Quote:
Originally Posted by boxxster
I don't think that anybody is saying the LN bearing is junk, but to say that any product other than the LN bearing is junk/inferior is a tad bit ignorant.
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No one is saying that. But I am questioning several aspects of the claims made and the methodology used to get an oil feed, which they recommend be a 1-3 MM (0.039 - 0.118 inches) opening in the oil pump end of the shaft that is created using a hammer and a punch with a sharpened point, and then using an oil pump drive shaft (already notoriously weak and known to fail) with an 8 MM (0.315 inches) groove cut into it to allow the oil to pass by and flood the shaft. Having seen the factory drives fail at full diameter and kill otherwise good engines, this strikes me as a questionable design.
They are also promoting a version of this system for the 2005+ engines with an oversized bearing that uses a rental tool to bore out the rear IMS shaft case opening to a diameter large enough to allow the large factory bearing to be extracted. When I first read their press release on this process, I contacted them to ask how do you prevent metal chips or filings from getting into the engine while doing this, but all I got in return as a thank you for writing, and a copy of their product's press release.
As for the fact that they appear to have sold some without anyone reporting a failure; not all that long ago, another vendor announced a low cost plastic insert that was to be glued into the cross over area of the factory intake manifold, which would immediately yield higher torque and HP for very little money on any M96/97 engine. At the time, their lack of apparent flow bench or dyno data seemed a bit odd, and knowing how hard and expensive it is get substantial power increases on these engines, we suggested that interested customers wait a while before spending time and money on this until more information became available. This vendor also sold quite a few of them before someone else independently ran before and after dyno runs on an installation and reported on websites both net torque and HP loses when the unit was installed. Eventually this item was withdrawn from the market, but returned later, redesigned and used only when combined with an aftermarket DME reprogrammer, and much more modest improvement claims. Applications were also limited to only certain early M96 engine model years, and it now had a price tag over $1K.
Did the intake manifold unit blow up any engines? No, it did not. But it also did not deliver on its claims either.