Is there truly no way to tell that it’s time to replace the IMSB?

[PaulE]

I bought a 2003 S new and didn’t know about the IMSB. About 6 years and 42,000 miles into it I learned about it and had the LN single row pro installed. The original IMSB was still fine and I still have it. A year ago at 77,500 miles the LN unit failed. In my case, everything was fine right until it wasn’t. It was caught before any major damage occurred. In terms of failure parts my rebuild only required a new IMS, one broken timing chain paddle and the oil pump internals. The crank, block, cylinder heads, rods and pistons were all fine but I decided to have it increased to a 3.6 for the rebuild. The oil cooler and hydraulic lifters were also replaced as a precaution and all the other usual rebuild parts and gaskets went into it.

So my point if there is one is that the IMSB is fine until it isn’t and if you’re lucky when it goes the engine will be rebuildable.

[JayG]

Originally Posted by PaulE

I bought a 2003 S new and didn’t know about the IMSB. About 6 years and 42,000 miles into it I learned about it and had the LN single row pro installed. The original IMSB was still fine and I still have it. A year ago at 77,500 miles the LN unit failed. In my case, everything was fine right until it wasn’t. It was caught before any major damage occurred. In terms of failure parts my rebuild only required a new IMS, one broken timing chain paddle and the oil pump internals. The crank, block, cylinder heads, rods and pistons were all fine but I decided to have it increased to a 3.6 for the rebuild. The oil cooler and hydraulic lifters were also replaced as a precaution and all the other usual rebuild parts and gaskets went into it.

So my point if there is one is that the IMSB is fine until it isn’t and if you’re lucky when it goes the engine will be rebuildable.

A LN IMSB failure?
IIRC, there have been claimes than none have ever failed. I could be wrong.....

[particlewave]

Originally Posted by JayG

A LN IMSB failure?
IIRC, there have been cl;aiomes than none have ever failed. I could be wrong.....

Haha!

I used to keep count...I think I saw around 15-20 different complaints of LN IMSB failures before I quit paying attention. Of course, those failures “had nothing to do with the bearing and was the fault of the installer, crank runout or other engine failure”.

Some of those users reporting failures were even banned from rennlist because they dared to question LNE.

[maytag]

Originally Posted by JayG

A LN IMSB failure?

IIRC, there have been cl;aiomes than none have ever failed. I could be wrong.....

Oh you're not wrong..... there have been LOTS of claims.... but they're B.S.

As I've done with several other claims made by "the religion", I've read extensively on this topic, and in that reading I've found dozens of failed LN IMSB's.

Don't drink the cool aid.

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

[PaulE]

Originally Posted by JayG

A LN IMSB failure?
IIRC, there have been cl;aiomes than none have ever failed. I could be wrong.....

Well all I know is mine failed. Prior to the failure my shop told me my used oil filters and magnetic drain plug were always clean of debris at each oil change and without going through my records I would say that my oil changes were every 5,000 -7,000 miles at most. My oil was always changed at least once a year and always after 2 track events, and always with Mobil 1. In one of my other threads on this topic, someone said ceramic ball bearings in steel races are a bad idea, and I think there is some merit to that. The ceramic balls are much harder than the steel races. Since the bearing is open and relies on splash lubrication, if there are any foreign particles in the oil and they get into the bearing races the ceramic balls are just going to grind them into the races until a failure occurs.