IMS Ceramic Bearings: Who has fitted them?

[6C4GTS]

Porsche People,
I currently have my 996 C4S in the classifieds.
One interested gentleman is enquiring as to why a new clutch and RMS was fitted at 48K miles - four years ago now - but no ceramic upgraded IMS.
Is everyone else changing to a ceramic IMS with a new clutch - didn't get that impression from the threads on here.

Also the gentleman wants to know what IMS is in the car - assuming its original has anyone got the part number? Car is late 2002 C4S.

Don't want to give out wrong info.

Cheers B

[LordHaveMurci]

Had the clutch changed in my C2 3 or 4 years ago, never even considered changing the IMS & the Indie that did the job never mentioned it.

[Magic919]

I did clutch, flywheel and IMS bearing. There was talk of a better LN Engineering bearing than the ceramic. That would be more worthwhile. There is a risk to the engine in fitting the replacement bearing and not every garage or owner will take that risk.

[Mousem40]

Blimey some seriously 'knowledgable' punters there!
When I sold my previous pork in 2008 not a single one of them had a clue about the car (996 C4 cab tip)
Has the market changed so much?

Just tell him to get an IMS guardian, and not bother fitting a new part that's lifed and that the original is very unlikely to fail in the first place.

Edited by Mousem40 on Wednesday 13th August 23:44

[marky911]

I think the market has changed that much yes. Same with rev ranges. 6 or 7 years ago no one really talked about them, now there's mass hysteria even if you don't need an OPC warranty.

I seen your advert OP. Lovely car. I'm hopefully in the market for a C4S next year but preferably a cab.

Question

I heard you can only change the IMS bearing easily upto a certain age of car?
Supposedly the bearing can be pulled out during a clutch change etc on an early Box/996, but on the later cars 3.6 onwards the bearing sits in a groove in the crankcases which means to remove it would involve splitting the cases.
Any truth in that? I would only buy a Box/996/7 that I could fit a new bearing to so does this discount later cars from my search?

[sportsandclassic]

marky911 said:

I think the market has changed that much yes. Same with rev ranges. 6 or 7 years ago no one really talked about them, now there's mass hysteria even if you don't need an OPC warranty.

I seen your advert OP. Lovely car. I'm hopefully in the market for a C4S next year but preferably a cab.

Question

I heard you can only change the IMS bearing easily upto a certain age of car?
Supposedly the bearing can be pulled out during a clutch change etc on an early Box/996, but on the later cars 3.6 onwards the bearing sits in a groove in the crankcases which means to remove it would involve splitting the cases.
Any truth in that? I would only buy a Box/996/7 that I could fit a new bearing to so does this discount later cars from my search?

Hi, you can replace the ims bearing on all 996/986 models without issue. (unless a replacement engine has been fitted with modified shaft)
You can replace the early upto 2006 model year 997/987 models... after this Porsche have modified the bearing to a much larger unit and this is larger in diameter than the hole in crankcase halves.

Mike

[marky911]

Hi Mike, excellent. Thanks for clearing that up. Definitely worth the few hundred pounds my Indy would want to do it, for peace of mind. That just leaves the scoring and D chunking to worry about after that.