thesoundandthefury

I've always wondered about the use of cylinder liners in iron blocks. My question is, is their scope of use limited to renewing damaged cylinder walls only? Or are they used to increase cylinder wall strength as well?

Example: you have a block with a damaged cylinder that's already bored .030" over, and boring it any more will mean it won't pass a sonic test. If you HAVE to have a .030" over bore, would it be safe to bore it .040" over and install a .010" liner? Will the liner compensate for the loss in wall strength? Or would your only option be to just install the .010" liner bringing the bore down to .020"?

1racerdude

If ya got one cyl that is bad just put a sleeve in that one hole.
I have not fooled with any thin glue in liners. I just get it all removed and a complete liner installed,bored and honed.That way the liner is about the same as the parent metal is in the other cyl's.

MachinistOne

I have never used a "thin" liner, and have never had a sleeve failure, it all comes down to the installation, so if I get a sleeved block for a rebuild, I don't use it because I cant trust the previous guys work. They will leak if not done right. If done correctly they will be just as good or better than the original.

For sbc stuff the blocks are soo common I don't sleeve unless it is one or two bad holes and the customer wants his original block. Other than that they are mainly used for more rare blocks such as fireball straight six's in early stuff. Or diesels.

thesoundandthefury

I was always under the impression that liners and sleeves were the same thing. By your guys's decriptions, it doesn't sound like it. What are the difference(s)?

1racerdude

They are basicly the same thing but different styles is what we are talking about.

thesoundandthefury

Cool. Thanks for the input guys.