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why should I expect a very small firm's R&D to have come up with a solution?
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Small and DEDICATED instead of large and dysfunctional. My company and LN Engineering neither function from anything more than drive and dedication to the brand.
I've owned a Porsche since age 12, had my first paying customer for an aircooled engine at age 13 and people have been trusting me every since.
With previous engines the issues were more difficult to address as many more designs were necessary. The M96 "fix" was fairly simple, we just had to use a superior bearing and bearing material to overcome the inadequacies.
The common denominator with all the "Porsche" revisions has been the COST of the bearing, because the accountants run the company today, not the engineers. In mass production the ultimate fix is the one that reduces risks of failure while providing the level of security thats being targeted.
Thats not the case with the silicon nitride bearing, it cost about 300% more than a factory conventional bearing would to fit the application. Build a few hundred thousand cars and see how many millions of dollars that bearing would cost in lost revenue. Fact is they'd rather net more money and take more risks than make the engine bulletproof. To auto makers some percentage of failure is acceptable, to me anything less than 100% perfection is unsatisfactory. We currently have a 100% effectiveness rating with retrofits, none have failed, not even those that were installed incorrectly.
In 10 years the story will be told and I fully intend to make the naysayers eat their words.