300 drag sleeve question

[hollywood120]

On this 2000 year 300 drag engine can the sleeve be removed and reset . it's not blown up it was miss aligned by a shop and I caught it while changing heads the top pin on the piston is right at the edge of the port allowing the ring to nearly float in to the port or exstreamly close. or does that distort the cylinder sleeve. Its probably off by about 200 or more thousandth for proper ailment. Or is it just best to buy a new one and have it replaced. I guess you could say I got lucky. I had 5 or so hours on break in with 34cc heads then was going back to the factory 26cc .

[Chaz]

Hollywood,
I'm gonna say that the guy who put the sleeve in .. is the lucky one.

The only way to remove those sleeves .. is with a boring bar.

A naked aluminum sleeve is around $200.00 Most shops (if you can find one) put those in and then send the block in to have all six holes, plated / replated.

A plated, semi honed sleeve was over $450.00 last time I checked.

How much would you charge to install one ???
Put it in "twisted" ... bore it out and buy another one.
Hesitate for an instant, it will stick where you stopped to regroup .. bore it out and buy another one.
Diamond stones : Bottom pressure honing stone set $ 450.00 Roughing stone set $450.00 Finishing stone set $450.00 The NIC is so hard it chip's the edges of the stones .. even at light pressure.

Advanced told me long ago that if I put in a standard sleeve, and broke thru the NIC while honing ... they didn't even want to discuss it. So I would plan on the blocks register already being at least .020 over.
Make sure the register is fairly round (with-in) .002 before dropping in another sleeve. Before plating, the sleeve I.D. is 3.510 ... finished honed @ 3.500 leaves a NIC wall thickness of .005 each side. A hone won't crowd one side, it will take meat from the entire circle. But you can see where you can potentially wind up with plating as thin as .003 or less.

Good luck brother ...

[hollywood120]

I appreciate all the info. If you put the proper advance plated sleeve in can you come back and chamber the ports later after installed or is that going to cause chipping on the nickle. The reason I say that is all the other 5 cylinders ports have a nice radius or chamfer on all the ports and that sleeve that was put in didn't. Another thing does this new sleeve have to be mocked up with with rotating Assembly to make sure the New will be aligned right or does a professional know where to install it.

[rjdubiel]

best question, who did the work?

[hollywood120]

I bought the motor in Illinois and the fellow who owned it had some one build it in Minnesota can't remember his name or shop. I found all kind of other issues and only a rookie would do these types of mistakes afte I tore it down that jack wagon has no buisiness working on these racing engines. any way I bought all the proper parts to repair through mercury racing and just need the block sleeve work done by a professional . Then it's ready to go back together. Any recommendations On fully qualified profesionals to do this service . whos the best candidates ?

[Chaz]

It's much like a paint job ... the prep work defines what the finished product will look like.
Your best bet would be to establish what size sleeve you need (O.D.)
Order a naked sleeve .. match it to what you have .. then ship it off to have it plated.

You can do a slight amount of deburring with a stone when you get it back (they are pretty crude straight out of the tank) But I wouldn't roll into any area that the ring touch's.

[Capt.Insane-o]

I can probably help you out but would have to see the block. What you are describing with the ring over lap into a port is way way misaligned.

[rgsauger]

So here is an honest question… If you can bore out a 2.5 motor and put in a steel sleeve and it runs great, why can’t you do it on a drag? Why do they have to be coated in Nic?

[Chaz]

I'm a firm believer that every single 2.4L came from the factory with at least one steel sleeve ....

Ever see one with six good chrome bores ... ???

[hollywood120]

The first image is the badly aligned sleeve the second image all other five sleeves are perfectly aligned to the center bridge like there suppose to be.
As you can see that edge of that ring has to be going close to in that you can even see stuffing. After 5 hours break in I only turned it up to 6500 rpms after I come home to switch the heads from 34cc to the 26cc when I noticed this issue so in a way that's how I feel I got lucky because if I would turned this engine all the way up I think disaster would have happen then I would have though I did something wrong when it turns out the build screwed up. The sad thing is he got paid $5000 for that build and f,ed it up all the reed tips where broken should have been replaced . he also used a different rod on that sleeve cylinder. And oh ya 2 different thickness head gasket . I have been working boat for 40 years restoring rebuilding engines drive and so and have never sent something out like this builder did. All my work I get is from reputation . His is scrap hopefully he is out of business.

[Capt.Insane-o]

Yeah, that sucks. Give me a call and I'll see if my machinist can get you in and out in a relatively timely manner, but that is going to need a new sleeve. 9895985445

[Keith E.]

The first image is the badly aligned sleeve the second image all other five sleeves are perfectly aligned to the center bridge like there suppose to be.
As you can see that edge of that ring has to be going close to in that you can even see stuffing. After 5 hours break in I only turned it up to 6500 rpms after I come home to switch the heads from 34cc to the 26cc when I noticed this issue so in a way that's how I feel I got lucky because if I would turned this engine all the way up I think disaster would have happen then I would have though I did something wrong when it turns out the build screwed up. The sad thing is he got paid $5000 for that build and f,ed it up all the reed tips where broken should have been replaced . he also used a different rod on that sleeve cylinder. And oh ya 2 different thickness head gasket . I have been working boat for 40 years restoring rebuilding engines drive and so and have never sent something out like this builder did. All my work I get is from reputation . His is scrap hopefully he is out of business.

Hopefully nobody else gets taken. Hopefully no good builders in the state that you mentioned get passed over because nobody knows who the bad apple is.

Best of luck with your rebuild.

Keith