Sleeve or overbore ?

[66shelby]

My 250 block suffered some water ingestion and subsequent pitting in the cylinder walls. It has not cleaned up at .040 over, and my local parts house can't seem to find a sleeve.

My question is should I shoot a full .060 overbore, or continue to hunt for a new block. Cooling would be my main concern. My install utilized a single row radiator out of a Fairmont, and I would have trouble fitting a double row due to the added engine length. This car is just a cruiser, not a race car, but I've had a lousy experience with the .060 before.

Any thoughts, experience, advice, or good blocks would be appreciated!

BTW I've already posted on CL and put out local feelers for donors, and I'm located in southwest Missouri.

Howard

 

[Thad]

Are you planning to repair one cylinder or take all out to 0.060"?

If you are going to bore all six then suggest finding another block. A 0.060" overbore is the end game. Can't take any bigger no future rebuild.

 

[66shelby]

Thad you make a great point.

But absent a sleeve, it's end game anyway. I've got a nice set of 7 302 forged domed pistons for a .060 if anyone needs them!

You said something that had crossed my mind, and that was just doing the 2 bad cylinders .060, and making sure the balance is right. There are a bunch of reasons this sounds plain wrong. Remember that the hardest this car gets driven is across the intersection.

 

[early ford fan]

Are you planning to repair one cylinder or take all out to 0.060"?

If you are going to bore all six then suggest finding another block. A 0.060" overbore is the end game. Can't take any bigger no future rebuild.

i don't understand?if he scraps the block still no future rebuilds.lol

 

[JackFish]

IIRC, Does10s has a sleeved block, or cylinder. He might have a line on parts for you.

 

[falcon1963]

Try another machine shop & let them find a sleeve for your block.
Not your job to find a local parts house, let your machine shop purchase one from one of their suppliers.

As Thad stated, don't go .060" over. The main problem is thin cylinder walls & second schools out if you have cylinder problems. Falcon Man

 

[bubba22349]

You said something that had crossed my mind, and that was just doing the 2 bad cylinders .060, and making sure the balance is right. There are a bunch of reasons this sounds plain wrong. Remember that the hardest this car gets driven is across the intersection.

This use to be done all time on old transportation cars people needed their car back together fast to get around. So they would change one head on a v8, turn a throw from a spun bearing on a crankshaft; bore one or two cylinders many times with the block still in the car. It was a patch job sure but it would work they did not weary about balance because they were just drivers ones I seen ran smooth enough at low speeds. Sure it’s not going to be the best for a performance rig. But if you can’t find a block or sleeves are they trying very hard to look for them? With a fresh bore at .040 and just a little pitting why not put it to gather worse that would happen is it will use a little bit of oil doubt it would be any worse than a re-ring job on old used bores. The machine shop dose not want any liability for it so maybe they won’t charge for the work done if you take it home and put it together. I do agree on .060 over don't go there.

 

[66shelby]

I overcame my frustration long enough to Google "cast iron sleeve" and got on Mellings web site. I have a request in for a distributor, and plan to go that route. That old expression "when it rains it pours" has applied to me this past couple of months. Thanks for the input guys.

 

[JOHN G]

I have a sleeve in my engine on the #3-it's been there for many years and still is functioning perfectly. I actually had what appeared to be a small crack in the bottom of the cylinder wall that had probably been there since day one, but I wasn't comfortable with it so I went the sleeve route. My local shop did it and I don't remember the cost, but it was under a hundred bucks. i wouldn't hesitate to doit again if the need arose.

 

[Lazy JW]

You said something that had crossed my mind, and that was just doing the 2 bad cylinders .060, and making sure the balance is right. There are a bunch of reasons this sounds plain wrong. Remember that the hardest this car gets driven is across the intersection.

This use to be done all time on old transportation cars people needed their car back together fast to get around. So they would change one head on a v8, turn a throw from a spun bearing on a crankshaft; bore one or two cylinders many times with the block still in the car. It was a patch job sure but it would work they did not weary about balance because they were just drivers ones I seen ran smooth enough at low speeds. Sure it’s not going to be the best for a performance rig. But if you can’t find a block or sleeves are they trying very hard to look for them? With a fresh bore at .040 and just a little pitting why not put it to gather worse that would happen is it will use a little bit of oil doubt it would be any worse than a re-ring job on old used bores. The machine shop dose not want any liability for it so maybe they won’t charge for the work done if you take it home and put it together. I do agree on .060 over don't go there.

Yup. Used to be common practice and if you never plan to rev over 4000 rpm you will never know it was "imbalanced". Truth be told it would run 6K but engine life may be shortened. Just how equal are the forces on an accelerating engine? Not very.
Joe

 

[MustangSix]

My Crossflow had a casting imperfection in one bore so we sleeved it then bored it to match the other five. I've done this many times on lots of engines, even the race engines. And a sleeve can be bored again if necessary. It can even be removed (actually bored out completely).

 

[fordconvert]

If done properly sleeves are fine. I have had some really oddball stuff done and its never been a problem getting them but I have always just let the shop do it. I was under the impression they come in some basic sizes and styles but they are not for specific engines. Its up to the shop to figure out which style and size they need and then machine it and the block to fit.