CHAZ Please Give Me Your Opinion on these SLEEVES

[savage]

Brand New 300XS Mercury Remanufactured Powerhead is low on power and tops out at 5600 RPM's. I had two previous motors that leaked oil and were sent back, so this is motor #3 from Mercury. The other two motors pulled +6000 RPM and ran 86.7 MPH solo. Motor #3 is a dog and surges at 5400-5600 RPM.

I removed the plenum and reeds, with the purpose of checking for loose reed screws, and I found this on the bottom of the cylinder bores.

Check out the sleeve alignment at the bottom of the bore >>>>

The sleeves in the cylinders do not align with the block, or the pistons.

Cylinder #2

Cylinder #4

Cylinder #6

Cylinder #1 Alignment is better on the starboard side.

Cylinder #3

Cylinder #5

[Capt.Insane-o]

Par for the course.

[savage]

Par for the course.

Does that mean they all look like this, or did I find the issue for why its down on power?

[Capt.Insane-o]

Pull the heads off and take pictures for all the world to see

[savage]

Capt.Insane-o I see your very experienced with these sleeves. If I pull the heads, will I need new bolts to put it back together? Do you agree that I found the problem?

[Capt.Insane-o]

No need for new bolts, you can send the ****er back where it came from bitching or just put it back together at 35 ft lbs

[savage]

I want to pull the heads for a better look, but I need the boat next weekend. Do the sleeves line up perfect, if they are installed correctly?

I'm not sure how long it will be for Mercury to send me another motor.

[Capt.Insane-o]

I want to pull the heads for a better look, but I need the boat next weekend. Do the sleeves line up perfect, if they are installed correctly?

Merc 3 liter styrofoam blocks are sloppy as foo. In my past...many years and many motors experience with merc "reman" Forest Gump said it best, "life is like a box of chocolates"

[savage]

So IS the alignment BAD in your opinion? Or is that the best Mercury can do?

[Capt.Insane-o]

Pull the heads off.

[Dave S]

could it be wrong sleeves in the wrong side ?

[savage]

I don't know, I haven't really studied any of the sleeve positions in any of the 300XS motors that I have had. I don't know what is considered good, bad, or just ok. All I do know is I have searched all over this motor for an explanation to the low power output, and this doesn't seem right to me.

[FMP]

Hangover Monday afternoon, the band still playing in his ears.

[Chaz]

The pictures are really too close up to get a reference of how far out of alignment they are . But ... they are out of rotation.
The styro blocks (you can see the aluminum looks like a .99c cooler) have bigger ports and landings that the sleeve itself. Meaning that there should be no aluminum showing when you look in any hole .
Again it's hard to tell how far it's out of rotation. But a simple way to tell is to pull out the 90* oil line fitting out of the block and see if the small hole in the block / sleeve is lined up.
All 3.0 / 3.2L sleeves / blocks will interchange , only the Opti must have the oil hole.
So it is the only one that has left and right sleeves. If it was me, I would have drilled all opti sleeves with two holes , so it could be used on either side.
I made up a mandrel that screws into the oil line hole so I can use a core drill bit to make the hole myself or to elongate the holes that look like an lunar eclipse .
On Opti blocks that are going back together as an EFI with behind the liner porting, I drill an intersecting hole from the oil hole to a transfer port and then swap sides with the sleeves , and now the hole / 90* fitting is used for the bleed lines.
The ring gap runs between the narrow area between the transfer and boost ports. Out of rotation or getting to wide on the port in this area is asking for a ring to drop in a port and crash the whole thing.
On blocks that have had a rod poke a hole in the side , I weld the block up and put a .020 .040 or a custom .060 over ( O.D. ) sleeve in the welded hole.
I put sleeves in at .003 -.0035 press . The factory only uses .001 - to .0025 , which is a little loose for me. Going wide open on a cold motor is also begging to turn a sleeve.
They also did a run of blocks where either they split the liner , or the temp was off when they stuck them in and it galled the hole going in bad enough to cause the split. I've fixed about a half a dozen of those blocks .
Like the Capt said .. par for the course .. meaning those guys have no pride in their workmanship and will throw anything out the door .. tolerances close , or a mile off ..

[Chaz]

Alignment ..



Oil hole (blue) Rings shoot the gap (red) ..



Never aluminum showing .. always gotta grind sleeve to match ..