[450knotOffice]

The IMS is the potential weak spot in what is an otherwise VERY robust engine. The problem is simple to fix and is inexpensive.

Oh, and by the way, my wife owns a 987 Cayman, with the same basic bearing. She's driven it 60,000 miles and five years. No issues. So, between the two cars, with the 110,000 miles on the original bearing of my 996, and the 60,000 miles on her Cayman, we've had 170,000 trouble free miles.

But yea, the air cooled cars are completely trouble free. Always have been. Right? Hmm. Well, most every 3.2 I know of, including mine, needed a top overhaul because of worn valve guides at 120,000 miles. Expensive repair. The head studs are a known issue with SC's. Oh, and lets not forget the cam chain tensioners in the air cooled engines that would fail without any apparent warning, destroying these very expensive engines. It took Porsche 20 years - from 1964 to 1984 - to finally come up with a viable solution. Twenty years!! So yea, those air cooled engines have always been, ahem, bullet proof. Yeaaaaaa.