IMS LN Engineering Retrofit not possible on early Gen 1 987 Boxsters?

Regarding the IMS failure issue with 987 Boxsters and Caymans (another lovely oversight by Porsche !), I've been reading that my car (absolute 1st Gen 987 - build date March 2005) has the single-row-bearing and that really early 987 Gen1 cars like mine apparently have larger IMS 's, that are larger than the case opening and cannot be retrofitted with the LN engineering IMS part? This is really alarming as it pretty much means that there is potentially no way to take preventative action on my car? At 71K miles I'm hoping that if something was going to go wrong it would have already, but not being able to resolve a catastrophic failure seems rough.... 2005 Boxster S common question? - 987-1 Series (Boxster, Boxster S) - RennTech.org Forums Has anyone heard about this? I wonder if the larger bearing perhaps is stronger than smaller subsequent builds? I can't find any 2005 987 Boxster models that have gone boom? Thanks.

Hi, The early 987 cars like ours have the M96 engine which have the older style IMS bearing . Later 987 cars switched to the M97 engine which have a larger and stronger IMS bearing . DFI cars have no intermediate shaft and therefore no problem Now where it gets complicated is that there was no specific cut off date for the smaller IMS bearing so some cars with M96 engines have the M97 bearing! The only way to tell for sure is to pull the trans and if you have a 22mm nut then you have the later style bearing. The early single and double row M96 bearings can be changed in situ but the larger M97 bearing is too big to fit through the hole in the case. The only way to change it is to split the case and send the whole shaft to LN engineering for conversation to their triple row "final solution" but the cost of this in man hours and parts would be more than the cost of a replacement engine! I would expect your car to have the older style bearing which is serviceable. If you haven't already had the clutch done then maybe think about doing the upgrade at the same time. If you pull the trans and you have the larger style then don't worry about it. The larger style bearings can and have failed but the instance is far lower than the 9X6 . Hope this helps Tom

Thanks Tom. Apparently my clutch is nowhere near needing replacement, so I'd be paying a few grand in labor just to check the IMS ! I'd also need to find a shop with the LN IMS retrofit in stock so I don't an $800+ part (with install hardware kit) that I don't need or won't fit. I wonder if the part LN sells to monitor the 'sound' of a potentially failing IMS would be wiser?

You might be interested in this: IMS Solution | IMS Retrofit "IMS Solution No moving parts. No ball-bearing. No problem. Prevent costly engine replacement by eliminating the problematic ball-bearing by backdating your IMS with a pressure fed oil lubricated plain bearing just like an air-cooled Porsche. This is the last IMS bearing retrofit you will ever need. $1495. Fits model year 2000 through 2005 with a single row IMS bearing. Available April-May 2013 for professional installation only. Book your installation now through Flat 6 Innovations for first access to the IMS Solution. Brought to you by the team of LN Engineering and Flat 6 Innovations, developers of the IMS Retrofit and IMS Guardian Sr. and Jr."

Globespy, too bad about the clutch not lining up. I managed to identify mine without pulling the trans using a boroscope. You could ask around for a shop that has one. Mine had the larger 22mm nut. I passed the scope up through the drain hole at the bottom of the bell housing and got it to look just behind the flywheel. The speed sensor teeth even gave me a nice scale! The IMS guardian doesn't monitor the sound of the bearing, it is a magnetic chip detector. We have been using them on aircraft for decades I'm very surprised more cars don't use them. Essentially the chip detector has two magnetic poles which collect metallic debris from the oil ( in aircraft it is in one of the oil lines so all the oil flows over it, I think the IMS guardian goes in the sump ) when there is a build up of lots of small particles or a couple of big chunks in some cases then the poles are shorted and will trigger the light/buzzer. I'm not sure how quickly a bearing will go from making shavings that can be detected to complete failure, but chances are there would be some noticeable noise. Prevention wise, change your oil regularly and always pull your old filter apart to look for debris. If you haven't already then buy a magnetic sump plug or one of those IMS guardians if you prefer. There are lots of threads on prevention so I won't recap here. Regards Tom

Hi, M97 engines with the big IMS bearing are failing, this is a 2007 Boxster S , advertised in the UK with 27,000 miles and new engine, the email below says it all.

Update: I found my car was compatible with the LN IMS part, so made the change and got a new clutch while I was at it. No need to worry about it for 50K miles... I found this strange that the LN part which is highly marketed to be much more robust than the original Porsche part still needs to be changed after 50K miles? The original part was absolutely fine and in all reality didn't need to be replaced and that was after over 70K miles.

Can anyone tell why the IMS Guardian does not show a 2007 Cayman M97 as a compatible vehicle???

So does the IMS have a greater tendency to fail on less frequently driven vehicles? I am doing an engine swap and can source an M96 3.4L fifteen year old engine...so only 1,333 miles driven per year... And the other question I have is do I want the M96 engineer that can have the IMS fail (but be replaced) or the M97 engine that has the larger bearings, but if something happens, isn't replaceable?

In the UK the early 2005 cars had the smaller replaceable IMS bearing , I had a 2005 August registered car, I checked with Porsche of Nottingham UK who stated car had large stronger bearing which we now know cannot be extracted. Some months later a 2007 Porsche Boxster was advertised on Auotrader UK, the add read, 2007 Porsche Boxster for sale (new engine). This prompted me to email the seller, I enquired whether the engine was an IMS failure, he replied yes , he had started car in his garage and the engine just stopped, the cost was £8,000 pounds in parts alone, he stated he had no idea what the labour costs were as the car was under the Porsche used car warranty and they did the repair. Shortly after I sold my car, I could not live with the anxiety of a similar expensive failure. I now own a 2014 Cayman 981 and hope this car is bullet proof, oops.

Unfortunately the exact opposite, it appears garage queens like my post 2005 13 year 15,000 mile Boxster are more prone as oil starvation into the IMS bearing is more pronounced, ie these cars do not normally get thrashed and hence oil is less likely to get forced by the damaged seal.

Referring to my #10 post and the timing chain failure on the 981 , I have no idea what caused this failure, the 2014 Cayman had covered only 47,000 miles, it had auto stop/start which I believe puts extra stress on the timing at each startup, I have disabled this system on my car as a precaution.

Has anyone used the, "EPS IMS Bearing Upgrade"? Looks like a solution for BOTH the M96 & M97 engines... https://www.europeanpartssolution.com/ims-bearing-upgrade-kit 5 year warranty!