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Originally Posted by JAAY
Schoir,
I did look through their site. Seems like a good thing to do. It also seems to be alot of money. I know at this point whats another 600 bux. Do you have any experience on any of these? I don't know what is involved in pulling the piece off that there speaking of. The motor is not yet in the car. I was waiting for a pilot bearing to come, which finally got here. Let me know if you have any more info on this. Thanks for the concern.
Jay
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Seems like good insurance to me to install the retrofit kit, and it makes the most sense since the engine is out of the car. Their bearing is a severe duty ceramic bearing, coupled with a beefier support stud (which is weak in the original because it also has a deep groove cut into it, as well as the stud being too thin for comfort) and a beefier flange.
At the very least, remove the IMS flange and the nut on the end of the support stud that you will find when you remove the flange. You can then manipulate the support stud the same way that Charles Navarro does in his video and see if there is any axial or radial play in the bearing.
He also recommends that you remove the seal on the front of the bearing to permit better cooling and lubrication. His theory is that the sealed bearing's grease gets washed out by fuel contaminated oil, especially if there are long oil change intervals involved and the seal prevents fresh oil (from the engine) from getting in there to lubricate it. The result is what is pictured in the pitted and corroded ball bearings in his video. I can't vouch for this approach, but I certainly would investigate it further as it seems to be logical: if the original grease in the bearing gets washed out and there is no access for the engine oil to lubricate the bearing, it seems logical that the bearing would not hold up.
If you have a single-row bearing, after you remove the flange and the nut you can extract the bearing after removing the metal circlip that holds it captive. I would call Jake Raby or Charles Navarro directly as they are very helpful.
If you have a double-row bearing, it can't be replaced without engine teardown, but, at least if you inspect it as described above, it will give you peace of mind that it's stable.
IMO it's better to at the very least know the condition of the IMS before re-installing the engine.
Regards, Maurice.