MoeMonney

I bought some basic rebuild parts from vertex recently (rod and main bearings, piston rings, etc.) and stumbled upon this new product that they are selling an was designed to prevent crankshaft failure and supposedly causes less engine vibration and protects conrod 6. The part costs a little over $300 and I was considering adding it to my rebuild but there is very little info on it out there.

http://www.996revolution.com/m96-engines.html

selling here: https://www.vertexauto.com/porsche-r...-p-411893.aspx

The site states:

The 996 engine crankshaft is designed with an approximate 50mm distance between bearing 7 (left pointer above) and the crankshaft seal surface (right pointer above). Additionally the chain driven by the crankshaft is located on the back of the engine (looking toward front of the car). The pressures from the chain combined with the weight of the OEM dual-mass flywheel are what cause excessive vibrations on the crankshaft and the fulcrum point has no relief beyond the chain and flywheel.

Compared to the previous engine design, the M96 crankshaft has one less main bearings than the air-cooled versions, air-cooled with 8 main bearings and 7 on the M96. This design leaves the 996 engine susceptible to greater vibration and becomes the source for oil leaks through the RMS seal. It is also one of the reasons for premature bearing 7 wear.

RMS failure can occur at any time. Replacement of the seal is simple as the part is relatively inexpensive, but because it requires engine removal the labor can be cost prohibitive. Although rare, bearing 7 has been known to wear excessively leading to expensive crankshaft related repairs.

In the first picture below you see a damaged crankshaft. As the crankshaft rotates, the dial indicator should remain steady. in the case the crankshaft was twisted.

Aftermarket automotive engineers are working right now to resolve this problem and we expect an effective and permanent solution to this problem. For example, check out the next two pictures below. Engineers have devised a solution to the crankshaft problem by inserting an additional main bearing. This creates much needed support for crankshaft seal surface. The additional support utilizes the existing rear main seal area and a different seal is utilized as the rear main seal. This new design allows for the rear main seal and bearing to share the same friction area of the crankshaft to reduce vibration on the seal and thus reducing the risk for oil leak. The engineers tell us that the additional support also yields a smoother running engine and longer lasting seal and bearing.

The bottom picture shows the new design installed. You can see both the end of the crankshaft at the top and the intermediate shaft bearing at the bottom.






This is the actual part they sell.

charlieaf92

It makes sense and seems like an incredible solution for anyone suffering from chronic RMS leaks. I'd be curious to see what Jake Raby thinks, in some ways the concept is similar to his approach with the IMS Solution and as far as I know he knows more than anyone else about shaft deviations and replacement bearings in these engines.

Ahsai

How do they get oil into this what appears to be a plain bearing? All the existing plain bearings on the crank are pressure fed with oil.

808Bill

Interesting...

ditto

How does the home for the new bearing get machined? That area is known to have wide machining tolerances that degrade the performance of the RMS in some cases.

Schnell Gelb

I love upgrades and particularly anything to make this engine more durable but...
This Vertex 'problem solver' part has been discussed previously. It was dismissed by at least one knowledgeable Member. So before you all rush out and buy a Search may be wise.....
If vibration is the problem: "It is also one of the reasons for premature bearing 7 wear." the first logical remedy would be to address the vibration? For example balance the DMF+clutch assy.

JohnCA58

Looking at the notch on the sleeve and the hole in the bearing area, looks like it uses gravity feed in the notch from splash and feed the bearing thru the hole.

Flat6 Innovations

That portion of the crankcase was never designed to be a load bearing surface... Being so close to the flywheel it will heat soak in a hurry from clutch heat, so they better hope that it has plenty of oil feeding it.

While some of us are busy removing wear items, others are adding more.

I also can't believe that engine is assembled with 574, OMG!

philooo

Take it with a grain of salt, I have not dealt with Vertex but...

I am local to them and visited their showroom once in Miami. the place looked really sketchy at best. I would personally not trust anything these guys are producing.

Again just my feeling spending some time in their showroom and looking around at how they had a bunch of cars outside dismantled in an unorganized fashion.

Schnell Gelb

Vertex mean well. But if you watch their videos and read their "technical" information and their awful Installation Instructions, they are just enthusiastic diy mechanics like most of the rest of us. They certainly do not rise to the standard of Development Engineers. Field test results,Eng-lab test,bench test results ? Their mechanical work seems sloppy but typical of average back-steet mechanic standards. They certainly are very familiar with the M96/7. They race them.
The danger is that they present themselves developers of well engineered products. That is misleading at best. When they tried to debate and discuss the flaws in their previous products and procedures here, they were embarrassed by mere hack mechanics/Rennlisters. That is a very low bar to fail at if you are selling a product that allegedly solves a problem created by Porsche Engineering.
Some of their simpler products may be fine but they are prone to cheapskating. For example, their IMSB kit contains a bearing "Made in Argentina" . The incremental cost of supplying a bearing from a first tier bearing manufacturing country would be trivial & would have been smarter.

The big risk with these well-intentioned but poorly developed products is that they sound so good. Rennlisters may install them based on a Thread like this. Worse, none of the frequent Rennlisters pointed out the specific defects in the design - even when it has very recently been discussed here and exactly the same details/problems were explained !
To be fair some of us made similar comments about the roller bearing IMSB that EPS offered. They very quickly modified it despite strident claims the original was perfect.So maybe Vertex will address the weaknesses in this design now ? That would be a great win for Rennlist and one helpful contributor above (not me!).
Careful with increasing pressurised oil flow to cool a plain bearing so close to a problematic seal. That could replace a weep with a gusher. Just a gratuitous suggestion from a hack mechanic who needs more/better products for the M96 :-).