Originally Posted by AJ997S

Wow consider yourself lucky! I had to dish out $19,000 for a new 08' motor!

Originally Posted by JEllis

There is a lot of miss-information or bad assumptions being made in this thread.

All M96 based engines have IMS's. This covers basically every Carrera, Cayman, and Boxter from 99-2008. GT1 based cars like the TT, GT3, and CGT do not have IMS's. Also, the new DFI engines do not have IMS's. There have been updates made to the IMS throughout the life of the M96. The short answer, 2006 and later M96/7 engines should have the updated beefier single ROW IMS Bearing that is more unlikely to fail.

Most IMS failures are a result of the bearing failing, hence why Porsche upgraded the bearing and not the actual IMS. However, the non-forged IMS can fail as well but its unlikely. Usually the the bearing starts fail causing some vibration in the shaft. Ultimately it is the failure of the bearing that causes the shaft to fail.

Porsche has a replacement engine program. Parts and labor once your "core" engine is sent to Porsche will run you around 8-10K. I had a buddy money-shift his engine and he used the Porsche engine replacement program. Not 20K. The engine you receive from Porsche will have the upgraded single ROW bearing and will be a remanufactured unit. There is some debate as to weather or not the engine is actually a rebuilt motor or a new unit just marked as re-manufactured.

A good thing to do is read the articles published by LN engineering. Nuts and Bolts: these engines need more oil changes than signified by Porsche. I would change my oil every 5K at the most to ensure the IMS bearing is receiving proper and good lubrication. I would also look at higher quality oils than Mobil Euro Blend such as Motul which has significantly better addatives and is higher rated. If you do not know what the labels on the back of the oil bottle means, you should probably learn.

Jason