Sleeves

[charliev68]

I want to start a new thread on Sleeves. I’m hearing a lot on the internet about how great iron sleeves are for the s65 block.
Has anyone here had success doing it?
Wanted to get some real life testimonials.
VAC is saying it’s the way to go!

[DrFerry]

Sub'd

[Scrippy]

I have no experience with this but what I have read in the past is it’s great if you want to make huge power, run boost or for a racing application but not really necessary in a stock motor unless there has been scoring on the walls.

[charliev68]

Yeah. I really want to know if it’s a way to save a scored block and have the same reliability of a stock engine.

[CCase]

I bought a car that had received a VAC rebuilt engine with sleeves. The engine has ~12k miles on it, ~5k by me, and it’s not had any issues.

I will say that VAC attempted to reuse the plastic vanos covers so I had to have those addressed, but I caught it before any damage was done. Running the Mporium covers now.

[charliev68]

The 3 Sleeves available seem to be VAC, 5150, and Lang Racing.
Any opinions on who’s the best?

[CCase]

VAC is probably the most experienced, that said 5150 is owned by Hayyan who used to work at VAC (I bought his car). I caught up with him at TX2K this year and he seems like a great, very knowledgeable guy. I don’t have any experience with Lang.

[amrazM]

Who said iron sleeves are good? Besides the people selling them?

[charliev68]

Also, just wondering if sleeves will cause some kind of catastrophic damage in the long run

[F4rmost]

I believe Chrisyphus did quite a write-up on this somewhere in the track forum maybe? I remember reading it. If he has time I am sure he will chime in. He always has some good insight on things.

If this S65 bites the dust and I don't do an LS (my roots) then Partee will surely get it for a rebuild.

[DrFerry]

Originally Posted by F4rmost

I believe Chrisyphus did quite a write-up on this somewhere in the track forum maybe? I remember reading it. If he has time I am sure he will chime in. He always has some good insight on things. If this S65 bites the dust and I don't do an LS (my roots) then Partee will surely get it for a rebuild.

Something to consider given your roots:
.

[F4rmost]

Originally Posted by DrFerry

Something to consider given your roots:
.

Oh, I would love an LT4. My wallet wouldn't LOL

[omgzirra_exe]

Originally Posted by F4rmost

I believe Chrisyphus did quite a write-up on this somewhere in the track forum maybe? I remember reading it. If he has time I am sure he will chime in. He always has some good insight on things.

If this S65 bites the dust and I don't do an LS (my roots) then Partee will surely get it for a rebuild.

Sleeves don't work on every engine, and this is something that gets debated across builders and users all the time. I personally lean towards not sleeving the S65, mainly because of the material differences between the block and the sleeves themselves. Thermal expansion behaves differently between the two materials and that needs to be factored in, along with piston expansion, potential air gaps, and general temperature differences between the two which can all cause issues down the road. Theres a lot of calculations that go into doing it right.

Yes there are plenty of sleeved race cars out there, but those cars see way more maintenance and annual teardowns than something being used for 5 or 6 events a year.

Im not against sleeving at all. If your cylinder walls cant be saved its a great last resort, and if you can avoid it altogether thats ideal. But the S65 does have a caveat, whoever is doing the boring needs to know how to work with an Alusil block and properly expose the silicon crystals again after machining.

So in that sense sleeving can actually be the safer play for some shops. The flip side is if too much material gets taken off the walls can still crack, which brings you right back to all the issues mentioned above.

We sleeve K series engines all the time and those are pretty straightforward, but ive even seen those crack the cylinder walls and start leaking coolant.

My own 1.5JZ and 2.3L Evo 9 both ran iron blocks so sleeving was never really part of the conversation for either of those builds. But these are common things to do depending on the type of build, but usually Iron Sleeves / Iron block aren't really an issue.

Originally Posted by DrFerry

Something to consider given your roots:
.

THIS IS THE WAY.

Originally Posted by charliev68

Also, just wondering if sleeves will cause some kind of catastrophic damage in the long run

Any built engine, sleeved or not, is at risk of failure just due to the nature of the work involved. It really comes down to how lucky you are and how prepared you are to do it right the first time through engine blueprinting and custom machined parts rather than just grabbing an off the shelf kit. I think OTS kits are great, but only if the core engine is in good shape to begin with. The problem is we never really know the condition of the engine that was used to piece that kit together. Best practice is always to get the block machined and inspected first before making any decisions on parts. And obviously you need to figure out your bore and stroke before you just send the engine off to the machine shop lol.