samo

I don'tuunderstand the loyalty of these porsche owners who thinks that as long as their engine runs with all replaced IMS bearing and said that no failure is an idiot. Why would any one spend hard earned money to update an engine parts when you paid outrageous price for an car. To me when replacing any part inside the engine is a failure. And most of these porsche owners don't put that many miles consecutively like their daily car. Honestly. The IMS is fail engine design. Porsche should pay for it to replace all engine with ims. Mine engine did fail and cost me lot of money to rebuild the engine. Along the way to rrebuild my engine I went to place called motor meister in Downey California. They took 2 years and 6500 dollars to give my engine in 4 boxes and said they claimed bankruptcy. Lot of missing pieces. Finally took it to 9 xx place Iin long beach to rebuild within few month. The 2004 996 is really bad experience for me and still waiting on class action law suite settlement.

Soaringman

Sorry for your bad news buddy

nickdee62

I have a 2002 996 with 55,000 miles on it. I am the third owner.

I replaced my stock bearing because I needed to address a RMS leak. I purchases L&Ns "Single Row Pro" Retrofit kit and the Faultless Tool, plus I had access to the original tool kit. It is all beyond top quality equipment.

I wanted a little conversation before attempting the install which I felt confident I could do myself and I had questions about the wire retaining clip.

Jake Raby, the creator extraordinaire, probably doesn't want this known but he is a great guy! I actually got a call from him personally when I asked for some tech support!

After Jake's few tips, I had a "faultless" installation. The key is to make sure you have perfect alignment of the tool and the bore, push the bearing and clip into the tool about 3/16 so that the clip is past the taper before you start and use lots of light lube.

That dual row bearing and the related hardware L&N supplies makes the stock stuff look really insufficient. The wire clip retains the bearing extremely well, too.

I'm very happy to have made the investment. I enjoy working on my own cars and have been wrenching on them for over 40 years. Even though the IMS kit and tools are not recommended as DIY, if you have the experience and resources this is a straightforward procedure.

I will be posting my experience with some pics as soon as I get some time.

Torontoworker

You took your car to a known crook - google them. Sorry for your loss.

KrazyK

That's a sad story but not typical. Its more of a worse case scenario when you don't do enough research on an older used semi-super car. Sorry for your experience but I'm sure you learned a lot about the 996 NA engine.

IL VINO

Bought 1999 Carrera with 71K miles, original clutch and no IMS update. After purchase, drove straight to shop for clutch and IMS upgrade (and other maintenance stuff). Bearing was toast and about to explode. Shop said it was going to let loose anytime. Dust and light debris in pan. All good now. Great shop. Great car. The toasted bearing now sits behind glass on a shelf between a Hemingway collection and OMC repair manuals....

Car is excellent for those whom question value. If you buy one without the upgrade, please take it straight to a good shop for upgrade and any other repairs. The car and myself got out lucky. Please take note and not risk it.

alpine003

Lol, more of the fluff that propagates Rennlist. If you haven't taken off the seals and inspected the internals, your story is just a fairy tale at this point. You need to post pic of your paperweight fully dissected to have a story.

If your mechanic found light debris, I sure hope he flushed out ALL the debris from that motor or else that new IMS "safety" blanket of yours really wouldn't do any good either.

Members here have blown motors even after the IMS was done because it wasn't prequalified or it wasn't flushed out completely of debris.

Flat6 Innovations

Alpine003 and I seldom see eye to eye. Thats not the case with his last post, as he is spot on!

Once an IMSB is found to be failing, the task is no longer of a "preventative" nature, and it changes dramatically to a reactive event. This means that measures must be taken to determine the extent of collateral damage that may have stemmed from the debris laden oil, and that you must also employ short service intervals, and a better oil filtration measure as well. Filter magnets and sump removals and inspection are also added measures.

These things must be done, especially if the material in the oil and sump are found to be "light", as this debris is by far the most damaging of all as it becomes suspended in the oil easiest and then is delivered to all internally lubricated components within the engine.

The 99 engine is fitted with a dual row IMSB, which is great, until it does begin to fail. Why? Because it has twice as many wear components and will run twice as long before the bearing finally fails. People say "how can that be bad?". My response is "because the bearing takes too long to fail, and the engine continues to operate with a debris filled sump and oil system, and that debris will wear the rest of the internal components".

Collateral damage, leading to extensive engine wear is probable when a dual row IMSB is at stage 3 failure. The chances of that debris taking out the new IMSB is also very great. We'll need to document the details of this vehicle's VIN and the owner's name for the ledger, in case the bearing does fail that the warranty will be void. Any engine with debris in the sump is not pre- qualified for a standard IMS Retrofit.

I just spent 16 hours this weekend in a class room with 30 Porsche technicians, and I could not beat this into their heads well enough during my Porsche M96 Engine Mechanical Class.

Charles Navarro

Ditto. There are too many installations being done improperly and on engines that should never be retrofitted. We currently have an individual from New Zealand threatening to sue us and Pelican Parts. He bought a retrofit kit from Pelican Parts, had his local dealership put it in, did not drop the pan, and even reused his original engine oil and then didn't change it after installation and had the bearing fail over a year later. We good-willed him a new intermediate shaft only so we could get the original one back and do a failure analysis, but now he wants us to pay the whole rebuild when there wasn't a warranty to begin with since the procedure was carried out not to proper protocol. It's easier to blame someone else to accept when you are the only one to blame.

Flat6 Innovations

The dialogue from the person in New Zealand is laughable... Re use oil and then run that oil for another year before ever changing it? Failure should be expected.

In the words of Tony Callas, as he states in every class we instruct together: "its easier to be a victim, than a failure."

mklein9

One of those members is right here. See my signature. Incompetent shop that followed none of the requirements for IMSB replacement. LNE IMSB on the verge of failure after 1 year and 12k miles. Jake even took a video of the thing rattling around.

Flat6 Innovations

Documented the whole thing.. Those people won't be doing any more installs, unless they buy the parts on the black market.

Unfortunately Mike's debris was all throughout the engine and hurt most everything that sees lubrication. His cylinders were able to be saved, so I could carry out an extensive repair by pulling the whole engine apart to remove the debris via ultrasonic cleaning of every component.

Mike had a classic example of an engine that should have never been retrofitted. It was only his own situational awareness of the condition that saved him from a complete engine failure, beyond repair.

alpine003

Wow, you must have one big cleaner. The best I could do from a grassroots consumer level is to get a jewelry cleaner but really only good for injectors.

Flat6 Innovations

Very large, it will fit a block half from an M96 with plenty of room to spare. A pair of 10,000 watt generators, some application specific solution, and 190 degrees of continuous heat make our parts cleaner than they were when they were new..

Ben Z

I have always been driven by the saying "partial implementation yields partial results". In medicine and dentistry it is constantly stressed in courses and seminars that case selection, deciding who is a good candidate for what treatment or procedure, is essential.

I have a single-row, had the LN bearing installed about 3 years ago. Car had 31K, bearing was undamaged. Have put about 25K on the LN since then in daily driving. My extended warranty requires that I change oil and filter every 5K miles or 6 mos, so for me it's the latter and the mileage works out to between 2500-3K. Hoping to get another 25K out of it, we'll see what to do by then, as my warranty will be expired. Maybe take a nice drive up GA way and have Jake do his thing. If he's not sitting on a yacht somewhere by then retired