Cylinder Sleeves
 

Does anybody use cylinder sleeves in their race engines? like replacing all eight ......

Re: Cylinder Sleeves
 

Yup

Re: Cylinder Sleeves
 

Obvious there are several answers, but I like the Darton Wet sleeves, they are pricey.....but they can do them on Iron blocks, thats where the machine work is a little painful to the pocketbook. Then there are of course dry sleeves, or a wet sleeve with a dry sleeve to get down to your needed bore size if Darton dosent have the ones you need (as in min bore)

Yup........

We sleeve for max overbore on a lot of engines, on the newer castings .060 isnt even an option.... and the Dartons are easiest once done, to run , pop and for new ones... about 6k for a darton sleeved 6.1 hemi. But when you dont have a choice....well...you dont have a choice, got a pal who did 10 at once and knocked of a grand a pop from Darton.

P.S. There is "Advanced Sleeve" out of Mentor Ohio, never had work done by them on the car side, bikes we used to order alloy sleeves for nikisail plating on older GP style bikes and some older oddball stuff where that was OEM like the Moto Guzzi's , but they make and install sleeves. Im going to have a block done because they are local.....well see...the proof is in the pudding.

Re: Cylinder Sleeves
 

I'm kind of suprised there are not more replies to your question, maybe it's because of holidays etc. There was a time not that far back when mostly all the "class" 396 Chevy racers were using 454 blocks sleeved down to make the req'd displacement. I guess that 396 racers are not as plentiful anymore.
Personally I have raced with a sleeved block (one hole only) and have been satisfied with the results. (also a BB Chevy).

Re: Cylinder Sleeves
 

I am looking at LA Sleeves. Would a harder cylinder help with ring seal?

Re: Cylinder Sleeves
 

Not really. It'll wear better. But it'll actually be harder to get a killer finish for great ring seal on it. Nothing but the softest hone stones, a lot of clean hone oil, and an expert operator will get the correct finish on the really hard sleeves.

I looked at compacted graphite sleeves, looking for the ultimate sleeve. Keith Jones at Total Seal told me I'd gain in cylinder wall wear/life, but not in ring seal, ring wear, or performance.

Re: Cylinder Sleeves
 

Maybe I should talk to my machinist Kip Martin, I am sure he can do the hone deal on cylinder sleeves, and he has a lot of experience with 390 Fords. The last time it was put together we used a low tension ring package from Total Seal. The engine has about 30 passes and has developed a lot of blow by when it is idling, more than it did when it was first put together. I don't think it would have wore the cylinders in only 30 passes?

Or maybe I just need to put the "PVC stock eliminator crank case evac." system on it?

Re: Cylinder Sleeves
 

Back before Mopar began making new wedge blocks a lot of us Max Wedge racers had to find old worn out blocks which usually meant putting in one or more sleeves.

I never had a single problem, just make sure the machine shop knows what they are doing.

JimR

Re: Cylinder Sleeves
 

Pat. You have a PM