Alex said:
The only 'correct' way to replace an IMS bearing is by stripping the engine. Yanking it out and pressing a new one in in situ can cause further problems down the line. There is no factual evidence that any of these 'improvements' are any more reliable than what you already have in.
If you want to do anything to ease your mind, get the garage to inspect the bearing for any play and whilst they're in there, remove the outer dust shield off the bearing so that in the future it is constantly lubricated by the engine's oil.
:thumbs:
There's no reason for an IMS bearing replacement to damage anything as long as they don't hit so hard it damages the oil pump on the other side of engine. Or damage the plastic chain tensioners.
The original bearing is under specced that's a fact, it cannot deal with the chain whip loads, nor does it have thick enough exterior outer race to avoid deformation on some tighter clearanced IMS tubes (hence some earlier failures sub 40k). Also the reason why the later M97 bigger bearings hardly ever fail.
Its been clearly identified as a service item, just change it with a competent garage there are some great options out there such as the replacement bearing sold by Eporsch in Bisley which is very similar to the EPS Eternal Solution just without the oiling mod to the oil pump key. This about £370 Inc VAT and not the huge cost of the LN Engineering bearings which are just absurd to be honest. There are even cheaper ways to do it but that's just a bit too ghetto. In reality it's just a ball bearing.
Some people on here are in denial about this issue and the faster you fix it the better you will sleep at night, knowing that your £16k engine won't blow up whilst you are out buying some milk.
My only caveat being if you have a 2.5L Boxster, it just doesn't make sense financially to do it, when you can get a wrecker engine for 2k if you're unlucky enough to blow it.
And the first person to suggest Porsche aren't stupid enough to make a bearing under specced, can I refer you to the following faults.
964 oil leaks
997 bore scoring
991 cylinder seizure
3.8L GT3 engine fires
GT3 engines blowing up on track (due to knocking).
Is the 911 amazing? Yeah sure as hell it is, but don't kid yourself it's beyond reproach, also don't kid yourself they're cheap to run either. They will always kick you in the balls when you least expect it. It's just being prepared and have the monies waiting.