who has put some serious miles on their sleeved B series block? Intersted in hearing opinions from those who have their motors together and running please.
Who did the work (sleeving) and who assembled the motor? Thanks

 

oh-- and do you have any rants or raves about your built block?

I'm really intersted in GE or possibly Bensons, but I would prefer to have the whole engine assembled as well (gotta love toledo oh- performance shops here are a JOKE)

 

wow, nobodies sleeved block has held together?ttt

 

I've had great luck with my Benson's block but it's in a race car at 25 lbs boost. BTW I build my own motors (and some for the local racers around here)


[Modified by earl, 11:13 PM 6/29/2002]

 

a good tuner and engine management is way more important than a sleeved block. once you find a reputable tuner.......then sleeve your block.

 

The problem w/ you asking about serious miles on a sleeved block is that inherently anybody that goes and has their motor sleeved will be running a healthy amount of boost on it. And the rules of nature reveal that most b series motors seeing close to 2 bars of pressure aren't usually subject to high mileage driving. Ok, basically I meant few people sleeve a block for strictly street use. Actually quite a few on here do. **** I'm cracked out. What do you consider to be "serious miles"? I don't know of too many FI B's that have over 75k under good boost w/o having been rebuilt at least once. Does that answer your question?

 

It sounds like you had alot on your mind when you made that post and couldnt get it all out.... lol but yeah what he said is right, sleeved blocks are meant for higher boost, so the engine probably isnt going to be around too long. But, it seems like if you were to sleeve a block and run 10 lbs on it, it would be around for ever!!

 

you need it tuned though too

 

SlowB16,

You said exactly what I wanted to hear. I'm begining my research for building my engine. BTW, I assume there would be no problem with building my and not boosting it would there? Building would include sleeving, rods, and pistons. This would be safe until I learn about headwork and get around to replacing all the other old **** in my car and then finally boosting it right?

Noel

 

I should have clarified "serious miles" --- does anyone have one that they use as a daily driver? Anyone that has put more than 10k on one? A friend of mine got his h22 done by jg and the sleeve started to move after 3 days (I know jg basically sucks-but still a bummer).
Here is my set up:
93 hatchback
97 b18c5 with spun rod bearing (racing a ls1 camaro had him by a 1/2 a car but I guess he had the last laugh when I missed a gear)
t3/t4 turbo (57 trim)
going with crower rods/je pisons -not sure if I want 9:1 or lower yet
standalone (probably hondata)
have gsr tranny and quaife ready to install
most likely 720cc injectors
15psi is what I am shooting for on the street- 20-24 psi on race gas
all in all, I am not looking to build the fastest car in the world -maybe the 2nd fastest (j/k), but I do want somthing that is going to be relatively reliable on the street.
Right now my motor is torn apart and I am having trouble deciding between GE or Bensons.
I am also sending the head to portflow...but that is getting off of the subject.
Any advice from the dark side?
oh here is a link to my car (and some of the others i own)
http://hoppers13.com/marko/

 

i think i need a

 

if you have the $$ to sleeve it then sleeve it, you will not be limited by how much boost you can run. If you don't have the $$ then most people on here have unsleeved motors. You'll be fine.

 

go with GE

 

Ge won't assemble a block w/ new bearings or anything like that will they? Or do all they do is put in sleeves?

 

actually....now they do...

 

send your block to ge, and it comes back ready to go, sleeved and everything else that is needed...that is where my block is headed....

 

any idea what they (GE) would charge for assembly?

 

I would send them an email and talk to Vince, I will be doing this shortly myself. Best off luck to you

 

GE did my block, its top notch work. Excellent service!

 

Vapor: what kind of work did GE do for you and at what price (if you dont mind me asking)

 

I believe there is a big GE groupbuy thread with alot of information!

 

GE sleeved my block, bored, honed, decked, and o ringed it. I believe the cost for that whole service currently runs around 950 or less.

 

I don't want to change the discussion from "who has a sleeved block and how reliable is it" into a "Do I really need a sleeved block" argument, but do you really need the added cost and liability of a sleeved block?

Ask yourself these two questions: "How much boost will I run?" and "How well can I tune it (or have it tuned)?" If you can tune it well or have it tuned well, you shouldn't need to sleeve your block until you get well into the 400+whp range (@15+psi absolute). At that point, your budget should not revolve around this topic anyway. On the other hand, If you doubt your own tuning skills or do not have access to a good tuner in your area, a sleeved block will take much more abuse than the stock counterpart.

I have had 2 blocks sleeved by a reputable source: One in my personal daily driver (over a year and 9500+mi ago) and one in a 'clients' car.

My personal block came back in beautiful condition with sleeves that were +0.002" taller than the rest of the block. I called the sleeve provider and they reassured me that the "Cadillac deck" was intended and would not cause any problems, therefore do not to worry about it. After proper machine work the pistons fit like silk stockings on a French ***** and reassembly commenced. After careful break-in it worked like a dream for almost 3000mi. Then one day... White smoke out of the tail pipe. I was crushed. After thorough diagnostic testing, it was confirmed that the head gasket was leaking around the #2 cylinder. I pulled the head and found that the sleeves had sunk in the block to the point that the 0.002" 'Cadillac deck' had infact disappeard. I called the sleeve provider and they indicated that a few blocks had shown a very slight amount of settling after use (hence the 'Cadillac deck'). With the sleeves now at deck level, I installed a new head gasket with a 0.005" thicker fire ring and things have been great since.

On the other block, done this year by the same sleeve provider, we found another problem... At the time of reciept, everything appeared visually to be beautiful and correct. During assembly of the shortblock, however, a different story would unfold. After carefully measuring each of the main bearing clearances (plastiguage hell) and installing all of the maincaps to proper torque specifications, it was IMPOSSIBLE to rotate the crankshaft in the block. Assuming that the block was fine, we spent many hours trying different bearing combinations and even had the crankshaft indexed to check for warpage. When we finally contacted the sleeve provider, we were informed that they had experienced numerous failures with thier old "pressed in" procedure (remember my sinking sleeves) and had implemented a new "ram" procedure which had caused a "few" blocks to require align-honing of the main bearing journals. Of course after an align-hone, everything fit fine. We have yet to see how it holds up to the street...

I must say that 2 out of 2 is pretty damn good odds. I am not sure if I am just lucky enough to get 100% of their "few blocks" that have problems or if their definition of a few is much greater than mine. Either way, I am not trying to discredit them either. Their sleeves still kick *** and I will continue to use thier product with much more attention to the block after it is returned to me.

Just keep in mind that a re-sleeved block may require additional work before use in your race engine. But then again, anyone capable of building a good race engine doesn't need my advice.

 

B20C5 Turbo -- Mind sharing who did the block work? I would like to know as a consumer who will be getting his block worked on in the future. I figure if you had 2 problems and is still willing to go back to that place, their sleeves must of been pretty bad *** to overlook the mishaps.

 

Well... I kinda feel like I have laid a few landmines with that last post, so I'm going to tip-toe around your question a bit.

Anytime that you remove or modify the floating sleeves in a Honda/Acura block, there is a chance that the rest of the casting will be affected in an adverse way. As long as you are prepared to check for and correct any kind of alignment issues before assembling your engine, your success will be guaranteed. Remember: It is the responsibility of the user/installer to ensure that any product used is installed properly and intended for such use. Here are a *few* of the things to check on your newly sleeved block (any manufacturer/installer) before use:

1) Make sure the deck is flush and straight, unless a stepped deck is intended. If that is the case, at least ensure that the deck is straight.

2) Make sure that the deck is parallel to the crankshaft main journal surface and that the main journal surface is flush and straight.

3) Make sure that the main journal bores are round and concentric (aligned).

And, of course, make sure that you have selected a sleeve manufacturer/installer that comes highly recommended by the Turbo Mafia. I believe that there were a few recommendations for "pretty bad ***" sleeves in this thread.

Enjoy.


[Modified by B20C5 Turbo, 12:23 AM 7/6/2002]