How many has actually updated their IMS?

[Steve986]

All this discussion of the IMS failure potential has made me curious. How many here has actually made the investment to upgrade their IMS? Also, did you wait until your clutch failed or did you replace the IMS for it's own sake?

Steve

[kx9862002]

not yet, but willing to do when Wayne's product comes out

[JFP in PA]

Last numbers quoted were over 1,000 on the road.

[s_wilwerding]

When I installed the 3.4 engine this last summer, I first installed the LN IMS update. No issues so far.

[Wayne 962]

Originally Posted by kx9862002

not yet, but willing to do when Wayne's product comes out

Should be out in March sometime! We're testing the kit right now.

-Wayne

[Wayne 962]

Originally Posted by Steve986

All this discussion of the IMS failure potential has made me curious. How many here has actually made the investment to upgrade their IMS? Also, did you wait until your clutch failed or did you replace the IMS for it's own sake?

Steve

I have two Boxsters and two 996s. I installed our IMS kit on the 996 that we bought specifically with a busted bearing. The other 996 has 21,000 miles, and really hasn't had anything apart on it (we will probably install the kit on it when the clutch needs to be replaced). The 3.4L SuperBoxster we built for the book was a factory crate motor with the big non-replaceable bearing on it, and that engine only has 1,000 miles on it anyways. My wife's Boxster is a Tiptronic, and we've left that one alone for now too. I think I'm a little less worried than other people because a) I can probably detect a failing bearing earlier than most people and b) a blown engine gives me another opportunity to tear one apart!

In general, I wouldn't really call the IMS a "ticking time bomb", but I would recommend replacing it when you do your clutch. That seems to be relatively cheap insurance.

-Wayne

-Wayne

[mikefocke]

Some just to do it.
Some to do it and so did the clutch.
Some needed the clutch and so decided.
Some as the result of a RMS leak.
Some as the result of a diagnosis of impending failure.
Some as part of a total engine rebuild after a failure.

And some did nothing.

Some OEM removals have been seen as perfect when removed, others showed signs of seal failure, oil penetration, bearing wear, race wear, etc.

I had put together a table of IMS kit options/differences (which I've offered to the suppliers of IMS kits for verification/correction/suggestions and will publish only when that is done). I used a guess of about 1200 LNs as of the end of this month. Probably only Charles knows for sure and some may be sold but not yet installed.

The oldest LN bearing was installed in August 2008 in a 3.4.

20k miles is probably about the most mileage last time I heard .

I haven't heard of any LN bearings removed as the result of completing the currently recommended mileage use before change and thus haven't heard of any inspection results. I'm sure Charles and Ed are eager to see if their recommended change interval is realistic, overly cautious or not needed.

I haven't heard of any failures attributed to the LN bearing. I've been following developments since 12/7/08 on at least 6 online forums.

[JFP in PA]

And in a couple of cases, the LN IMS bearing is on its second engine......

[DFW986S]

I changed mine (and clutch) when I bought the car a couple of months ago.
No way would I have bought it if the IMS wasn't done.
My very experienced Porsche adviser said it wasn't necessary.
I bought peace of mind for $800 or so.

[dad911]

I did mine when I changed the clutch, lucky I did, the bearing was loose on the shaft.

[mikefocke]

Tell us more about that second engine JFP...

Are these engines that destructed for other reasons and the owner took the opportunity to transfer the part?

I always love interesting untypical stories.

[ronster]

I changed mine out on my '99 Tip to the LN ceramic IMS and replaced the RMS with the new silicon one as well. Did it because I want to keep the car for a long time and for peace of mind while tracking.

[JFP in PA]

Originally Posted by mikefocke

Tell us more about that second engine JFP...

Are these engines that destructed for other reasons and the owner took the opportunity to transfer the part?

I always love interesting untypical stories.

Pedro, for one, had a rod fail on his 2.5L (200K miles) on the track that had an LN unit in it. When he found the 2.7L he is currently using, he put the LN bearing from the 2.5L in it, and is currently beating the Hell out of it on the tracks. Another poster from Texas, with his own shop, has done the same thing after suffering a spun crank bearing. As long as the LN unit is the correct style, it can be moved from engine to engine..............

[BYprodriver]

Originally Posted by JFP in PA

Pedro, for one, had a rod fail on his 2.5L (200K miles) on the track that had an LN unit in it. When he found the 2.7L he is currently using, he put the LN bearing from the 2.5L in it, and is currently beating the Hell out of it on the tracks. Another poster from Texas, with his own shop, has done the same thing after suffering a spun crank bearing. As long as the LN unit is the correct style, it can be moved from engine to engine..............

Here is 1 of the approximately 120 fully upgraded LN IMS shafts along with a few other upgrades. Some people in our "disposable" world say it is foolish to spend as much money as a Porsche is worth to rebuild it's original engine. Like most people I am always anxious to upgrade my car & plan to drive it as long as I am physically able to properly stir the gearbox. The original engine is now better than new & I can transfer it to another car if this body is damaged beyond repair. I have no plans to replace or maintain the new IMS bearing.

[smshirk]

I did L&N as part of performance upgrade

[coreseller]

Did mine about a year back when I had to pull the tranny out. 38k miles on the original IMS bearing, it was tight as a drum (fine) but no regrets in replacing it.

[Wayne 962]

I'm eventually planning on writing a small book on rebuilding these engines. Should be fun and easy to do - they are not as complicated as the air cooled ones (that was a big book to write).

-Wayne

[turboflyer]

[QUOTE=BYprodriver;5773617]

Looks very nice. Are those carrilo rods? What was the total cost of the rebuild? And performance enhancements?

[BYprodriver]

These are the LNengineering rods along with every other upgrade available from LN including the 3.6 pistons & sleeves + underdrive pulley from flat6innovations. Total cost about $10.K & about 400 hours.

[WhipE350]

I bought my 2000 Boxster 'S' back in early Nov and have done a ton to it because I'm enjoying working on it. I have followed all the forums closely and must admit on many posts there is a lot of fear out there. I'll probably get bashed for my views, though in general people on the Porsche forums are very nice compare to the Benz forums.

Over the past ten years we have in may aspects become a fear driven society, if it isn't something scary then it isn't news. I felt like for awhile I was driving around in a time bomb. I then stepped back and decided to look at the numbers. If there was a %20 failure rate we would have a major mess. So let's say it is maybe as high as %2, heck I have a higher chance of wrecking my car driving to work each day.

I am not doubting there is an issue and if I can get in my neighbors pit long enough I would redo my clutch, RMS, and IMS and I would probably just replace with a stock one. Peace of mind and the fun in doing it would be worth it alone.
If this was an issue on jumbo jets then I would ground them all until fixed.

This is what I guess, and it is only a guess, Porsche created a poor design and farmed out the building of the bearing and then the bearing builder farmed out the seals. Either there were a certain percentage of seals that were poorly made or the assembly of them into the bearing case had a quality issue. The reason I say this is because if it was simply a matter of poor design then we would be talking that it is only a matter of time "when" the bearing will fail, not an "if" the bearing will fail...we certainly seem to be in the "if" category...though some don't talk this way.

I think all the scary posts could be hurting the value of the Boxster, at a %2 rate it shouldn't be in my view. Now I'm not one of the unlucky ones and sure hope I won't be so that is easy for me to say. I will say I'm glad we do have an informed community and for folks like me I'm happy to know about this so I can make an informed decision, but if I had seen post like %20 before I bought, I wouldn't have got mine.

Drive on!