How much time does it take: separating trans and engine

Hello all, I've got an 05' factory rebuild in my 99 and I'd like to separate the trans and the engine to check which IMS I have. Anybody have a fair estimate on how long it will take to do this? All I want to do is crack them apart and inspect the IMS flange. I need to know because the shop wont let me keep the car there overnight.

actual separtation only takes about 3 minutes.... getting ready to separate takes much longer. - lots of factors, C2 or C4? are you on your back or a lift, smooth cement or blacktop, Do you have a tranny jack, how good is your tool set, air tools? there is NO CRACKING it open, the IMS is behind the flywheel....so guess what has to come off...that's right everything 12 hours is my wild a$$ guess (of work, not including fumbling for tools and reading the book, and potty breaks and time spend "doing the wrong thing" or figuring out where the hell the clutch mechanism is, or getting cleaned up or or or) - wild guess...and if read this weird post right there is some reason for this? and "I need to know because the shop wont let me keep the car there overnight" is one wierd statement

Can't keep car overnight? Huh? Anyhow, if it is a manual and someone has done it before, it is really not that hard. The hardest part with the engine in car is getting to the bolts on the top of the bell housing. You have to come up with some really long extensions and it is pretty awkward. And then the second hard part is making the mating between engine and trans on reinstall. From memory for a manual trans: Safely jack car Remove underbody panels Unclip reverse light cable from trans Unclip two shift lever cables from trans Unbolt drive shafts from transmission and cover/support safely - I like to use shop cloths and bungees Support engine safely from beneath Support transmission safely from beneath Remove cross member under transmission Unbolt transmission to body bolts Remove the slave cylinder, which is easier to do if you lower the transmission and engine down a few inches (note that there might be enough play in the clutch line to skip this step if you just need to move the transmission back enough to see the ims flange). Remove bell housing bolts Separate transmission from engine Reinstall reverse (applying correct torque values). Having done this several times now, I could probably do all this in about 2-4 hours and have the transmission out. Another 2-4 to get it back in. The biggest PITA is mating the trans to the engine and getting the bell housing bolts back in if the engine is installed.

If you have an 05 factory rebuild, which you can verify by the engine S/N, then you have the double row upgraded bearing and I think you are wasting your time by pulling it apart. However, in answer to your question, if you don't run into any problems you can have the tranny out and back in in about 6 hours or less depending on your skill level.

Just buy the IMS Guardian from flat 6 and don't worry about it.

I dont think he is worried abou tthe IMS...not sure what the motivation is? the motor is new and should still have a warranty...right?

Quotes source post: 8755317

How about just using the engine number stamp to determine which you have ?

It's a 99 c2. I use an on-base auto "hobby shop" that has 4 post lifts, just cant keep it in the bay overnight. My engine is mid-05 so unless someone has made a definitive set-point for which engines in 05' have which bearing, I'll have to visually check it. From everything I've read, a mid-05' engine is in the gray area as far as which bearing it has. Are you sure you have to remove the flywheel to verify the which IMS hub you have?

Are you sure you have to remove the flywheel to verify the which IMS hub you have YUP - and in most cases you have to remove the IMS flange and look in the hole to see what bearing you have - YUP...pretty sure

Best way to see what bearing your car "should" have from Porsche is to locate the serial number of the engine. If you are certain it is a M97 engine in a 99 car, I would be VERY interested how this was done considering you pretty much need to do a huge amount of wiring retrofit along with instrument cluster, alarm, immoblizer, dme change out just for starters. It would be a huge amount of work to do that stuff, probably more than the car is worth. I am guessing you have a M96 engine. Here are helpful threads on how to get the serial number and find out what year the engine is (assuming it hasn't been rebuilt by someone who has or has not left another serial number on the engine). http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php/topic/5353-m960-engine-sn-decoding http://www.renntech.org/forums/index.php/topic/16437-anyone-know-where-the-vin-is-on-the-996-engines If it's an LN bearing retrofit, the flange looks different from the stock, so you don't need to remove the flange. And yes IIRC you prob have to remove the flywheel, press plate, and clutch, don't know if you can see under it unless you have a small boroscope. The flyhweel teeth ride pretty close to the engine case. I can't remember, you might be able to see through the teeth or under them. In any case removing the press plate, clutch, and flywheel is a simple task once you've gone that far to remove the transmission. You have to tighten it back on in a specific sequence and to a certain degree, and the flywheel bolts need to be replaced since they are single use. This is what the LN flange looks like, mine was oily after about 8k miles due to a leak north of here which I hopefully addressed last time I had my engine and transmission out. The LN flange has a different style center nut and the nut/mating bosses on the flange are slightly larger than the stock ones. On a 1999 M96 this is what the stock flange looks like:

Sadly you are not going to do a "qucik peek" or "just crack it to have a look" See my thread "going in alone" Your first time.. You would be lucky to do it all in a day. Maybe a full 8 hour day if nothing goes wrong. Well you do have a lift. But how do you plan to support the engine? The trans holds the front of the engine up. The top trans bolts suck and the clutch slave sucks. Shift linkages, Belly pans, Front trans mount bolts, and thats just want I remember from a year ago. Then pull the fly wheel and you still cant see ANYTHING... Im sorry but this will be a waste of your time. There is really nothing to see and the bearing fail so fast if could look ok today and fail in the next 100 miles. You cant pull it out to feel it... and like I said you really cant see anything.

I believe that LNE and F6 have indicated that most reman engines have non-serviceable IMSB. I believe that they also have stated that the engine code is inadequate to determine what sort of IMSB you have. You are correct in assuming that visually inspecting the IMSB is necessary to determine if your car is eligible for the LNE retrofit.

I think the OP wants to know if someone has already retrofitted his car with an LN bearing before he buys one. It IS possible to see this by removing the flywheel, it is simple to look at the flange (look at my post), you can see if the nut and flange boss is different (updated). Then you would know if the bearing has been upgraded to an LN model. It doesn't sound like the PO has a handle on what kind of engine he has, since putting an M97 engine in a 99 car is just about darn near rocket science with all of the stuff you would need to change out... that being said actually if it is rebuilt and done by flat 6 they serialize their engines... not sure about other rebuilders. But to my previous point, just buy the IMS guardian and don't worry about what kind of bearing is in there.

Call Jake at Flat6 and ask him. Order a Guardian while yer at it.

that's not it at all - the OP had a new motor put in under insurance claim for water damage a while ago while parked under a downspoput that filled the motor with water and for some unknown reason wants to check if the new (installed by Porsche) motor has the big or small bearing so he knows if he should consider a replacement or not 2 words GAURDIAN ok 1 word

An interesting thread I am following in renntech suggests the possibility that his engine from Porsche might have a large M97 bearing or perhaps larger center stud and nut. Would be nice to know the serial number from the OP's car. Whether it is "AT" or "X" and also "66X".

Does the shop have a tree that you can support the engine with once you drop the front mounts down? How about a tall transmission jack? If it has both of those, you can R&R that tranny easily in a day's work your first time. Make sure you have some sort of clutch alignment tool when you put the clutch back together, otherwise you will have a bear of a time getting the transaxle to mate up.