casperlabs

It does not matter what temp the housing and bearing are, AS LONG AS THEY ARE BOTH AT THE SAME TEMPERATURE WHEN MEASURING. Remember, you are subtracting ID from OD, its only the difference between that matters. As stated in #82, if all the side loads from the chains are not relaxed, the fit will feel tight. Once you get the support out, look at the end of the IMS. Is it precisely centered in the slightly larger case opening? Can you put your finger on the end of the stud and gently rock the IMS left to right? If the answer to either is "NO", you have not completley relaxed the chain tension, and there will be drag on the fit. Now, lets say you split the case with an intact IMS brg and support assy. You take it to the bench and remove the nut. You grab the support and it won't just slide out. Happens a lot,........why? You figure out a way to pry or push on it until it comes out, does not take much,.....but it is not loose. Hmmm,..........you notice a slight brown film on the surfaces. Take some carb cleaner and a rag and wipe/wash until the film is gone on both parts. Ahhhh, it now slides right in like Bill says. What is happening? When you have a fit that is right on verge of line to line, anything that gets in locks it up. This is a really big problem in aircraft piston engine cam followers, which have a similar sliding fit to the case (cam in case OHV engine). A lot of these engines sit for months w/o running. When the owner finally comes out and starts it, the lifter is varnished. The cam and valve spring push it back and forth, but it no longer wants to spin, so it wears on one spot. Eventually, the cam goes round. This is a lesser problem w/ the Porsche because the oils are superior (it is a big deal to get an FAA certification for new lube chemistry, and the sales volume low. A/C piston engine oils typically lag the car oils by a decade in sophistication). Every support we have seen in this study (that has not been mechanically damaged) has exhibited this sliding fit when cleaned up. BR

Logray, Now you are getting into another area that explains why I want trained/equipped people doing the kit install. As part of the instructions, there is a table of fits and clearances. You really should have ID and OD micrometers that read in tens of thousandths to measure everything before you start beating a bearing with a hammer. Mics like these are not common in a typical garage. Usually only wrist pins and ball bearings require this close measurement. It is not absolutely a requirement, but it is highly recommended. Either your parts are deviated, you have mis-measured , or LN has redesigned the OEM fits. In order to remove or install the the support (on engine servicing) the ID race MUST be a loose (no slop, but rather a sliding fit that would drop in of its own weight if layed on the side) to the support (to prevent loading thru the balls and potentially damaging the bearing with an axial load). This is a key design requirement. The OD is a light tap interference fit. If it does not require force, it is too loose. You can not rely on the snap ring to retain the bearing. We are seeing some variation in the OD brg fit of the sprocket hub. The bearings are dead nominal, its all in the hub. BR

dcdreschsel You just can't consider an open deck engine a serious performance engine because of the issues mentioned. If your performance expectations are modest, go ahead and sleeve it with iron. There are probably a million Subarus out there with this design (I have one). There is one case where Subaru copied Porsche (not the other way around, as you have probably heard), the 3 ply head gasket. It solved leak issues they were having, and is very forgiving of thermal movement. Sleeving outboads is incredibly common here in FL. There are some things to watch carefully when sleeving, the bore out has to be smooth and uniform diameter top to bottom. (This requires flood coolant during the boring/honing). Follow the sleeve makers interference fit and assembly recommendations exactly. When you heat the case, put a thermocouple as close to the cylinder as possible (it takes longer to heat a case than you think). And be sure to measure the bore after heating to make certain you have about .008" clearance when you drop in the sleeve. Sleeving should not be considered a last resort repair procedure, it is a primary design feature. In sea water outboards, you can set up a galvanic reaction between the iron and aluminum if they are not in intimate contact. The sleeve makers will tell you to coat the sleeve with Loctite 620 before insertion. Between the interference fit and the 620 there won't be any gaps to cause this problem.... even in outboards, never mind Porsches. BR

logray, Your prior statement, " it sounds like the entire point of the nut is just to draw the tube into the flange (real support) at the correct depth." is an important one for the readers, as it could be misunderstood. The stud should never be used as a puller unless you are removing the bearing. Its purpose is to lock the ID bearing race up against the vertical face of the support. If you have not relaxed the tension in the drive chains by setting the correct crank position, removed the hydraulic tensioners, AND rocked the crank back and forth, the bearing will be subject to a radial load that is significant. When you are just removing the support, this radial load can make the support seem like it is locked in. Some mechanics just can't figure out how to get the support out when this happens. The ID fit of the bearing to the support is loose, it should slide right in. BR

JFP, Once the bearing fails, all bets are off on the stud. The stud was not designed to take any radial load (which it will when it the bearing clearance opens up and it starts shaking). This is not a chicken or egg situation. LN claims their beefed up stud helps keep it together after the bearing dies. Well,..........you still got the same problem. Dead bearing. Our objective is to never fail a bearing. Nor Cal, Your statement is 100% correct. You can use new encapslated 6MM bolts or the old ones with blue loctite. Same thing...thread sealant. Gasket cements by any name are crutches to seal less than ideal mating surfaces. On precision fitting parts (like o-ring seals), you run the risk of deforming or locking in place (after it sets up) a rubber seal that was designed to seal thru flexibility (accomodates engine thermal growth and vibration). If you have a beat up surface, then you have to use some judgement as to what sealer to help seal the gouges. In this hardware, there are not a lot of ways to beat up the sealing surfaces. The original black o-ring seal support was pretty marginal because the ring was small x-section. The late 3 rib types are very reliable. But ..........some of you guys really like sealants. That is our position. If we design a sealed joint for any of our customers, we will not accept any design that requires sealants (except direct metal to metal interfaces,....like a crankcase parting line) . BR

It is probably inevitable that we will have to make studs for those customers that have damaged theirs. Porsche does not sell this detail part. Right now, the only change we plan on incorporating, is putting in a recessed hex (like a socket set screw) instead of the screw slot. These will be expensive for what they are. The hex will be plunge EDM machined, and will require a lot of machine time. Domestic maching cost is at an all time high. Grinding two diameters won't help. All these anerobic resin sealants are miracle products when used properly. If they get into an open bearing, they can be death. While the stuff could salvage an out of limits IMS bore (rare), the other consequences are unacceptable (high removal forces, contamination). The only location using them with our procedure is on the three 6mm screws holding the support in the case (blue thread sealant). When you are installing with tapping action, the stuff could splash everywhere. Like all things Porsche, this requires a special tool. You can't hold the stud with screwdriver, and tighten the nut with a conventional torque wrench. We get around it by taking an inexpensive beam type torque wrench, and boring a .250 hole thru the head for the screwdriver. If you use a .5 square drive torque wrench, there will not be enoungh material removed in the critical area to upset the calibration of the wrench at these low torque levels. Yes, Porsche spec for nut torque.......period! We recommend using a new OEM stud clinch nut for every final assembly. The thread running forces can drop after one use and reduce the clinch feature. It would be curious to know if LN pulled the cage and dismantled the old bearing for inspection before recommending replacement. Anybody who is serious about bearings has a magnifying right angle scope that you plug into the USB on the computer. If there is no damage to a bearing (even a $5 bearing), there is no excuse for not reusing. I can take a pick of any feature and email it to the eng. rep at the brg mfgr.. BR

Here's the post I promised yesterday. When you start a project that involves a ball bearing, the first steps are to figure out the loads and speed the bearing will operate under. The loads will be used to determine the rolling contact stress. Intuitively, you might think the peak contact stress to be directly at the point of ball contact, but actually it is just forward of the ball and below the surface. It is easy to visualize if you think of a heavily loaded wheel-barrow tire rolling over soft earth. The wheel pushes forward soil, so it is like the wheel is always trying to "climb out" of a depression. As long as the contact stress is below the material yield point, the bearing survives. From a practical standpoint, the higher the contact stress, the more distortion. The more distortion, the more heat generated. Heat makes the steel softer. So, when designing for big loads, you need bearings with either lots of balls…. or big balls to keep heat down. Speed factors determine which approach is used. When you see a ball race that is pitted or flaking, the allowable contact stress limt was exceeded. It could be dirt. lube, or overload that caused the problem. Now we need to move back in time. Here is a guess as to how the bearing ended up submerged. The engine was designed wet sump, the first Porsche boxer engine with that approach since the 912/356. When they started testing it in the prototype 996, they found the oil pick-up was sucking air instead of oil (with the new suspension and great tires under high lateral "G’s"). When sump baffling changes did not fix it, they added a couple liters of oil to the sump. Cheap fix, new dipstick. But, the bearing (which was designed dry) was now wet when not running. Well,….. someone had to sign off the engineering change forms, including the impact of the change assessment. Now we have a paper trail to the guilty. When the bearing problems started, the cover up began. So, the guy who messed up ….either found a way to get it blamed on the least liked guy in the group (and is now the area manager), or…..he has long since left Stuggart, and made a career making weinerschnitzel in the Black Forest. You might laugh, but this happens all the time in big organizations. The case everybody remembers ……..is the space shuttle o-ring disaster. When we do the math on the grease lubed (but not immersed) dual row bearing, it looks really good . Lots of load margin, and the combination of small OD and small balls keeps the ball speed and centrifugal loads down. No problem at all grease lubed. The problems start when the grease is gone. The second generation single row bearing is simply the dual row cut in half. It is really that basic. Same ID and OD, half the ball count. So the contact stresses are doubled. We now have a bearing that is far more likely to overheat and die. Based on the failures seen , this is exactly what is happening. These engines should have the hybrid ceramic upgrade done now, don't wait for the clutch to go. You can’t admit you made a mistake and go backward , so……..you make a third design! You fix the contact stress by putting this big single row bearing in place. The load capacity math on this bearing looks fine, but the limiting speed is very questionable. The increased diameter makes a big jump in ball speed (speed varies as the square of the radius) because the OD of this bearing spins. The balls are large and heavy, making high centrifugal force that wipes lube off the race. If you are driving around town, and rarely redline the engine, it is OK. Endurance running this design at sustained high rpm is asking for trouble. We have not completed the analysis on the impact of just changing the balls to ceramic on this bearing. With the ceramic ball’s weight reduction, it will help the centrifugal issue quite a bit. (We do have a ceramic ball version of this big bearing on the road, but it is far to early to tell if the solution is adequate. All indications are it is an improvement, and we can custom make one of these for you if you really want it.) Question is, will it be enough. Since you have to tear the engine down to service this bearing, we are considering making the shaft go back to the (field service capable) dual row. It will require a very precise, cylindrically ground spacer sleeve to make it happen. We would have to do the upgrade in-house to control the fit. More work is needed on this one. Since every engine has to be torn down to fix this bearing, we don’t expect very many sales for a period of years. So, all this probably happened because ……….no one wanted to tell the boss a $300 bearing was needed to fix it, or the business people could not make a case for spending the money. BR

If the nut is over torqued, you run the risk of tensile failure just as you as described. When the stud breaks, the IMS is free to shuck back and forth in the case (that was the noise heard). Since the stud does nothing to support the bearing (just sets the running position) there was no reason to cause bearing damage. The stud's nut is a clinch lock type, and you hold the stud from turning with just a blade screwdriver after the nut is started. The little screw slot's anti-rotation role in tightening the nut should tell people "whoa, why is this here?" And,.....is one reason why the torque spec for the nut is so low. This is why we make a big, bid deal about procedures. I understand your concern, and take your comments seriously. Barring a defect in the original part (which is possible but not likely, and can occur regardless of size) the only scenario that can fail the stud is overtorque. You would think that the limit of holding the screw slot with a screwdriver would limit the installed torque. But in practice, once the nut starts an axial load on the stud, you don't need to hold the slot in position any more on many of these engines. Some turn, and some don't w/o the screwdriver in place. This is what makes the "tweaking" possible. Nobody likes tasks that are awkward or difficult. Learning the technique to hold the slot and tighten the nut takes practice, and I understand why you guys don't like it. But it was done for a reason. The OEM stud actually has a couple advantages over a "beefed up" stud. 1) If things don't go together right, it limits the load you can put on the inner race. When you are pulling on the inner race, it creates a load path thru the balls. Remember the discussion yesterday about bearing design for radial only loads. If you pull too hard, the races can get indented from the balls, and they are ruined. 2) The more material that goes into the stud dia., the less available to actually support the bearing ID. If the support flexes, it won't be long b4 other problems start. While on the subject of odd ball failures............. When you guys come across strange failure modes, we would love to see the parts. Send them to us, or give us a call. We can look at them in the lab, and tell a bunch of things not apparent to the naked eye. BR Casper Labs, Inc

The judicial system has decided they can do without my services this time. So,... thought I would check in. In order to see what the center stud really does, you have to stack up the whole assembly in one half of the case.... and determine the final fit and running positions. First of all, remember all the OEM bearings are radial bearings, meaning they are designed for radial loads only. If you subject them to axial loads, they will quickly fail. In the engine, the various chains provide the radial load, and no axials are present or possible. Without the stud bolt, the IMS just floats between the front face of the plain bearing end (oil pump drive ) and the inside vertical face of the rear support (remember the ID bearing fit is a loose sliding fit). There is just enough axial case clearance to prevent binding. When you tighten the support's center nut it pulls the IMS toward the support's vertical face to set an aft biased IMS running position. The support stub shaft does not bottom on the plug end of the stud. So, as designed, the only load that stud ever sees is the result of the torque you put on the nut! (Unless the bearing dies, and everything starts wobbling and snapping). The stud's structural contribution to carrying the bearing imposed load is ZERO. The only real danger of breaking that stud (when the bearing is still OK), is when removing the bearing. If, and it is a big if, you end up with a .25 percentile bearing interference fit that is nasty OD tight, you could break the stud in pure tension pulling the bearing. It is a wash if it will break at the base of the threads or the O-ring groove. If it breaks, it is no big deal. One whack with a drift puts it in the IMS tube, you put a blind puller on the bearing, and out it comes. There is also the possibility that some well intentioned person could just "snug up" that center nut (without a torque wrench or even knowing the setting) and radically overload it. We have never broken a stud. The core engine we use for demo has had the bearing pulled at least 35 times on the same stud. I have to admit I am using you folks as test specimens, but not the way you think. There is so much fear about the IMS bearing. Fear because it is expensive when it fails, because no one has ever really explained why it fails , and because the OEM never addressed the problem. So, the first step is getting people past the fear thru background knowledge. I am hoping your views are typical of the community, and answering your concerns will spread the word. Question: Is my bearing better than LN's? Answer: Is a Ford better than a Chevy? There is no answer, ......what is asked for is debate. What I am telling you is that our product is up to the task (if properly installed, the engine does not make metal for some other reason and compromise it, or the lube get contaminated). Bearings are not a big deal for us, we have done the engineering, analysis, and testing. If buying parts you do not need, makes you feel better.............. My advice is to concentrate on hard data, do not ever assume anything. Keep asking yourself if you are making judgements based on facts and logic. Bill Ryan Casper Labs, Inc. I will post tomorrow on the subject of rolling contact stress (Hertz). This is pretty simple factor that is a big player indetermining the bearing's load capacity. It will help develop an understanding of what is behind the 3 types of bearings used over the years, and the risk associated with each. ,

When this got started in 2008, there was never any intention of making a product offering. Just wanted a more reliable personal car, and was curious why there was so much fuss over these bearings. Having been around them for decades prior, I knew a bearing is a bearing. They fail for a reason. What was it? This project started a life on its own......... with curious fellow owners asking about it. Just found out today that jury duty becons. At this point, I also am at risk for repeating myself. Time is going to have to be prioritized, and this forum is going to have to be put aside for a few days. Hope I contributed something you can use in the future. There were some people out there that knew the right questions to ask, and we appreciate the encouragement of those who want to see this work. We are going to make it available, and hopefully the Porsche community will find we have something to offer. If you have specific technical questions, my direct email is N1WR@juno.com Be aware it may take a bit to get a reply for the near future. Regards, BR Casper Labs, Inc. .

I do this type of work because I love problem solving. When you turn your technical interest into a business, you find you have to wear hats you never wore before. Finance and sales are big hats. If you ever worked for a large company as an engineer, you learn that the design or fix you propose better meet the needs of sales and the money guys. If you don't, you will never get past the first review. It is almost always a compromise, and becomes another level of challenge in getting your idea sold. In this IMS case, it was easy to find a cost advantage because the support and stud are superfluous to the problem. Guys like Steve Jobs become legends. They know the limits of technolgy, keep the cash flowing, have a sixth sense about what people want before they know what they want, and take calculated risks. Even Steve admitted " I am the only person I know who lost a quarter of a billion dollars." I drive the Boxster everywhere. Florida to Idaho. For me it was a simple decision to upgrade the IMS (after figuring out what was the issue), because I can't have the engine fail on a trip. If I just drove 50 miles each way to work every day, having it towed would not be a big deal. All of you are going to have your reasons for decideing to change it or not. Faith in your mechanic's ability should be the primary driver in my opinion. Bill Ryan Casper Labs, Inc.

I don't know any more about the LN's actual bearing quality program than anybody else out there. We can all count the balls in it, and figure out its basic load/speed rating. I suspect their retired bearing engineer is giving them some pretty good guidance in specing and controling quality. If the bearing was a problem, we would all know by now. If the OEM bearing was not immersed in oil, the failure rate would be a tiny portion of what it is. Remember , this is a $25 bearing. Probably the biggest difference is they have a bar stock machined custom support and center stud. All of our failure analysis and testing has never shown any weakness or design factor in these two parts that contributes to bearing mortality in any way. Therefore, we designed the bearing kit to use as many of the OEM parts as possible. The OEM supports are actually very nice forgings that are much stronger and stiffer than the case they are bolted to (with only three 6mm screws). With the cost of machining anything in the USA today, most of the cost difference is in the extra bits. Bearings cost what they cost, we both get them from bearing mfgrs. With all our products, we strive to make them as affordable as possible without compromising quality. If you overprice your product, the customers go looking for a better deal. Most of our general aviation sales come from our customers,.... who tell their friends. In this economy, no one is looking to spend more than they have to. But, we understand where you are coming from, and even the guy who does 200 of these w/o incident,... could run into a problem on 201. We have been doing this since 2003, and despite the economic slow down, we have steadily increased sales. This business addresses niche markets, we will never be able to promote like Apple Computers. No plans to O/H Variocam actuators. We prefer to stick with new products, where we have better ability to control quality. The only repairs we do are to our own products. Bill Ryan Casper Labs, Inc.

Porsches are fantastic, I have driven one or another for almost 30 years. Over the years, one great engine (911) played a huge role in making their reputation what it is. There have been a bunch of other engines that they either designed or borrowed from other car makers. None have come close to the air cooled 911. This water boxer engine has more design issues than any one of their engines I can remember. Torsional vibration, weight, IMS, Lokasil, Variocam (early) just to name the big ones. But it is still a very interesting engine,.... that has promise not yet realized. The Variocam system makes it a fantastic sounding engine with the proper exhaust. It seems doubtful (with the present economy) that this engine will be extensively redesigned. My bet is we will have to wait for a fresh design. We are going to have to make due with what we have on this engine. BR

We don't have a great deal of data, but what we do have is indicating these cracked , D chunked cylinders you hear about.... are actually a result of the the open deck design combined with the Lokasil liner. On the 2.5 we re-sleeved (remember this engine had a factory Lokasil repair sleeve already), the sleeve had a wall thickness of about .070". I do not remember the total wall thickness, but this was a considerable portion of the total wall. I was able to cut out a ribbon of the Lokasil liner about .020 thick X 1/2 inch wide and half the bore diameter. I polished, etched, and looked at it under the microscope. Those SiC3 particles make the aluminum look like you could drive a truck thru the grain boundary. I then took the ribbon and pressed an edge to the table. It snapped like a popsicle stick. Never saw any alum. alloy do that before..... So, these liners are hard, but they are also very brittle. Since the exhaust gas is always exiting the cylinder on the lower side, this results in localized heating near the exhaust valve. The top edge of the cylinder has no real heat path but toward crank (because the steel head gasket limits transfer). When top of the cyl gets hot and the bore wants to grow, the locally hottest area near the exh valve grows the most. The bore goes egg shaped. When it cools off, it recovers somewhat. But, each run/off cycle ratchets the egg shape a little bit. That why all these engines have at least .003" out of round after 20K miles (and why these engine have horrendous blowby). I have yet to find an engine that has cracked but not destroyed cylinder (but would like one if you have one) because it could prove the failure scenario we theorize. Thermal cycles and egging add up to the point where a crack initiates in the Lockasil. Since a normal Lockasil cylinder is an integral part of the casting, the crack propagates from the liner area right into the base metal. If we can find a cylinder as described, it is a simple mater to section it and crack it open. If the theory is correct, there will be evidence of fatigue along the fracture interface. The sleeve we made was from a 4032 alum forging (piston alloy) and a full cyl dia. X .25" thick flange was put on the head side. Fitted it .0015" tight with Locktite 620. NiC3 coated b4 installation and decked and diamond honed after. Expensive, time consuming, and probably too good for these engines. Time will tell, but my bet is some other problem will end this engine's life. This engine is probably one that could benefit from some old technology. Put a thin, high strength cast iron liner in every bore. Would really help the egging problem, be low cost, and limit the performance potential. Just a thought. Ironically, there is actually a kind of benefit to the IMS bearing with the high blowby condition in these engines. All that vapor blowing around the crankcase is perfect for helping to lube a ceramic hybrid bearing (that has neither immersion or oil spray)! If they ever fix the blowby, we may have to make a pressure babbit bearing kit. We are going to try to "qualify" some shops in Florida by taking an old long block on the road with the IMS kit. Demos/training may help some shops get past initial concern, but this upgrade will never be totally w/o risk. I don't think this is ever going to be work for anyone besides Porsche specialists. A You Tube video will follow. Note: Valley996 tried to send me a direct email. When we opened it, the text was so small it looked like Morse code. Sorry we could not reply. BR Casper Labs, Inc.

The production single row 47MM OD brearing with external snap ring will be avail in less than a month. It uses the same puller (some require a thread adapter, tell us what size nut is on the outside of the support when ordering) and drift as the 2 row bearing. BR Casper Labs, Inc.

The project started in 2008 with the purchase of a 98 Boxster 2.5L with a slipped sleeve (KS factory Lokasil repair gone bad). While working up a repair to re-sleeve with a Nikasil surface, we got curious about the bearing. We pulled it out in good shape (except oil filled-45K miles), popped the seals off, flushed it, and looked at it as best possible with a microscope. Looked pretty good from what we could see. I then called one of my old contacts in the bearing industry, and asked if he could advise on a government job. Long story, but he asked for the bearing to run thru their lab (which routinely examines failed bearings and competitor's products). This lab has everything you could ask for,.... down to a mass spectrograph that will tell the material make-up down to decimal fractions of trace elements. They pulled the cage, dismantled the bearing, ran the standard tests, and gave us the report. Since we had the seals with NSK markings, we were not surprised that they correctly identified the "Z" type bearing steel NSK uses. This is a standard bearing steel driven to high purity limits. The tolerances and fits were within published limits for bearings of this size class. Nothing unusual for a bearing in service for 10yrs. Basically, a middle quality bearing. My bearing guy and I then started discussing the failure problem, and the design factors of how it fit in the engine. It did not take but a couple minutes when the grease loss/oil fill stuck out as pretty unusual. Since the engine was apart, it was a simple matter to find the oil level relative to the bearing. We knew we were on the issue when the grease seals were found to be submerged. Now what to do about it. The grease had to go, therefore the seals too. Open ball bearings are rarely used in automotive applications except where clean lube is available (like power steering pumps and rigid rear axles). This steered toward the ceramic's dirt tolerance. Then the lack of targeted (or full time immersion) oil spray was a concern. Again, advantage... ceramics. So, he built a custom prototype for us, and we were off. The 2.5 Box sat from mid May 2011 to Oct 2011 (with intentionally lowered engine oil) and restarted with no IMS issues. We are only 10 miles from Palm Beach Raceway, so there is no difficulty finding guys who will test your parts if you give them away. We have a half dozen cars spread out over 3+ years driving around with the bearing,.... issue free. The high time unit has 53K miles. The low, about 6K. I have seen statements that 4000 of the LN's are in service. When I did the business forcast to justify going forward on this, the anticipated sales are 1000 in 5 years. When your primary business is aircraft engines, there is no room for problems. The feds shut you down when thing go wrong very, very quickly. Reputation is everything. The internet sends bad news faster than good. You ship junk, you are out of business. Why did'nt Porsche create a service bulletin to bring in all the engines to fix them? I believe it had to be a business decision. The correct replacement bearing is expensive. If the mechs screw up just 1% of the SB upgrades , there could be hundreds of engines going back to Germany (where would the replacements come from?). Analysis shows it is cheaper to fix the few that fail inside the warranty, than the ones that might outside (it is a bit surprising nobody started a class action suit on this). Engines sold after warranty are good business! Never forget how long it took Porsche to fix (finally) the 911 cam chain tensioner. Great business model. Bill Ryan Casper Labs, Inc.

To: JFP in PA Our production bearings will be shipped with steel ball cages. We have tested two types of steel designs, nylon, and an exotic made of a low density phenolic. The phenolic one is put in a bell jar immersed in Mobil 1. You pull a vacuum on it, and the oil gets sucked into the phenolic. It will wick enough oil for years of dead storage to start-up lube a ceramic hybrid...... even if the sump oil level is below the bearing. These have to be custom CNC machined, and double the bearing cost. If you really want the phenolic cages, we can special order them (2 week delivery). Why did we pick steel as the baseline? Many reasons, 1) steel cages are fitted more loosely to the balls due to the limitations of forming sheet metal. This gives the consumer the perception of a lack of quality in a precision device. They move around a bit relative to the ball. Does not hurt the bearing, but perception can be a difficult thing to get around. 2) Nylon nests the balls precisely and has slightly better capillary attraction for the oil film between the ball and cage (providing more oil "storage"). 3) If either of these cage materials gets some level of damage, the nylon will not damage the OD race when the hard ball rolls over a piece of it. 4) From a temperature standpoint, steel cages have the highest rating. The phenolic is second highest (about 350F), and nylon the lowest. The highest temperature rated nylons are just too close to this boxer engine's red line coolant temp (remember this engine uses a coolant/oil heat exchanger). We never encountered this problem, but it is too significant to consider production worthy. If this really catches on, we may consider investing in the tooling to mold out of a higher temp plastic, none are available now in this size. We ship the bearing with a very, very light lube that really lets you feel the rolling action. If anything gets in the bearing during assembly, you will feel it. Once we are certain it is clean, we take a veterinary's large animal syringe (.040" needle) and inject some engine oil supplement to both rows of balls before slipping the support in place. This is where the looser fitting steel cage comes in handy, you can get the needle past the first row of balls. Billl Ryan Casper Labs, Inc.

My name is Bill Ryan, and I am the owner of Casper Labs, Inc.. Want to say I am pleased to see some very well written posts on the subject of our IMS kit. Let me try to answer your concerns. If something is missed,..... just bring it up again for a future posting. My first contact with a ceramic hybrid bearing was in the 1980's. An SKF bearing engineer brought a prototype into Pratt & Whitney (where I worked) for a presentation to the engineering staff. We were told it was the bearing of the future, and the charts of performance improvements bordered on unbelievable (at the time). Back then, cost was also unbelievable. Years would pass before for a microturbine application (over 110,000RPM) would be saved by the many benefits of ceramic balls. Ball bearings have been around for a long time. There is no magic, mystery, or art to designing bearings for an application. The technolgy is so refined that bearing manufacturers can produce these precision devices in vast numbers, at low cost, and with incredibly low failure rates. The world would be a very different place if this technology was not readily available to everyone. Every bearing company has a staff of application engineers ready to assist designers and engineers with any use of their product. All Porsche OEM type IMS bearings are sealed grease lubed type. The seals are designed to keep grease in and dirt out. The seals were not designed to sit partially submerged in motor oil (engine off, dip stick full). These bearings run $20-$30 over the counter, and we have seen them go 225,000 miles and still be perfect (except the grease is gone and replaced with oil). Engine cost was a big design factor when Porsche transitioned to water cooled boxer engines. Not using a pressure lubed IMS bearing set (like the 911) appears to have been one of these decisions to lower cost. While oil lubed open face ball bearings are routinely used in turbine gearboxes and main shafts , they have the benefit of much cleaner oil and targeted oil spray. Combustion byproducts are completely isolated from the turbine's lube system, and individual jets spray gears and bearings. Anybody who has lost their oil separator knows how much blowby exists in these Porsche engines. It is a dirty environment in the crankcase. Now consider an OEM bearing that has been in service a while. The grease is gone. If the oil level is low (below the bearing), and the car has sat for days or weeks, and the trapped oil has leaked out. Just a tiny trough of oil sits in the bottom of the lower race. When the engine starts, some of the balls are momentarily dry. Lack of lube causes high bearing temp., which causes wear. Each time this happens, it gets a little worse. Enter ceramics! They need practically no lube in many services, and are far more dirt tolerant than steel balls. Why did't Porsche use them? COST! It would have been cheaper to pressure lube the IMS. Why don't we guarantee our bearings? Answer: No ball bearing manufacturer on earth does! It is so easy to damage a bearing installing it, that even the finest product can be ruined in an instant with a press, hammer, or dirt. Don't be the first customer in your favorite shop to get the kit. First time mechanics should have a core engine to practice on, removing and installing the orig. bearing. Remember that open face turbine bearings are assembled in a clean room. If your garage is not hospital clean, go someplace else. Powdered clutch disk facing and road dirt have no place in your bearing. MTBF data? Good quality/properly designed ceramic bearings are so robust (when correctly installed and lubed) that any failure is, in all probability, the result of installation error or contamination. With dozens of mechanics in different locations and using varying proceedures, any meaningful data would most likely tell you which shops to use, and ...........which to avoid. Obviously, we will be tracking this. Controlling quality is always important, especially in precision products. Our bearing design and quality specs are defined on a Casper Labs engineering drawing. It is furnished to the bearing manufacturer with the purchase order. Their QC department has to provide a certificate of conformity to the drawing with the finished product as well as any test reports or analysis spec'd'. Casper Labs has internal processes to review and inspect all hardware and documentation upon receipt. Hope this helped! BR