The car is up in the air. The oil sump looks clean, just one or two specks of metal. There is no debris in the filter with just about 5 minute of engine run time.
Next course of action is to drop the transmission and inspect the IMS bearing.

 

Organizing all of the tools necessary to inspect the ceramic hybrid bearing that was installed on the car at 60k miles or so. The original bearing was replaced proactively when I serviced the clutch at about 2 or so years ago, it was in great shape (no axial or radial play). The sealed bearing in the pictures is a 5204 2rs which I acquired for measurement purposes; it will not be installed on the car.

 

Are you planning to re imstall the hybrid?

 

[QUOTE][Are you planning to re imstall the hybrid?/QUOTE]

Once a bearing is removed using this extraction method, it should never be reused. During the extraction process, force is applied axially to the inner race and transferred through the ceramic ***** to the outer race. The contact points between the ***** and the inner and outer race will deform ever so slightly.

If the bearing is damaged or worn, I'll replace it with a sealed ceramic hybrid.

 

The clutch, pressure plate, throw-out bearing and flywheel seems to be in good shape. The IMS flange and RMS seems to be leak free.

 

Wow that is dedication. I think it's time for you to invest in a bigger garage with a lift.

 

The flywheel is scrap metal and dont forget to replace the "defective" case bolts.

 

These cars are so hugely frustrating and consuming of time/money for such little driving performance or thrill. I dont get it.

 

[QUOTE=DCQT;10712148]Good answer, that's why I asked.

 

I disagree. If the clutch wasn't slipping then keep the set together until it's time to change it. I've seen and had flywheels that lookedlike this and yet worked perfectly fine.

 

Hi DC, will be interesting to see what you find.
BTW, what is the brand/make of the tranny lift you have?
They are hard to get here in Australia and I am lookin' to buy one from the USA and it is good to see what others use and are happy with before I get one sent downunder
Thanks

 

http://www.harborfreight.com/450-lb-...ack-39178.html

It's very compact, store easily in my storage cabinets when not in use.

 

DCQT,
Have you thought about adding one of these to your assembly?

http://tunersmotorsports.com/?page_id=103

Creator of the DOI gets involved with the discussion here.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/boxst...injection.html

 

That assembly will provide more than enough lubrication and prevent debris from entering into the bearing when the engine is running.

Here's my take on the IMS bearing design.

It is possible that an entire team of Stuttgart finest powertrain engineers (along with their vendor's/supplier's engineers) over looked the simple fact that the IMS bearing was not designed to operate in this environment (the seals will allow oil intrusion over 240f and the races and ***** will expand and internal clearances will be reduced over 250f). A simple viton seal would have solved the oil intrusion problem.

It is more probable that the original design specified a sealed ceramic hybrid bearing with a seal that will provide for oil intrusion (hence their original recommendations for 0w-40 oils); somehow during the final product cost analysis a decision was made to source a lower cost alternative.

Hence my decision to go with a sealed ceramic hybrid bearing.

 

The hybrid bearing is damaged, it will come out for further analysis. There is some radial play and the races feels very rough.