Production date and ims
 

Sorry to bring this topic up again but if my Porsche certificate of authenticity says that my 997s production date was 3/8/2005 does this mean that I have the old ims bearing design?

If you have a 997S then you have no issue. I think it is only an issue for the early non-S cars that have the M96 engines.

is this generally accepted as true? i'm curious as the owner of an '05 997S. i had thought that early S cars were still potentially early bearing cars. it's a catch 22, but i guess S cars would be better off with the later bearing, even if we can't swap them out. would like to know which bearing my car potentially has. will keep an eye on this thread.

I have a m96 3.6L :(

be happy... on the 05s it's a serviceable item.

It's been my understanding that when Porsche developed the larger 3.8 liter S they beefed up that area, reducing the occurrence of an issue. There are some failures, but the likelihood is reduced.

OP - try searching this thread below. It appears that sometime around 1/05 to 3/05, if I remember, the bearing change for the 2005 3.8 S made it to the production line.

"Different! - 2005 S owners - what's your engine number and production date?"

"Now we're getting somewhere.
Slamuth's was built 1/05 and is number 07453.
Mumuq's was built 3/05 and is number 10686.

I'm guessing they made the switch to the new IMS in the Feb 2005 build timeframe. "

To be sure, look at the engine for the serial number to verify. Starts with m96 or m97 for the revised IMS design. On my 06 3.8, the number is located on the bottom of the engine (flat squarish block/case). I went under the car and found it (laser dot stamped) on the side facing inner driver-side rear wheel. I've seen porsche authenticity certifications being inaccurate, particularly the engine model.

There are a lot of threads on IMS providing owner perspective.

I was told by a trusted mechanic that my January build non S Carrera had the bigger 06 bearing. The engine was marked m97.

That's interesting, my 2007 (November 2006 build) Base c2 engine is a M96.

Happened to my (gone now) 2006 C4S Cab at less than 4,000 miles. I got a whole new engine without blinking an eye. Expressed from germany and in the car in a few days!!

Tom

I always thought that the M97 reflected the 3.8 motor while the M96 was the 3.6 liter one.

Maybe the mechanic was saying the motor was marked 997, in fact that must have been the case. He did say the motor had the beefed up bearing.

that's correct,

I did some digging into the 997 work shop manual and extracted the following information on which engine has the old or revised larger IMS bearing:

Base engine (3.6) has designation "M96", has both the older IMS and revised larger bearing, you will need your engine number to determine which one you have:

Engine (3.6) number up to M96/05 69507475 has the older IMS bearing and Engine number from M96/05 69507476 has the larger revised IMS.

"S" engine (3.8) has designation "M97", also has both the older IMS and revised larger IMS bearing:

Engine (3.8) number up to M97/01 68509790 has the older IMS bearing and Engine number from M97/01 68509791 has the larger revised IMS.

The older IMS bearing can be replaced, this requires removing the transmission in order to get access to the bearing.

The larger IMS bearing can also be replaced but a tear down of the engine is required.

The work shop manual does not mention the date for the IMS changeover.

Where is the engine number located?