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I bought an old style IMS with bearing on ebay - very hard to find - to rebuild my 3.2 with a failed IMS. After reading Pedros thoughts on IMS bearing failure I convinced myself to remove the bearing and check for oil in the IMS, and boy howdy did I find it! Ther was about half a cup of rancid engine oil in the IMS. It was so bad there were chunks of what appeared to be baked oil floating around in there. It even smelled bad. The bearing seals looked good, and the bearing feels ok. No evidence of corrosion on the bearing inner surface or interior of the IMS. Still, a replacement beaing is in order. I see two paths for oil intrusionand subsequent acidification into the IMS. 1) through the non metalic seals on the OEM bearing, 2) around the bearing to IMS interface. I wonder if falures are determined by which path the oil takes?
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