I run a helicopter company and we've used chip detectors for decades in gear boxes and engines - it's an extremely simple technology and for the uninitiated can lead to doing maintenance and parts replacement that is in all honesty is not required. All engines and gear boxes make metal or have residual build swarf in nooks and crannies that can set off chip detectors as small debris actually builds up over time on the magnet and appears far worse than it is in reality. Normally the first line of defense is to clean the chip detector and continue, followed by a series of oil flushes/changes before you get into any costly replacement parts. FDA or filter debris analysis is a much better way of setting if you're getting unusual wear (if you get chip light).

The far more advanced approach that we use now is the use of QDMs - Quantity Debris Monitors that count the ferrous materiel floating in the oil as it circulates by setting a magnetic monitoring field. Always remember that companies selling these products have a vested interest in both the system and adviseing of repair (thus validating their equipment).

 

Is the IMS Guardian Jr. officially released? I don't see it on Flat 6's website...

 

No. The IMS Guardian product line is now sold exclusively through LN Engineering as we work to only do behind the scenes work and offer our engine packages. Retail sales are not for us.

LN will be making a product release of the Jr. unit before the end of the year.

The release of the IMSG took a back seat to completing the patent work and other associated challenges with bringing the IMS Solution to the market. We had planned on releasing the IMSG Jr. in May and have had product in hand for months, but simple things like finishing the install instructions and etc has kept them off the market.

 

Thank you. Just to confirm, the Guardian Jr. will just warn of an impending failure, correct?

Just for further confirmation, the IMS bearing replacement is "easy" to install on models up to 2005, but starting with 2006 models, engine disassembly is required for the bearing replacement, correct?

 

The goal of any IMS Guardian product is to warn of impending engines issues that are generating ferro-magnetic wear materials. These include, but are not limited to the IMS Bearing.

The IMSG Jr. is featureless, simple and cheaper than the original IMSG unit. The Jr. system does the same thing as the standard system, but does not utilize a Porsche switch for dash integration, nor does it have a "press to test" feature. Because of this, the system costs 200 dollars less than the standard system.

The IMSG Jr. system is also universal and can be applied to 05 and newer Porsches, which is not true with the standard system.

In all actuality the Jr. system is all thats needed for engine protection.

Incorrect. The 2005 model REQUIRES VISUAL INSPECTION to ensure that the IMSB can be retrofitted. There are directives on this interchange that are not accurate and should not be referenced as absolute. Some 2005 models require complete disassembly to swap the IMSB like this one that we just did the conversion to a couple of weeks ago.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...4914693&type=3

 

Thanks for the clarifications Jake.

In order to carry out a visual inspection, the removal of the IMS hub flange is required, a job usually done when replacing the clutch. In other words, it is not something that can be determined by simply looking at a readily available visual external point of reference, partial disassembly is required.

 

Incorrect. The visual inspection can be done with the transaxle slid back 2" from the engine. Engines that are retrofittable will have a 13mm hex nut in the center of the flange. Engines that are NOT retrofittable will have a 22mm nut in the center of the flange. This can easily be seen without further disassembly of the engine from the vehicle.

Nothing is easy. The style of bearing can be determined without invasive procedures regarding the engine, but cannot be seen without partial removal of the engine from the transaxle.

 

I recommend that anybody considering one of these do some searching to find pictures of an installed unit, or perhaps detailed installation instructions to see how and where this is installed on the engine. I saw a 996 up on a lift shortly after the owner had an IMS Guardian installed and both of us were thinking it looked like the new weakest failure point on the engine. It gets threaded up through a presumably newly drilled and tapped hole in the oil pan but protrudes by probably 3/8" or so. The result is a rather fragile looking component with a couple of leads coming out of it that is now the new lowest point on the engine. A prime candidate for being scraped off by some future thing that would ordinarily brush the bottom of the pan without incident. I understand that the pan cover itself is pretty tough, even though it's glued on, but supposedly it's common to see them with signs of the occasional scrape. Looks to me like one of those scrapes might easily take out the Guardian which could then lead to a pretty fast exit path for all of your oil.

 

Interesting.... I wonder if the placement of the Guardian will be the same for 997s.

 

Absolutely.

Actually, its not. It is also not the lowest part of the vehicle.

No, the MCD sensor is installed into the factory drilled and tapped oil drain plug recess

Through testing I beat the sensors hard to include purposely having them collide with higher than normal speed bumps, curbs and etc. The testing also included dirt roads and etc. As engine developers with nothing but M96 powered Porsches rolling through our doors we have seen what happens to engines that have seen road hazard damage on dozens of occasions. This was all considered when making the MCD sensor.

Its not "glued" on, it has a series of perimeter bolts that attaches it to the engine, a total of 13 fasteners secure the unit.

Recently we completed a 6,788 mile trip from Georgia to Edmonton AB Canada as a success tour for the IMS Solution. During that trip we learned just how bad the Canadian roads can be when we hit a raised portion of road that was 4" higher than the remainder of the highway, in the middle of no where, 200 miles from anything. The test car has been modified to sit the engine lower in the chassis by 1.5" and on top of that the car is lowered to the max. This was a bit of a challenge on the 107 miles of DIRT ROAD that we purposely travelled through Montana to beat the snot out of the car/ engine/ IMS Solution and the IMS Guardian and its sensor.

We impacted the raised portion of the road at over 85 MPH, the car went airborne and landed sideways in the road. We pulled off to find the suspension had bottomed out, the floor of the vehicle was dented front to rear and the oil sump plate was compromised, BUT the IMS Guardian MCD sensor was still intact and was not even leaking! We only had two extra quarts of oil, so I remembered that the negative crankcase pressure these engines have during operation might just hold the oil in the sump.

We fired the car up and the leak along the crack that was formed from the impact stopped completely. We called on of our customers in Calgary and they agreed to wait until we could drive the car there so we could swap the sump plate with a spare that they had. For over 200 miles we drove the car with a busted sump plate and had no issues from doing so as long as the engine was running.

When we arrived at Alpine Autowerks the MCD sensor for the IMS Guardian was bone dry of oil, but showed serious signs of impact. The impact was so hard that it bent the headers, almost breaking the flange and it also tweaked the entire bottom of the engine block! I had to enlarge the holes in the replacement sump plate to accommodate the new shape of engine block- post impact.

We replaced the sump plate, took an oil sample, refilled with oil and went on our way while driving another 4,100 miles in the next 5 days without a drop of oil being lost from the engine.


My personal experience as the developer of the system having had a serious impact is this:
If you have an issue that takes out the MCD sensor, it will not be the only damage that you have, nor will it be the damage that ultimately takes the car off the road. The oil sump plate is a cast aluminum unit and is weaker than the billet aluminum body of the MCD sensor that is machined from aircraft aluminum.

That said, could someone have a different experience than we had? Absolutely, because no two of these issues or circumstances are the same. To date we have had one sensor damaged in a customer's car when he ran over a steel pipe in the road, but trust me; he was wishing that all that had happened was the sensor getting broken. That one did not "lose all the engine oil" it simply started a slow drip, was noted and was replaced- for free. The law of averages states that we should have had many, many more than just the single incident.

The IMSG Jr. uses the SAME MCD sensor as I have pictured and the same as the units that come before it. The system does the same job, it simply does not have the same user interface, nor does it have the cost of the standard IMSG unit. There is NO BETTER PLACE to mount the MCD sensor from a stand point of installation and effectiveness. The stock drain plug integration is simple and that area is where the highest concentration of material laden oil ends up during engine operation, which is essential to the operation of the system.

With hundreds and hundreds of units installed, you'd know it if people were losing MCD sensors from road hazards routinely. Thats not the case.

Performance of the product is not assumed..
Been there, done that and have the picture to prove it. Here is the MCD sensor after impact, when we returned from the test we continued to use this plug and it has yet to leak a single drop of oil. The plug threads are somewhat screwed up and its bent and beat up, but it still works. When we develop something its done in the real world and we put our asses in the seat to prove it. 6,788 miles in 8 days- Flawless.

 

In all matters related to Porsche engines I humbly defer to the opinion of Jake Raby who is invariably going to be the smartest guy in the room when it comes to knowledge in his area of expertise. Thanks for the points of clarification Jake. That being said, it still_looked_a little fragile.......

 

If you think the IMSG Sensor looks fragile, you should see inside the engine.

 

Jake, do you have any update as to when the Solution will be ready for sale? Will we see it soon?

 

Details will be released in my next Flat 6 Newsletter. There is zero info on our website about the Solution and will remain that way for a while.

We have been installing these units for a while now, for those who think outside the box. We installed one last week and I offered the components to the owner of the car in person, in my office. He wasn't computer friendly, doesn't go to forums and Facebook, so he had never even heard of it, nor did he know we had developed something like it.

When he came in for the retrofit I looked at his hands and I could see that he was a working man. He stated that he restores Model T and Model A Fords so I figured he would appreciate the "keep it simple" approach that Charles and I developed into the Solution. While he was filling out his paperwork I yelled at Dean "Hey, grab me a Solution, I want to show it off". As soon as the vehicle owner saw it he said "WOW, that makes all the sense in the world, where did you get that from?". I said "we made it", and then he was blown away. What amazed me is he didn't need to have what it actually was explained to him, nor did he have to have an explanation of how it worked. Its that simple.

He then said "How much more does that cost? I want that!".. My response was "It adds 800 bucks onto the cost of our IMS Retrofit cost, "no problem was his response".

The funny thing is the day after he received the car back his shift linkage snapped and he had to take the car to a dealership for repair. The techs had zero situational awareness while working on his car and they had no idea what they were being exposed to... Thats always funny!

Unlike the IMS Retrofit there will be no retail sales of the IMS Solution- It will be only sold through a major auto parts supplier who will distribute the units to experienced independent shops across the US, Canada and Europe. (This distributor has committed to every unit we have in production at this time)

The IMS Solution will be exclusively installed by Flat 6 Innovations through June 2013 when the first stock order to our major distributor occurs. They will trickle down to other shops through the distributor throughout the year. That said, we are already reserving units and time on our schedule for IMS Solution retrofits, in fact we are installing one tomorrow. Our turn key engine owners have first dibs on the units for their Raby engines, then come those who we have done a standard retrofit for, after that comes everyone else in our order of priority. All of our turnkey reconstructed engines will receive the Solution as standard equipment beginning in 2013; no other option will be given.

That said, I honestly dread having to release the units. Selling this stuff is the part that I have grown to hate with a passion. Good thing I don't do any of this for a paycheck.

 

Jeez... guys just do oil analysis if worried and upgrade IMS on 2005 cars when you do the clutch. These are all just gimmicks!