drain plug you're going to be out of luck.


3) almost all cheap magnetic plugs are neodymium and the non heat resistant grade. So if you cheap out on a magnetic drain plug chances are you're getting a paper weight.

4) Getting a generic m12 magnetic drain bolt isn't always the key, because if the head isn't big enough then you encounter crush washer sealing problems. If it's too big then clearance issues.


Overall I've never seen a good cheap magnetic drain bolt on sale for bmws, there are always compromises. The only other good plug that is acceptable is dimple, but the turner drain bolt even exceeds that one with a larger surface area drain bolt.


But yes the oil filter will do the most filtration, however the drain plug will aid in preventing any magnetic particles from entering circulation in the first place taking the edge of the unfiltered oil pump.


It's a cheap mod so imo everyone should have one, why not it's more functional than decals.

[F87source]

Originally Posted by dradernh

Yeah, I didn't figure ECS/TMS would sell a part if this was likely to be an issue.

FWIW, I'm not in the market for the plug. I was just curious as it looks like the two metals are a ways apart on the table. I'm no expert in the matter, though.

If salt water is present it could be an issue for raw titanium and raw aluminum. However no salt water would make it into the threads (which is coated with oil), and the bolt was is separated from the oil pan via a copper washer. Also it's not raw aluminum and titanium they both are a composite of other metals.

[aerobod]

Originally Posted by F87source

The major problems still lay here:

1) Ferrite magnets are alot weaker than neodymium, so it depends on how fast the oil is moving in this area, and since it's near the pick up oil flows quickly and is extremely turbulent, so in a stationary situation Ferrite magnets may have no issue. But as the oil becomes more turbulent a stronger magnet is desired to enhance the ability to catch more. Remember magnetic field strength is inversely proportional to distance from the magnet so a stronger magnet is your friend to be able to pick up particles more effectively.


2) Ferrite magnets are also temperature sensitive, if you get a crappy Ferrite magnet which is highly likely in a cheap magnetic drain plug you're going to be out of luck.


3) almost all cheap magnetic plugs are neodymium and the non heat resistant grade. So if you cheap out on a magnetic drain plug chances are you're getting a paper weight.

4) Getting a generic m12 magnetic drain bolt isn't always the key, because if the head isn't big enough then you encounter crush washer sealing problems. If it's too big then clearance issues.


Overall I've never seen a good cheap magnetic drain bolt on sale for bmws, there are always compromises. The only other good plug that is acceptable is dimple, but the turner drain bolt even exceeds that one with a larger surface area drain bolt.


But yes the oil filter will do the most filtration, however the drain plug will aid in preventing any magnetic particles from entering circulation in the first place taking the edge of the unfiltered oil pump.


It's a cheap mod so imo everyone should have one, why not it's more functional than decals.

Totally unnecessary mod, but fine if you think it is good.

Nothing wrong with steel drain plugs with or without a magnet, most of the metal wear in an engine that is detrimental doesn't involve steel wear, so a magnetic drain plug won't detect journal bearing wear until the engine needs rebuilding anyway, a reason why you typically only find magnetic drain plugs in LSD diffs and manual transmissions, where some steel wear can take place without forcing a rebuild.

[F87source]

Originally Posted by aerobod

Totally unnecessary mod, but fine if you think it is good.

Nothing wrong with steel drain plugs with or without a magnet, most of the metal wear in an engine that is detrimental doesn't involve steel wear, so a magnetic drain plug won't detect journal bearing wear until the engine needs rebuilding anyway, a reason why you typically only find magnetic drain plugs in LSD diffs and manual transmissions, where some steel wear can take place without forcing a rebuild.

This thread is about why this drain plug is the best one available, not whether you think it's a worth while mod or not.


They also sell titanium magnetic drain plugs for the active M diff, but that's irrelevant on 2 addicts.

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by F87source

This thread is about why this drain plug is the best one available, not whether you think it's a worth while mod or not.

There's something worth understanding here, and that is there are times when there is no "best" about a particular part. This is especially true when such a part is 6+ times the cost of a part that does the job just as well.

For me, I don't believe this is still like the 1970s, when many engines were still shedding metal particles in volumes that may have been worthy of magnetic drain plugs.

[F87source]

Originally Posted by dradernh

There's something worth understanding here, and that is there are times when there is no "best" about a particular part. This is especially true when such a part is 6+ times the cost of a part that does the job just as well.

For me, I don't believe this is still like the 1970s, when many engines were still shedding metal particles in volumes that may have been worthy of magnetic drain plugs.

Actually there is alot of metal that can be captured with a magnetic drain plug. I've seen some m4 guys with a decent amount of metallic sluge captured with a magnetic drain plug.


No like I said before, cheapo plugs actually do nothing with their magnets that aren't effective at high temps and can just snap off in the drain leaving a fun extraction process ahead.


If you disagree please find me a cheap plug that does the job just as well. I've done extensive searching and haven't found a suitable plug that I would feel comfortable using in my m2's oil sump which costs $1K USD. The only other plug that comes somewhat close is dimple.

[F87source]

Here's an F30 guy with a broken cheapo magnetic drain plug: https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1656251

I'll see if I can get some of those images of what bmw owners capture with their plugs, but it's a black grey metallic sludge.


In terms of an all aluminum block what you could expect to catch is likely from timing chain wear, piston rings if they're still steel. I was skeptical of it working as well because the n55 is all aluminum, but yet there are guys out there that are able to catch magnetic particles. I'm still unsure where exactly these particles originate but they still do catch things. So for $30 it's a decent little thing to have while picking up oil filters and oil. It's one of those things where it's nice to have but you hope to never rely on it like an air bag. Still better than spending money on an intake (unless you have a non mppk air box bottom and an air filter with the charcoal layer) or decals that's for sure.

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by F87source

Actually there is alot of metal that can be captured with a magnetic drain plug.

No problemo. Thanks for sharing.

[F87source]

Originally Posted by dradernh

No problemo. Thanks for sharing.

Also I was thinking the forged and cast variants of the n55 crankshaft is steel which can wear over time adding magnetic metallic fragments. The valvetronic system with it's worm gear (requires oiling) and eccentric shaft also wears (on some cars they wear rapidly and can fail requiring replacement, I know a few m2, me, m4 guys including myself needing a replacement under warranty - likely the extra metal during break in could have caused excessive wear usually one replacement is good for the life of the car). These metallic components I believe are steel and wear introducing magnetic particles into the oil supply. So these could be likely candidates for the magnetic sludge picked up by bmw guys with magnetic drain bolts.


So imo these magnetic drain bolts are cheap mods and don't hurt to have (unless you guys cheapo one), they can only benefit your car.

[F87source]

Originally Posted by dradernh

What is the galvanic corrosion potential between this titanium alloy and (what I assume is) the aluminum alloy of the oil pan?

Ok so I spoke with the engineer at turner motorsports about this issue and pretty much what I said before was correct.

So here is the reply:

Originally Posted by Engineering from ECS tuning/ Turner motorsports

the oil film and lack of salinity are going to prevent that from being an issue. Also keep in mind that there is a copper seal preventing contact between the head of the drain bolt and the pan, which is going to prevent any salt water ingress into the threads. Additionally, copper falls between titanium and aluminum on the galvanic scale, so it is an ideal buffer for the two dissimilar metals. With all of this in mind, it will be highly unlikely that galvanic corrosion could occur between the plug and the pan.

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by F87source

Ok so I spoke with the engineer at turner motorsports about this issue and pretty much what I said before was correct.

So here is the reply:

Thanks for following-up on this – appreciate it greatly!

[F87source]

Originally Posted by dradernh

Thanks for following-up on this – appreciate it greatly!

No problem.

[Resoelg]

Originally Posted by F87source

No problem.

Hey thanks for taking the time to write this up.
I'm buying one.
Cheers

[F87source]

Originally Posted by Resoelg

Hey thanks for taking the time to write this up.
I'm buying one.
Cheers

Haha no problem I'm glad you liked the review! Enjoy your drain plug when you get it! It's definitely an extremely nice piece and excellently made.