[PaulE]

Originally Posted by JFP in PA

Actually, IMS failures remain "the silent death" right up to the moment that the engine jumps time and pistons start hitting valves. We have seen an absolute ton of metal in the oil of cars that were in for regular oil change service and still running just fine. When you pull the sump cover, there is metal everywhere, so the engine is done at that point, and then I usually had to make a difficult phone call to the owner, who was totally unsuspecting.

And the IMS bearing does not tear up the engine case, it is totally inside the IMS shaft.

Well my engine sounded like a running washing machine full of rocks with no water in it when it was shut down. It was rebuilt and the damaged parts that had to be replaced were a timing chain paddle, the actual IMS, the oil pump and a few bent valves. I suppose it was caught at the exact right time, there wasn't a lot of metal in the engine. The lifters and oil cooler were replaced too, to be certain there were no stray metal bits to wreck the rebuilt engine.