I've scoured the forums and have looked at many posts about this and basically have come up more confused.
It seems like some people have suggested some of the early 2005 997S may have a 3.8 M96 engine. Is this ture? How do I tell this?

If there are 3.8L M96s out there, is the clutch or front balancer/pulley any different?
What about the IMS bearing? Would it have the older problematic style?

 

This is the best resource I've found that explained the issue and how to determine what type of IMS bearing you have:
http://www.lnengineering.com/ims.html

 

Pretty sure all 997S have M97 motor designation.

But 2005 MY 997S has more IMS failures and redesigned IMS bearing was implemented in 2006 MY.

Still, any M96/M97 can have IMS failure.

 

True,

while my 05 base was getting a new engine and 06 was also in the shope getting one.

I don't think the percentage is as high as some beleive but all 997.1 can develop the issue.

 

You can upgrade your ims bearing without tearing the motor completely down. I plan to do this as a piece of mind repair when i do a clutch.

 

Some bad info being passed here....

All 996 and 997.1 Carrera's (not incl. GT's and TT's which have GT1 based motors) have M96 based engines (some call the later model versions M97's but they are still M96 based) . They all have IMS's including 06-08 997's. 2006 and later M96 based engines across the Boxter, Cayman, and Carrera line received an upgraded single row IMS bearing that remedied but did not completely resolve the IMS bearing failure rate. Percentages are still quite low. These forums tend to overstate the issue.....

There is NO IMS upgrade available for late model 997.1 engines. The IMS retrofit is for pre 997 M96 based engines. Not sure it would fit a late model 3.6 or 3.8 "M97" but LN Engineering would be the people to talk to. They quote they have a service available but so far nothing for the M97 shows up in their product catalogue.

Jason

 

Good info. Thanks.

 

My 05 997S got a new engine from Porsche under warranty last year, would they of put in a new 09 engine, or an 05 rebuild?? the dealer told me that the replacement engine has the updated IMS bearing so nothing to worry about, plus they gave an additional 2 year warranty on the engine.

 

you would not get the 09 engine with DFI....you got an engine with the reinforced IMS....maybe remanufactered, but that OK. It goes thru more internal testing.

 

What buck said, keep in mind the 997.2 (09 and on) DFI engines are completely unrelated in just about every respect to the M96/7 engines. They do not even have an IMS anymore....

Jason