Going to reinforce the IMS ...

[juankimalo]

Hi guys:

My car had an oil leak. Yes! and the Oscar goes to......... "RMS" !!!!!!!

I've reading everything I could referred to f****** IMS failures for several years. I know LN Engineering technologies ready to fix the problem, but we have a corageous soloporsche fellow who did an special home made IMS bearing/bearing support to reinforce the engine.

So in Soloporsche.com we have a hero.

http://soloporsche.c...ead.php?t=33716

"Barracuda", a soloporscher user, opened his engine to check the IMS. He built a hand made extraction tool to check the single row bearing (996 '03). He's car had 115.000 km, and the bearing was in perfect condiction. Nevertheless he decided to change the bearing for a new one to keep the reability of the engine for 100.000 km more.

He searched the bearing in one of the world wide best know bearing manufacturer: SKF. Someone advise him to go for a ceramic compound reference instead of the OEM steel bearing. So he purchased this one:

SKF Part number = 6204-2RSLTN9/HC5C3WT (Price 110 $)

After that he thought that the bearing support wasn't strong enough and ordered to make a reinforced hand made to a professional lathe operator. He made a 12 mm high quality steel bolt instead of the 8 mm OEM bolt, and asked him to adapt the 3 flange end piece to the new bolt caliber.

Besides, he told us that he prefers to leave the bearing out both circlips to allow the engine oil running through the bearing balls. He argumented that the oil was inside the bearing, mixing to the balls grease, and was easy to come in but not too easy to get out the bearing, with the result of having contaminated oil into the bearing. This could make the balls to fail in the future, so he decided to allow clean engine running through the balls. To seal the hollow shaft tube, he used a hand made cork seal. Besides, he change the engine oil every 5.000 miles (Mobil 1 5W50) to keep the engine free from wear.

At now, my car is in the workshop. My mechanic dismatled the gearbox assembly last friday, and will continue tomorrow.

He's going to do something similar to barracuda's work, but we're not going to seal the IMS with a cork seal. We'll install the bearing without front faced seal out, and will keep the othe seal on to avoid the engine oil come into the IMS tube.

Besides, I purchased Jake Raby several parts (oil filter adapter, billet aluminum oil filter, magnetic drain plug and bearing extracting tool)

Here you can see the Porsche specialist workshop, 'Altozano Motorsport' (It isn't a very goog pic but there's my car in the left side being received by David):David Altozano close to my car, and a nice Slant nose:And a few pics with the materials to do the custom made retrofit:Extracting and pulling tool (we have to modify the pulling tool to adapt it to the largest bolt):And one of the best high performance oils in the world: Valvoline Racing 5W50

I'll keep you informed about the progress, and will try to document the whole process

Edited March 7, 2010 by juankimalo

[juankimalo]

The IMS had a little leak... but the RMS was leaking too much.

Look at this:

And here is a little mod of the bearing support to make it better sealed

[1schoir]

Juan:

Looking good! :thankyou:

Love trailblazing, resourceful guys like "Barracuda".

Keep us posted on your own progress, with lots of pics, if possible.

Keep up the good work!

Regards, Maurice.

[juankimalo]

My mechanic has over than 70 pics of the whole process

I'll post as much inf as possible to be useful for everybody

A motor engineer from Soloporsche is trying to design the best bearing support, the best 3 flange external stud and obtain a better pieces to do the upgrade with the best warranty, but we are not going to produce any piece, and we have not intention to sell anything. This will be for people who'd want to make a "home made" improve and get the pieces manufactured by a lathe operator, like I did.

LN Engineering and Jake Raby have an excellent retrofit kit, but our friend barracuda never had seen anything from them. He decided to dismantle the bearing and look for something to solve the problem. He's an amateur mechanic.

[juankimalo]

Here you have lots of pics

My mechanic finished the work. My car has:

- new SKF hybrid ceramic compound balls bearing/steel hub

- new 12 mm bearing support F125 steel- helicopter engine special seals (the best material to seal for high temp)

- OEM 3 flange end piece modified to place the new bearing support

- Valvoline VR1 racing 5W50 engine oilThe bearing support and the the 3 flange were made/modified by an expert lathe operator. Besides we mounted the oil filter/oil filter adaptor/magnetic drain plug purchased to Raby.

Link with pics:

http://www.pasionpor...ims-996-36.html

Edited March 10, 2010 by juankimalo

[perryinva]

Truly an EXCELLENT write up and fantastic pictures. What a great job! He is to be commended. More than a "little" IMS bearing leakage into the IMS. How many km on your car?

[juankimalo]

Truly an EXCELLENT write up and fantastic pictures. What a great job! He is to be commended. More than a "little" IMS bearing leakage into the IMS. How many km on your car?

37.500 km

But it was too much time stopped the first and second year after production 'cause his first owner down under depression

Our cars need to be moved to keep all the internal seals in good condition

[phillipj]

Excellent write up !!

[juankimalo]

The car goes fine and the engine works fantastic

I'm glad with this upgrade.

If someone need information or help just contact to me

[juankimalo]

3 pics of the old bearing, side seals and the support/stud:

The bearing was in pretty good condition. (Made in Poland by NSK)

But there is a huge difference between the OEM "little" bearing support and the one I did.

It's worth it