Just want to give everyone a heads up. I recently fully built my LS motor and I didn't want to do anything "half-***" so I went with EVERYTHING. I sent my b18a off and got the Darton ductile iron sleeve inserts put in by a highly recommended machine shop in ft. lauderdale, FL. When I got it back everything was gravy. I reasembled the motor and everything was running fine. I took it to the track and It was much slower than I expected. shortly after, I blew a head gasket. no big deal (so i thought...). then i pulled out the block and had it redecked at a local machine shop. checked everything myself when i got it back and the block was perfectly flat (along with the head) put it back together and once again I blew the head gasket. so as pissed as i was i pulled the motor once again and happen to notice the reason for the head gasket blowing for no apparent reason. it was ... the darton sleeve inserts, according to the machine shop that inserted them, because of the arp head studs the aluminum block "streched" under high load which is well... bull ****... the sleeves accually sank in the cylinders causing the head gasket to go. in other words i got screwed out of over 1000 dollars to get the work done. and nothing had anysort of warrantee. so my already long story short i just got my other b18a block back from diff machine shop and this time i went the extra mile and got the "real" darton sleeves, the top deck sleeves so i'll keep ti posted on how these work out jus wanted to suggest spending the extra money on the top deck sleeves and not waste them on the inserts. ... Later

 

sucks to hear bro. but i have heard of arp head studs stretching before. Get AEBS studs

 

Or Golden Eagle studs. They are top notch!!!

 

Golden Eagle Kicks A$$. Got my block sleeved couple years nice work! I highly recommend them.