sorry if this was mentioned already, but going back to the OP...why dont you just call and ask? LN (charles?) is honest and straight forward - i'm willing to bet he'd be forthcoming about any (known) anomalies in what seems to be a bulletproof solution.

 

Well, can either of you fellas send me the degree I just earned by reading all of this? Pretty interesting stuff! Thanks!

 

It's in the mail! If it should happen to get lost en route, know all by these presents that Jay of the Blue is hereby declared MPN: a Master of Porsche Nurturing.

G, of Simon's Men

 

Fahrer, plenty of quality shops in SoCal: Scientific in Pasadena, TRE, and Callas Rennsport in the valley should be able to help you out...

 

Guys, I really learned alot from this discussion....thanks.

I'd love to see a poll on 6 speed asking whether you have had IMS failure with the following options:

• Yes
• No
• Have proactively replaced
• and the year of the car.

I think it would real interesting to see which years are most suseptable. Does anyone know if one already exists.

 

I believe Callas Rennsport is in Torrance (190th & Hawthrone Blvd).

 

Where do you recommend getting oil analysis?

How often?

George

 

One additional IMS Question....Do turbos have the same problem with IMS? I had heard that they always had different engines...is that true?

 

Very informative post and a thorough explanation form simsgm is much appreciated. Have read the LN engineering site info on the subject and come to the conclusion that while the IMS failure issue is of particular concern in the 996 engines and very early 997 cars it is far less common on the later cars that received the most recently improved bearing. SIMSGM's review helps me better ubderstand the science behind the modifications/improvements Porsche made to counteract specific causes of failure of the earlier bearing design. The only remaining concern is the fact that Porsche went so far as to eliminate the IMS from the DFI engines altogether. Makes me think they weren't 100% sold on their final IMS bearing design so they decided to come up with a more permanent solution.

 

This poll has been going on rennlist.com for a long time. Low % fail, most are 05's,etc. Go there, search and read it for the #'s.

 

As a PCA member, we get these regional/chapter newsletter and our local tech editor (Pedro of Gold Coast Region PCA - zone 12) wrote an article about the IMS Guard, a product that monitors metal chips in your oil and triggers alarm when it reaches certain level - even as you're driving. Pedro mentioned that bearing failure happens over a couple hundred miles. So, this IMS Guard should give you enough warning to hopefully drive to safe harbor (home, garage, bank/ATM for money to replace bearing).
Separately, I've read (on the internet - FWIW) the issue may be related to some engines maybe out of spec/alignment from factory (forgot the technical bits), but that could also be a cause/acceleration of failures where replacement/stronger bearings may not help. Again, this last bit I read on the internet...so, do your research.

You can find Pedro's product review on page 32: http://www.goldcoastregion.org/LinkC...bid=99&mid=912.

Hope this helps. As a M97 engine owner myself, this is probably a cheap insurance program I'll consider at the next oil change.

 

Among the car enthusiast community, Blackstone Labs appears to be the most popular (I have no personal relation)

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/

I would check it every time you change the oil. I suppose you could do it more frequently if you had a good way of pulling a sample (unfortunately I don't). Any sort of sampling valve like the below would likely get ripped off and cause a very bad day...

http://www.quickoildrainvalve.com/

 

Nope the turbos and GT3/GT2 cars all have a motorsports derived engine without the cheaply implemented rolling element bearings we have

 

It is amazing how all of us with 997 cars are terrified of the IMS issues, and are looking for preventive solutions (with $ out of our pocket). We should all somehow "team up" and address Porsche about the faulty design that should have never happened in the first place. These cars are all priced well above $85,000! 40+ years of amazing engineering and R&D! Porsche needs to admit the mistake and work with us. I am embarrassed to tell my friends about a chance that my $90,000 car may blow up at any given time for no apparent reason.

Don't let it sit in your garage, make sure you drive it and rev it over 4,000 or whatever rpms, but when you do- make sure its at the operating temp, send your oil out for analyses, use a magnetic oil drain plug... what else do we need to do to possibly prevent a possible $20,000 engine replacement ??

It just makes NO SENSE !

 

The trouble with using oil analysis to catch bearing failure is this... unless you get oil analysis done every couple hundred miles, the probability is very low you'll catch an impending bearing failure. If indeed it takes bearing a few hundred miles to wear down (sounds reasonable), you can see how oil analysis (@ a regular oil-change interval) may not be very useful to catch bearing failure.