DGI

9 hours ago, Loren said:

 

Try 5087

 

You rock!

33 minutes ago, jmj996 said:

119k on a 20-yr old car implies that it was not exactly a daily driver.  If you don't have any history on it, assume that at some point in its life, it sat for weeks at a time - possibly longer.

 

Hopefully you'll have a good mechanic advising you on this.  They won't really know the condition of the bearing unless they remove that outer plate and take a look.  The condition of the outer seal is not the end of the discussion.  It could have been replaced in conjunction with a clutch replacement.  The condition of the seal on the bearing itself is your first step to determining if the bearing is still viable, and even then, you don't really know unless you pop off the bearing seal (which is irreversible), so it's a catch-22.  My mechanic removes the bearing seal on all Porsche engines with an IMS and relies on engine oil lubrication, and he says he's never had a failure.  He's been working on these engines since the 996 was first being raced in the late 90's. 

They should also change the water pump as preventive maintenance if you have no maintenance history on it.  A water pump failure is a disaster in these cars because the impeller is plastic and it gets chewed up against the block because when the water pump bearing fails, the axis of the pump shaft is no longer perpendicular to the block.  The result is that little bits of plastic end up getting circulated through the coolant system as it's failing, which results in these bits entering the cylinder heads and sometimes getting caught in the small passages, creating hot spots that crack the head.

 

Good luck!

Excellent tips! Thank you.

full cooling system overhaul scheduled in the upcoming months already

57 minutes ago, RayLeone said:

Evil wins when good cars are IMS'd. Take care of your car and you won't have an IMS problem. IMS problems happen to garage queens that were not properly conditioned during initial run in.

Thats precisely the conclusion ive come to in my research. Engine has to come down for maintenance anyway. Assuming the RMS/IMS is dry when that happens, its not getting replaced 

1999 C2 Manual

Bought last October with ~114k

No maintenance history, original IMS.

Going through and doing maintenance now and am sitting at 115k miles. Runs like a top with minimal oil seapage from sump plate. Debating if I should go full retard and Upgrade IMS along with other bits or see what my luck brings with the original 2 row IMS

1999 911

Becker CDR-210

Model: R 3297

Serial: V5016778

thank you for any help you can provide