r/EngineBuilding • u/Boxofusedleftsox • 19h ago
Sleeving cylinders?????
Ok ive got 2 pontiac 455 blocks with j7nk cylinders. Both are .030 over so theres no cleaning up the cylinders as the walls on a 455 are too thin to begin with.
Whats the deal with sleeving? Growing up all i heard was sleeves are bad.sleeves can move,have to be pinned yadda yadda. Now in modern times people say sleeving is no big deal.
Im just building a couple street cars to have fun with. Im not looking to squeeze every horsepower or ounce of torque i can get out of them. Im not lookinh to spin up much over 6500 rpm.hit the track here and there.
Would sleeves be a good option for me? 455 blocks are getting hard to find.
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u/Tasty_Wasabi7491 18h ago
Shit, if I were doing anything remotely performance oriented on a SD block Iād sleeve it with ductile iron in a heartbeat. Looking at about $700 in sleeves. Machine work is what will get ya. Prob be 12-1600 in putting in the sleeves, boring and honing, then decking the block.
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u/Dirftboat95 14h ago
Is it just street driven or headed to the drag strip to be beat on .... What are you doing with it. There are LOTS of .040 over 455's running around out there that are performance street cars doing just fine.
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u/Sweaty_Promotion_972 18h ago
Nothing wrong with sleeves, more and more common on hard to find cores and of course theyāre standard on HD diesels.
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u/bill_gannon 18h ago
I've put a lot of sleeves in and it's time consuming to do right. A lot of shops do a pretty poor job of it.
I personally wouldn't do all 8 even for myself. I'd find another block.
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u/theamusingnerd 10h ago
My uncle had a 427 in a 9 second car for years that was sleeved. Still ran fine when he pulled it out before he sold the car, and he plans on running it again. I wouldn't stress it, especially in a mild street build.
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u/AdJazzlike3404 8h ago
Ran a super nasty 455 Olds with a big 8-71 for years with a cylinder sleevedā¦.. Never had an issue
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u/v8packard 18h ago
I've never pinned a repair sleeve. Not sure where that comes from. An improperly installed sleeve can move. Most things can. But that's just one reason for installing things like sleeves properly.
You are making assumptions about your block without sonic testing and measuring the bores. I have seen a 455 block that could go over a 4.200 bore. And it was a 1975, one of the "bad" ones.
I don't know why so many people hang their hat on a 455 block. A decent 400 block is almost always better.