Yet another IMS "solution"

[Jake Raby]

My primary issue with "The IMS solution" is that replacing the ball bearing with a plain bearing may have unintended side-effects.

No, This is why it has taken years to develop. The technology is not new, My 300,000 mile Carrera shares the technology along with every Mezger powered 911 on the road.

I suspect that we will find out what the new failure modes of "The IMS Solution" are in a few years when the first ones start to fail.

Speculation thats totally off base.

There is nothing to fail. If the unit ever begins to wear the engine just picks up a noise that may exist for a very long period of time. The unit does not incorporate components that create collateral damages. Any wear materials that would be generated are non-ferromagnetic and not hardened tool steel like races and balls found in the ball bearings that do so much damage.

In testing we have forced units to fail and we know what occurs. I have documentation of these and on one occasion I cost myself 4,400.00 in less than one minute when we forced an engine to fail at 7,200 RPM. We utilized our special puller to extract the failed Solution and replaced it without engine disassembly and testing continued with no ill-effects.

We have even purposely contaminated the oil supply to the IMSS to know what occurs.

Been there, done that and have the experience, documentation and pictures to prove it. We have put the IMS Solution up against every challenge possible during development because developing components and manufacturing solutions are exactly what we do.

Idling a car for a long time is an interesting but it is not a true test of the known-failure conditions. For example, it is known that unlubricated startup is one of the most stressful times for a bearing (and double that concern for a plain bearing).

Did you fail to read that we cold started an engine 5,200 cycles and found wear to be immeasurable? Cold start has been our#1 concern since day one, but cold start doesn't inhibit the opposite end of the IMS that is ALSO A PLAIN BEARING from being one of the only portions of the M96 engine that we've never seen wear or break. Thats right, the opposite end of the IMS is supported by a plain bearing on every M96/ M97 engine ever built and it was NEVER the focus of a revision. If a plain bearing supported IMS was a problem the opposite end of the IMS would see failures, but thats simply not the case, because it simply isn't an issue.

This wasn't something that was dreamed up over night, the IMS Solution was "invented" the very first time that I disassembled an M96 engine. Why? Because a ball bearing in that position has never made any sense to me. Remove the ball bearing and remove the failure- Period.

Like I said, I invented this for my engines and thats the only reason. If another unit is never sold outside my engines I really could care less, because that means that we are the only company in the world that produces these engines that don't have to worry about a ball bearing killing the engine that has our name on it. I had to be "convinced" to allow these units to be sold outside my engine program, which is why we have worked so hard to patent the technology and have taken all the necessary steps to do so, including working in total secrecy for years.

[schoir]

Originally Posted by Jake Raby

...Remove the ball bearing and remove the failure- Period.
...

Notwithstanding the fact this statement already constitutes a valid, enforceable guarantee, why would this not come with a written iron-clad guarantee against any failure of the IMS bearing?

A written guarantee would instill a lot more confidence than the claims of testing ad nauseam.

Keep in mind that guarantees, even those of proven products, routinely exclude negligence, lack of proper maintenance, damage from other causes, etc., and those reputable companies manage to function perfectly well in the marketplace.

Regards, Maurice.

[Joe B]

OK, so when do you think the IMS Solution will be available for the 3rd generation, larger IMSB?

[Sanford_yee]

Jake - when can you post your test results and documentation to provide evidence so we can all move on and agree your solution is the best? Please don't tell me it's "proprietary". Flame away....

[Jake Raby]

why would this not come with a written iron-clad guarantee against any failure of the IMS bearing?

Because here in the real world we know that collateral damage from other failures can easily kill the IMS Solution and it will never be conclusive when something fails. Nothing we sell has fine print associated with it and I refuse to sell people any product based on some shiny paper and a glorious warranty. I would rather fewer people buy our components for the right reasons, rather than selling them on a piece of paper and a promise. Its kind of like Unicorns and Rainbows covered with glitter, just like the rest of the modern world where over promising and under delivery is typical. I learned long ago that if I have to convince someone of something that they are not the type of purchaser that will appreciate what we create.

Remember, all I deal with are broken engines, nothing comes here healthy and its never a best case scenario. The Solution or any other device can be taken out by another device and then we have to prove that didn't occur- I don't have time for that.

That said, this thread was not started on the topic of the IMS Solution. Its unfair to the sellers of the "other" product to go off on such a wild tangent. They didn't do that to the threads that were started about our IMS Solution, so its not fair to do it to them.

Lots of good info in this thread either way. Everyone here should be glad that ANY option exists, people seem to forget that there was a time prior to my development of the IMS Bearing extraction devices when IMS bearings were said to be "non-removable" and if the bearing just started to fail the engine needed replacement. The fact that we can have these arguments about options is just a big pat on the back to me considering I built the first extraction device for 12 bucks and some scrap pieces from my machine shop. I should have patented it- biggest mistake I ever made.

Its been a good thread and I am leaving on a positive note.