Gonzo911

It's starting to get real...

WalterRohrl

Welcome to Rennlist! Your car is great, the previous owner not so much. If nothing else you have one of the best known and most discussed cars on these pages. :-)

I hope you stay around, this is a great place for info and often a lot of fun. Hopefully the car gets back on the road soon and you can enjoy it again. By the way, the SAI pump was also rebuilt by KK using a hobby shop bearing or something but that's not a biggie if it fails again.

A bit weird though because in most other cases of replacing or at least talking about replacing parts, he was the member most likely to advocate paying big bucks to get the identical part to what was easily available everywhere but in a shiny silver box with red Porsche script all over it.

It's good to finally see the car being enjoyed as it was meant to be enjoyed. You need to drive it in the snow as well and post some pics of it covered in road grime, KK's head will explode.

sweet victory

Number 4 sounds about right.

5CHN3LL

While I am nowhere near informed enough to have an opinion on the merits of one bearing vs. another, and I certainly can't speak to the standard of care employed by the previous owner during the car's maintenance, I'm bummed to see you were stuck in the same position as other IMSB-affected Porsche owners.

Many here bought the KK kool-aid that the near obsessive amount of PM work done on that car would render it immune to any future issues.

Glad to see you've already dealt with the problem. Although I and others have been labeled by the previous owner of your car as poseur DIYers who can't find the open end of a paper bag, we're happy to help with future issues in any way we can.

Cuda911

Well this is certainly a fine kettle of fish.

5CHN3LL

I've been ridiculed for it in the past, but it seems to me the safest position vis-à-vis the IMS bearing is to purchase an unmolested, healthy car and have the upgrade done the way you want it done. If the retrofit has already been done, you may never know the reasons for the upgrade (preventive maintenance vs. reacting to indications that the original bearing is failing) or the details about the upgrade. Even with meticulously documented cars like the subject car of this thread, the buyer still wound up with a skewed understanding of the car's condition.

OP, I'm impressed that you just forged ahead and took care of it rather than wringing your hands ad infinitum.

Even a picture of the car sitting in the rain would be sufficient to send the previous owner into a tailspin - I believe exposure to rain was one of the 56 bullet points included in step one (1. Conditions requiring an immediate engine drop and full cleaning) of KK's Preventive Maintenance Flow Chart (TM).

Youri Ko

I'm still out of loop here, which bearing was used? Pelican's or off the shelf SNF?



This is a good point there! I decided to leave mine without the seal and run like that. When I'll be selling my car, it is the way I'm going to advertise it. "Seal-less" high mileage dual row with lot's of love.

AWDGuy

Completely agree.

When I was shopping for my C4S, I kept an eye out for ones that had preventive IMS stuff done. Found one that had the LNE unit installed and had all the documented maintenance records with it. I didnt even drive the car for 1500km's and found out I had scored cylinders.

If I was to do it again with what i know now, I wouldn't be afraid at all of picking up a stock, unmolested high mileage 996. I'd actually not want the bearing to be done for the reasons you just listed. who knows how it was done, or why.

Youri Ko

IMS preventive became a big sales argument but what does it really mean? Found some metal, slapped LN back on it and now it's for sale?

spruden

To the OP - this sucks royally.

I usually make a habit to stay out of the KK drama, but this just sucks. I can't believe that he wouldn't honestly disclose his DIY work when it deviates from what a reasonable enthusiast would expect. I would sincerely hope that he does the right thing and offers to help you offset the expense to get the car on the road...even if it's just a little bit.

I hate to see an enthusiast get burned - especially from another "enthusiast".

Best of luck getting the car on the road, keep a level head, ignore the noise and stay positive throughout the experience.

alpine003

Sorry to hear what happened to you but you just gotta suck it up to a learning lesson and move on, which it already seems like you did.

Also do not let anyone get in your head about the Vertex engine which most likely has a roller bearing retrofit in it. There are strong opinions on both sides of the field on this too.

A lot of us are "over-invested" in different ways. The end results though usually are the same in terms of the thrill/happiness factor when we get to drive these fine machines.

Glad you are "driving" your car unlike the previous owner who couldn't even drive on a 500mile trip over the IMS fear.

Thanks for your story though, I think it should've definitely been told.

Schnell Gelb

I had a similar situation. Recent IMSB replacement by P.O. - failed within a few hundred miles of my ownership .
To help others avoid this problem, it would be useful to know what caused a seemingly well-specified bearing to fail so quickly.
Based on my very expensive experience of this specific issue ,the cause was a failure to conduct the full LN pre-qualification inspection. And who knows if the correct install procedure was followed.
Others have recommended not buying a car with a recent diy IMSB replacement. Based on this situation and mine I would agree.
If you are thinking this is just over-cautious pedantry -just read the LN Pre-Qualification and Installation guidelines. There 31 pages with an astonishing amount of detailed imperatives there.
http://theimssolution.com/wp-content...ions-01-16.pdf
I would bet the Installer missed one or more of the Instructions.
Probably wrong to blame the bearing or Pelican.

5CHN3LL

The following was posted to the original thread detailing how OP's car's bearing was serviced.

This is provided not to rake muck or muddy the water, but simply to point out - assuming I interpreted it correctly - that as early as 2013, there was at least some indication in the previous owner's upgrade thread that the bearing used might not have been appropriate for the application. However, I recommend reading that thread in its entirety in case I've misunderstood the quote or its context.

mharrison

Schnell Gelb

Without a specific brand name and part number it is difficult to extract the information required to help others avoid this problem in future.
Sorry if this seems excessive detail but if there is one thing I have learned about this flawed engine - it can be exceedingly unforgiving if you overlook the smallest detail ! Hence my suggestion to read and follow all 31 pages from LN. Having produced such Instructions in my day job, reading between the lines , I can't imagine how many iterations the authors went through to produce the final document. It is a treasure for M96 owners.
I share some guilt in this issue because I have dabbled in trying to spec an upgraded IMSB for my own use. I did not act on my own research and fitted a bearing (good quality generic !) supplied in the replacement kit. Why didn't I buy an ABEC 9 upgrade that I found ? Basically it came down to 'Am I really smarter at specifying bearings than the pros?' The self-humiliating answer was "No".

Here is the full thread.It is awful reading!
https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...l#post10644697