Casper Labs IMS solution.

[faverymi]

I will be doing my clutch soon. And I came across this last night.

I like what I read so far. Price is good also around 300 bucks. No sufficient follow up records.

Will be nice to see what happens. Maybe pelican will put it on stock?

I kind of want to be a guinea pig. But they scare me with the whole installation process of LN and Casper.

Casper Labs Ceramic IMS Bearing - RennTech.org Forums

[ronster]

I think JFP gave some good advice in that thread.

[randy_k]

Originally Posted by ronster

I think JFP gave some good advice in that thread.

I agree, Also JFP and Harry on here use the LN kit exclusively. That's good enough for me. To the best of my knowledge. Neither one of them has seen a LN bearing fail.

Randy

[derfo]

I had a look myself, because at some stage I will be doing the upgrade when I have my 3.2 made to 3.6. I copied this from thier EBAY add. Try and find "In one case" first , its about halfway down.

Prevent premature engine replacement/overhaul due to failure of the troublesome OEM intermediate shaft bearing. Recent developments in the ceramic bearing industry have brought affordable cost to applications that previously were limited to the aerospace industry. This bearing can be replaced with the engine in the vehicle after removing the transmission. If you are servicing the clutch for any reason, it is highly recommended that the IMS bearing be replaced simultaneously, as the installation takes only minutes once the transmission is out of the way.
These engines have developed a bad reputation that can be easily and inexpensively fixed. Even if you plan on selling the vehicle, the cost of this upgrade can be returned many times by advertising that the hybrid bearing mod is installed. The new owner won't have the worry of wondering when and if the bearing is about to fail.
This listing is for a dual row bearing upgrade kit for most of the first generation Boxster/Carrera engines 1996 up through 2001. It can be identified with the 20MM bore, 47MM OD, and no external retaining snap ring (after removal of the three bolt support piece under the crankshaft seal). The word "most" is underlined because many of these engines were serviced/replaced by Porsche, and could be carrying later revision parts. If the bearing has the former features, the kit will fit properly. (We are completing development of later bearing types and expect availibility within 30 days.) The kit includes the hybrid bearing, lock ring, shaft plug, and spacer shown on the right side of the photo, plus installation instructions on CD (not shown). We recommend the use of the redesigned OEM Porsche (p/n996-105--017 visible from flywheel side) forged steel bearing support with the red, three rib seal shown (many engines will already have this upgrade,... but available at extra cost from us (as well as Porsche parts suppliers worldwide)) . The earlier single black o-ring type support (far left view, and has no external marking) is compatible, but not as effective in sealing. The support is assembled with the bearing kit parts using the center stud kit (lower left corner) removed from the original bearing.
It is important to replace these bearings as a preventive measure. The IMS tube is pressed into the sprocket end which holds the bearing. This tube is a low yield strength steel that is readily deformed when a bearing fails.... and the shaft starts wobbling. There is no way to check shaft to bearing concentricity in the engine. If you wait until the bearing is unquestionably damaged, the shaft may or may not be damaged. If it is, the new bearing's life will be seriously shortened due to the unbalance and once per rev varying load.
Those of you who do not have the appropriate bearing puller and installation drift, can purchase both tools from us at modest cost in other auctions. These tools are designed specifically for this application.
For those of you unfamiliar with hybrid ceramic bearings, they consist of conventional steel inner/outer races with silicon nitride (ceramic) balls. The ceramic balls have many advantages over steel, but the primary benefits in this application are; 1) the ball weight is a fraction of the same size steel ball. At high IMS shaft speed, steel balls not carrying load are still subject to high centrifugal force. This wipes out the lubricant needed for the loaded balls, allows metal to metal contact, and results in bearing failure. 2) The ceramic ball's extreme hardness and unique lubricant wetting characteristics result in much lower internal friction under load. This generates less heat and reduces lubrication requirements.

In one case, we have designed a 1/2" bore hybrid ceramic bearing for a small gas turbine (114,000 RPM) using only oil vapor that had the appearance of cigarette smoke (0.3 micron oil droplet size). After 10,000 hours operation.... there was no measurable bearing wear.

Because of the properties of ceramics, the service life of a hybrid bearing is up to 10 times that of a standard steel bearing.
In contaminated environments, solid particles create dents in the rolling surfaces and raised edges around those dents. This condition causes noise and premature wear as the steel balls roll over those surfaces. The harder ceramic ball material smooths the surface roughness with no material removal. Also, there is little evidence of adhesive wear as seen in steel bearings. This reduces the noise and wear, which extends the bearing service life.

About our bearings!
The bearing industry has many standards for the materials, tolerances, internal clearances, and fits for their products. Two bearings that have identical appearance and measurement, may have service lives that vary by several times. Although there are many reputable ball bearing manufacturers in the world today, there are also suppliers in India and the far east that are flooding the replacement bearing industry with low cost bearings. These have quality criteria that is frequently lacking, and usually have a reputation for short service life. For this reason we use hand assembled bearings built up with components from manufacturers with long standing reputations and deep, quality driven process control systems. In addition, some manufacturers have outstanding reputations for their bearing steel or certain patented technology. The components in our bearings may come from the USA, Germany, or Japan, but they will all come from premium suppliers. Every piece will comply with our quality control system criteria to assure long service life.

About Casper Labs, Inc.
Casper Labs designs and manufactures engine parts under "component improvement programs". Production engine design deficiencies are analyzed, and improved parts are designed, tested, and sold to correct these problem areas. Best known for our general aviation engine products (we hold several FAA liscenses/authorizations for design, production, and servicing of piston aircraft engines), we also address turbine and power generation prime movers. Casper Labs products are produced in an AS9100/ISO quality environment.

ATTENTION!
This kit is intended for experienced mechanics who have direct experience with the Porsche water cooled boxer engines. Due to this engine's many unique engine design features, special tooling requirements, limited service manual availability, and high cost of servicing errors..................we offer this kit without warranty of any type (express or implied). Bearings can be returned only if they remain undisturbed in their still sealed plastic pouch within 7 days.

Follow the thread on RennTech.org Search "Casper Labs IMS" at their web address.

[intakexhaust]

Casper kit looks interesting with some good company reputation.

Whatever the hold-up reason is for the Pelican kit, intentional or not and for reputation sake, I'm thinking its probably wise for them and see what bearing or ideas really work in the long run. No doubt testing and longevity issues needs to be proven. It's not like some minor LED headlight kit that burns out or whatever vs. $15k engines.

Just from my opinion, I clearly see the ceramic bearing advantage but still think its a 'band-aid' approach. Without going into a complete different theory in mind why the failures and what could be done (posted on other threads), perhaps the 'band-aid' works and terrific if it does.

Also, did someone mention 4,000 kits have been sold? Holy fried bearings, thats alot of failures. Decent gross sales too.

[BerneseMtnDog]

Just because 4000 kits have been sold doesn't mean there have been 4000 failures. It's an upgrade to provide some level of peace of mind. I'm happy I did mine but I'm also a worrier.

Steve

[mikefocke]

I'll say here what I said on Renntech...it costs money to develop a total solution consisting of the part, testing, tools, instructions, distribution, dealer support, etc. Don't think for a minute that those costs aren't lots more of the price of the LN kit than the bearing itself. You benefit from all those items too, btw, in reduced risk. And profit is not a dirty word, it is why both companies put so much money into developing their solution. Jake and LN almost went broke supporting their bearings for the first couple of hundred installs that were done outside their shop...why do we think that won't happen to Casper at half the price...or are they going to scrimp on support?

I look at the tools Casper offers and it doesn't seem like they offer the tools to lock the cams etc. Is this a shortcut to reduce the price?

When Charles first introduced the bearing through Jake, there was phone support to help the mechanics through their first install. Does Casper offer such help?

There are mechanics who have installed dozens of LN bearings using LN instructions and tools. There isn't yet a similar set of experienced installers for any alternative bearings.

Also ask Casper how many bearings and for how many miles they have tested. This is an item I challenged Jake and Charles about when LN first announced their bearing. But it is 3+ years and 4k+ installs later and only one failure known (not counting bad installs or failures when other parts in the engine let go and dumped pieces of metal into the IMS) so we do have some pretty valid statistics about how good the LN piece is. (And I know the numbers are good having talked with the guy who is analyzing the failures and who selected the bearing.) We also know their instructions and tools have the benefit of having gone through multiple revisions so the chances of using them with success is greater than with an original set of instructions.

I applaud Casper for seeking to develop a solution, I reserve the right to be skeptical until their solution is more proven.

"All wearing parts eventually fail. Someone has to be on each end of the bell curve plotting time versus failures."

[faverymi]

You are definitely making me think about this whole thing.

I'm going to speak as a customer.

If you are paying an Indy Porsche mechanic to drop the tranny put a clutch and IMS upgrade by the time you are covering that bill 300 bucks all the sudden became a lot less.

When you are a DIY and thinking about fixing the IMS on your own the difference is 100%

Now LN has an impeccable track record. So........... I'm investing on my 15K possible nightmare. What do I do?.......You got it LN.

So then we oversimplify the whole thing and we go to a bearing catalog and end up buying the same generic 25 dollar bearing. Why not? Is just a bearing just like my wheel bearing and my rim doesn't come off so why bother with over-engineer crap......

MMmmmmmm. probably spend the 600 bucks and have a piece of mind right?

[faverymi]

Have another idea.

I'll volunteer my boxster to be the Casper Lab guinea pig bearing tester.

They can do it. I'm just gonna drive her.