Oil Analysis and Cam Deviations, you like my plan?

So my 996 had a spike from basically 0 PPM on lead and tin (bearing materials) for all analysis from the time I bought the car in 2013, then lead spiked to 16 PPM, then 12 PPM and now it's at 4. Tin went from 0 to 3 then back to 0. My latest oil analysis has only 2K miles vs. 6K miles when it spiked, so the actual values are probably about the same, or it went down a little bit. I have high cam deviations on the car, a small leak on the RMS and I've never changed the IMS bearing (1999, double row bearing). I really didn't want to do all the work on the car with a bearing going bad, but now it almost looks like I should just do an engine out service and do the cam pads, AOS, RMS and IMS bearing. Should be pretty easy with my new lift. If I had high bearing wear particles again (which they still might be close to the same, but who knows, need to drive the car more and put at least 4K miles on the oil), I was thinking of just letting the engine grenade when it wanted to. I did pull the sump during the last oil change and it had ZERO plastic bits in the pan, only a tiny bit of factory RTV in the oil pick up tube screen. What would Rennlist do? I would just drop the engine and do the work myself, so not crazy expensive.

Have you talked to Lake about the numbers?

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I did send him a follow up email this morning, just received the results last night, no response just yet but I'm sure he'll get back to me.

Donit yourself. I find working on these engines out of the car to be fairly easy. U just follow the proceedure and triple check. What area if the country r u. If near philly i can help.

Your cam deviation is really bad on bank 1. Standard is anything under 4. If I were you, I wouldn't rev the car very high as you risk dropping a valve. Thats almost to the end of life for the pad. Highly recommend getting that done ASAP. There had to be chunks of plastic in the oil when you were doing oil changes. Did you notice anything? It's odd they wore out so fast on a low milage car to be honest!

Thanks, I think I'm just going to drop the engine and do the work. I am in FL and should be able to do it myself easily with some luck. Here is the response I received from Lake Speed regarding my analysis: My Question:Thanks Lake. For this engine, (M96), do you have any ideas why the lead would go up, and then go down again? I have high cam deviations and want to be relatively confident that the motor is not going to implode from a bearing failure after I do all the work including the IMS bearing. Understand I am just looking for a potential response, nothing I would hold anybody accountable for. I did meet you about 5 years ago at LN Engineering when you did an oil presentation for the PCA and I took your online course with Jake about 3 years ago. I’m thinking with these results, just do an engine out service and replace the wear pads and then do the IMS bearing and RMS seal that is leaking along with other items. All DIY Response:Thanks for the question. If you have high cam deviation than an engine out service is an appropriate next step. The Lead levels are not highly concerning because they did not exceed 25ppm and the Copper levels did not jump into the 20 ppm range either. Based on that, it does not appear to be a significant issue.

For whatever it's worth, you don't need to pull the motor to do the pads or the IMS.

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I have a lift, and would rather just pull the engine and do evey thing outside the car.

Hi Paul, are those the original pads on your car? If yes, I bet you�ll find them quite worn at this point, and if you change them, your deviation numbers should drop back down considerably. Is the clutch also original? Not that you need to address it now, but if you have the time, maybe inspect it while you�re doing all this work.

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Hey Mike, I was in your town this week visiting family, staying with my brother on Forest Ave! Yes, the pads are original and I'm certain the clutch is original. I think I would just pull the motor and then inspect it before buying new parts, they wouldn't take long to get. I was thinking of having the local PCA club over while the engine is out and see if they want to have a mini tech session when I am timing the cams. Would be fun. I finally have a place where I could show it off and not be embarrassed!

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Paul, good luck with the project! Hope you can film it. Would be great to see!

If i were doing cam pads.....i would be the only one in the garage with the radio off. U want zero distractions for this job. Its not hard but u have to to it right. Invite the guys over to remove and install the motor. Thats the grunt work.

Might also want to consider doing actuator rebuild o-ring kits on your 60,000 mile 25 year old cam actuator o-rings,,, as long as you're in there....