Sleeves in a 427 side-oiler
 

Have an opportunity to buy a 427 side-oiler, well built, for 7K. It's currently .030" over. I've heard that this is about as far as one should go without sleeving it. My question is, what are the consequences of sleeving this block? Does it hurt, does it help? It won't need it for some time. The block has 1K miles since it was bored. Won't be racing and won't be exceeding 2500 miles/year.

Thanks!

John

Hi John,

Don't know for sure about the 427 SO motor but in touring car racing down here it was popular to sleeve motors for performance advantage. The material used in the manufacture of the sleeves is of a much higher quality and if properly installed can result in a stronger bore than the original. They eventualy brought in a rule to discourage this practice that you could only sleeve 7 of 8 bores.

Cheers

You would be well served calling Gessford Machine for an opinion on this.

My .02 worth is that it depends on who is doing the work...if it is done right it is probably better than what was there originally for the reasons stated in the previous post.

And there it is...it has to be done right or you'll be in a world of hurt. Gessford tackles FE work with commitment and lots of attention to the details, and, George is a great person to boot. He'll steer you straight.

TT

This question keeps popping up with some regularity. Steve Christ in his book "How to Rebuild Your Big-Block Ford" recommends that no more than one cylinder in each bank be sleeved. That said, we have an owner here in Phoenix who claims to have eight sleeves in his engine. I think it all depends on who does the work. As a recommendation, call Bill Parham at Southern Automotive or George Anderson at his shop. Either can give you a real-world answer to this.

Sleeving FE Blocks "To Sleeve or Not to Sleeve"
 

Hi John......at 4.263 you're probably OK...and maybe even at 4.275...every block has it's own characteristics and potential to be sleeved or not to be sleeved.
My personal 427 has all eight hole sleeved....we have several reasons....I wanted to offset my bores to handle a larger exhaust valve diameter.....other blocks have problems like a crack or damaged hole from a piston or valve problem.....
The block has to have good solid material at the top and bottom of the bore to be sleeved effectively for street use.....we Hard Bloc (fill with Cement mixture) some FE's and the do the sleeve work....no water around the sleeve at all...so certainly no problem sleeving these application...
The outside diameter of your selected sleeve is important as is the careful and precise boring operation. Every sleeve is just slightly different on the OD by .0001 and to get a good fit we use Liquid Nitrogen to freeze the sleeves prior to installation...an image to view

http://www.gessford.com/images/nitrogen.gif

A good sized and very solid boring bar is helpful too!

http://www.gessford.com/images/1-2sleeveblk.gif

Pressure checking and even hot sealing the block can be a part of the process too

http://www.gessford.com/images/12pre...eckfeblock.gif

You might find this page interesting and it shows some images of the process we generally use at Gessford Machine....

http://www.gessford.com/images/FEPressurecheck.htm

Since we sleeve hundreds of holes a year from all sorts of applications it really help on the experience end when trying to save a block.....
sometime we have to fix fire slotted blocks where a racer has actually burned between the cylinders...after welding the area needing built up we would then sleeve these holes and bore the block.....sleeving just one hole can certainly effect the holes next to it...
Also a cam align bore check and block align bore check is in order after sleeving a block and most likely a surface job too...
Hope these thoughs answer some of your questions....

George