cylinder sleeves

Has anyone had merc flarhead sleeved.i have a cracked cyl. And the machinist said he could sleeve the block for a $100 a hole.the engine was rebuilt 2000 miles ago and was running great, the rear cylider was cracked half in. From the top.do the sleeves make it like new and will they last.

 

I never sleeved a Flathead but the 327 in my Deuce pickup has a sleeve and it has over 15,000 miles so far,,no problems. HRP

 

Suggest you go over to the Fordbarn.com with this query. Machinists like Ol'Ron will answer your question. When you go there, be armed with pictures to post with.

I have the tools used to sleeve a block, but have never done it. I'll be interested to see the answers you get.

 

I suspect it's much easier to sleeve than find a good Flathead block. HRP

 

Yes, blocks are sleeved every day and done properly, are serviceable.

Before you invest in a sleeve, have the rest of the block magnaflux checked for cracks and pressure tested. I've never seen a flathead block which wasn't cracked around at least one of the exhaust valve seats.

While it's in the machine shop, install hard exhaust seats if you haven't already done it.

jack vines

 

I've never sleeved a flathead, but I have made over 600hp with a block with two sleeves in it, later it was sold to a guy who raced for a long time after that at slightly reduced power levels. I have no problems running sleeves.

 

I've got one with 6 sleeves in it and it seems to be fine.

 

IIRC, some european cars were sleeved from factory .
And what about the VW flat four ?
Done properly, I don t think it may cause a problem. But I m not machinist ..

 

I have 3 racing engines. Each has 8 sleeves. Done correctly sleeves are not a problem.

 

Fit the pistons on the loose side, if they are too tight, they can move the sleeve.

 

Simple job at a good shop.

T

 

sleeved all 8 cylinders on my 368 Lincoln. runs sweet . just make sure the engine has enough meat to accept a sleeve

 

Some flatties came from Henry with sleeves. Don't remember which ones! KB, Milodon, Pisano etc. all had sleeves.

 

I cannot imagine how tight a piston would have to be to actually move a properly installed sleeve!

 

Even if you only sleeve one hole the rest will need to be bored as when the sleeve is pressed in it will distort the cylinders next to it and they will need to be bored concentric again(in case you didn't already know)

I talked with the owner of H&H flatheads he told me they sleave all cylinders now regardless of condition(he was talking the 4 bangers, not sure on the v8s)

 

If the sleeve moves.....probably wasn't installed right!.....ran a lot of engines with sleeves......built (back in the day) a lot of FE and Hemi engines with sleeves....

 

Way to tight to run anyway .

 

Repairing a cracked cylinder on a flathead Ford V-8 is easy to do we do it all the time. But you should check for cracks by the valve seats that's usually where the crack starts. If you find a crack by the valve seat that's easy to repair also.
Ronnieroadster

 

How do you go about doing that?

 

Metal s***ching old but does a good job.

T

 

Back when I was racing Porsche 944s it was standard to sleeve the aluminum blocks when building for power. The blocks were etched from the factory to expose the silicon particles which made it possible to run crazy tight clearances. Once you bored the block that was ruined and you'd have to sleeve it so it became standard practice. These days you can actually have them nikasil treated to restore these qualities.