JFP in PA

The bearing LN designed was a long development process, during which literally every component and material was not only examined, but actually tested before LN settled on the current ceramic hybrid design. The issues involved not only strength or hardness of the ceramic balls, but how they interact with the cage and races use to hold it together. A lot of different ideas were tried, many were rejected along the way before the final design was settled. As I noted earlier, these units are not "off the shelf" bearings used for other purposes, they are built for LN, to their specs, so no one else has the exact same bearing. Also as noted earlier, the bearings that failed fell into two categories, they were either installed improperly, or were installed in engine's that already had other issues and should have not even been considered for a retrofit. To my knowledge, there was nothing wrong with the bearings themselves. Because of these problems, LN moved away from selling the bearings directly to the end user's (DIY market) and moved to a more elaborate program that requires professional installers to be trained on how to qualify the engine before even attempting the retrofit, as well as how to properly install the unit. Do some internet searching, there have been many threads involving both Jake and Charles on this subject.

First of all, welcome to RennTech :welcome: I continue to be amazed at the inconsistent and often totally incorrect information being passed around as "fact". With a quick search, you can turn up more information on the true level of problem the IMS caused. Porsche recently settled a class action lawsuit which revealed that at its peak, IMS failures occurred in around 10% of the engines made during the time frame covered in the legal action. As for cylinder liner scoring, yes, that also occurs, but has not proven to be as widespread or as catastrophic as the IMS issue. When you have an engine start scoring a liner, it may go down on power slightly, or consume some oil, but it still runs. When the IMS fails, the result is instantaneous death for the engine: So when liner scoring occurs, you still have a running engine than can be repaired; when the IMS fails, you have a $20K boat anchor where your engine used to be. As for alternative replacement bearings, consider that LN has more than 12,000 successful retrofits on the road; how many does this other company have? After Charles Navarro and Jake Raby developed and perfected the retrofit procedure back in 2008, a lot of other companies jumped on the band wagon with their own "copy" kits. Some are still around, others have been less successful, and their customer's ultimately "paid the price" for their lack of understanding and basic research into what works and what does not when it comes to IMS bearings. There have actually been cases where some of these alternatives replaced a still fully functional factory IMS bearing, only to lead to pictures like those above, and the disappearance of the alternative supplier from the market. So I would be very cautious when someone tells you that they have a cheaper alternative to the LN products that "are just as good". The LN product is not an "off the shelf" unit, their bearings are made for them, and every component selected for their bearings has been tested to destruction to get the greatest durability and life expectancy. As for LN being sued, I am not aware of any case against them. Over the years since the retrofit was introduced, there have been some dozen or so cases of LN IMS bearing failures, most of which were traced to improper installation techniques, or the LN bearing being installed into an engine that was already dying and full of metal shards which ultimately got into the new bearing. Both Charles and Jake have been very forthcoming and open about these instances, and I am sure they would quickly respond to your inquiry concerning this question. Both have websites of their own (Charles is at http://lnengineering.com/, Jake at http://flat6innovations.com/ ), and both regularly appear here as well in response to questions about these products and competitor's claim's. As for "waterless coolant", I'm not all that sure about that either; the product strikes me as a solution looking for a problem to solve. We see literally dozens of liquid cooled Porsches every day in the shop, some with over 200K miles on them, and not one of them are using this "magic ingredient" as you describe it, and none of them are dying from liner scoring. To go back to your original question about your oil leak between the transmission and engine cases, it could be either the RMS or the IMS; both are well known to leak. But if you have a leak in that area, it is not going to get better, and things could get considerably worse if it is not addressed. Regardless of where the oil is coming from, over time it is going to both ruin you clutch and potentially degrade the elastomer in your dual mass flywheel. While the pressure plate and disc are relatively cheap by comparison, the flywheel is not and could easily set you back the better part of $1K (US) just to buy it. On the other hand, if you took the car apart now and repaired the leak(s), you could still be able to salvage your current flywheel; and you would have the opportunity to retrofit you IMS at the same time, ending all of your concerns in one move. Just a thought.............

Soap and water will do it, and I would do this quickly as brake fluid is Hell on paint.

Yes, and anti seize is a metal paste, not a grease.

For Porsche parts, consider Sunset, one of the board sponsors. When was the last time your brake hydraulic system was flushed? It is supposed to be done at least every two years, more if you track the car. Old fluid can quickly make the brakes seem soft, and is an easy fix. As for pad types, they are a matter of personal preferences, but any pad that gives you more hot bite is going to wear the rotors faster.

I don't know anything about that brand, but the easiest way to change out the insert is with a bearing press. You could probably do it with a hammer and socket, but I would go with a press. Update: The Lemfoerder company is an OEM parts supplier to several German car brands,

Loren is correct, you are looking for ATE 200, which is the "gold". Amazon also carries it: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_4?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=ate+brake+fluid&sprefix=ate+%2Caps%2C135&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aate+brake+fluid

If you are referring to the electric fans, yes, you can switch them on with the Durametric software.

I would not be overly concerned. Because of the horizontally opposed design of these engines, they occasionally do this.

Butch did you have the "HEAT" issue ? As I said for the first 5 or 6 miles (or about 10 minutes running time) everything was fine ,voltage was "about" 13.4 to 13.7 volts or so, then AFTER about 5 or 6 miles, or 10 mins, when the motor heats up it started dropping, how could this affect that , the wiring harness that is, was yours a heat issue, or that way from initial start up ? I'm not an electronics engineer, but it's a connection, not an electronic device ? Perhaps I'm wrong , could heat increase the resistance on a connection like that ? Anyone know about that ? Thanks Dave Corrosion build up causes resistance to rise in the cables, add heat, it goes even higher. This is a common Porsche 996 issue, with its own TSB and updated cables to help prevent the problems.

Blue Loctite would be fine, and I would not worry about the thread locker acting as a lubricant during assembly.

Correct.

Strange, we still get them with the coating, but then we buy them in bulk. In any case, the rule of thumb is simple: Anything that rotates, vibrates, is time consuming to get at, or can come flying out if the bolts come loose will benefit from Loctite. As I noted earlier, we Loctite flywheel and pressure plate bolts on every make of car, you really do not want these to come loose. The axle flange bolts are an excellent example, we find loose ones all the time. Loctite is cheap, repairing a car that has had a pressure plate or flywheel come loose is not.

New flywheel and pressure plate bolts should come with thread locker on them; if they don't, I would not hesitate to use Loctite. Trans case bolts do not need thread locker, but the CV bolts definitely need it.

We have never needed to use bearing compound.

There are a lot of strange branded tires coming out of the orient these days. Nexen, for example, is a Korean tire.

Hard to tell from your picture, but it is not unusual to find bits of hardened sealant and from the chain wear pads in the sump.

Pull the seals off the bearing and see if there is any grease still in it. You should not need any retaining compounds on the new bearing as it should be an interference fit. I would however look that the inside of the shaft to see if it has similar marks.

We always replace the RMS once you get that far in, the newer PTFE design is much better than the old style seals. I would also do the AOS.

The fans can be tested using a Porsche diagnostic tool to see if they are running correctly or not. I would start there.

Sorry, you are correct, I meant to say "cam plugs facing away from the flywheel". It is not uncommon to have to rotate the engine more than one cycle to get the cams to line up when the engine is at TDC.

You need to hand rotate the engine to TDC (clockwise rotation only), at which point the crank locking pin will just slide into the engine's crank pulley and the boss on the engine case. This locks the crank from moving. Then remove the cam plugs on the cylinder head facing away from the flywheel and insert and bolt down the cam locking tool. At this point, nothing can move and you are safe to pull the tensioners out per the LN instructions and move foward with the IMS retrofit. You can use an impact to remove both the pressure plate and flywheel bolts as they will not be reused. Do not use an impact on the IMS flange bolts. Do not use the impact to reinstall any of the bolts, use a torque wrench.

Absolutely it is necessary. Taking short cuts on an IMS retrofit is a recipe for disaster; most of the ones we see that have gone bad did so because those doing the swap did not follow the LN proceedures to the letter.

I'm not sure sure about that RMS tool (FVD Brombacher (Part #FVD 721 T25 0)) as it looks like the old style tool which would install the newer PTFE seal at the wrong service depth. What was the measurement from the crank face to the seal when installed?

Depends upon the quality of the silicone hoses. A lot of silicone hose softens dramatically as it warms, which is going to be the case in an engine compartment. If you can get hose that is designed for the heat, you should be fine.