So I picked up this block yesterday, apparently its an older style benson sleeved darton block, (closed deck version)

So by looking at it,

Do the coolant ports look like their in the right spots?

Do they seem too small?

should I? / can I get them drilled bigger?

Can this block go 84mm safely? or 83mm just incase?


Any other suggestions / opinions?

 

**** i forgot the resize

 

stick a headgasket on it and match the holes up, thats pretty obvious.......

Most aftermarket sleeves that I know of can go to 84mm, not sure of what you got there.

 

looks good

 

x2 just match the holes. They look fine from the pic. Is it at 82 now or what? If youre worried go 83. That's what I did

 

It's at 81 right now, but I'm just wondering if those coolant holes are big enough, don't want Any cooling problems

 

They do look a little small but it's kinda hard to tell. If I were you I'd decide on the bore you want to go with, then buy that head gasket. Once you get the gasket, put it on and compare the diameter of the holes. If the ones on the gasket are bigger then drill it out a bit. Be careful

 

anyone else have experience with these blocks?

84mm ok?

 

Have you tried contacting Dan Benson or Laskey Racing? Considering Dan sleeved the motor, and Laskey is their primary distributor, their advice might be worth something.

http://bensonsmachine.com/index.html

 

this

 

The only issues with old-style sleeves are sinking (didn't machine that lower lip), cockeyed slanted sleeves (simple decking fixes it), or crankcase/coolant leakage (GE and Benson will tell you the stuff to fix it).

Coolant passages aren't an issue, the stock gasket's middle layer just increases hole size for each cylinder closer to the distributor. If anything, I'd only increase the hole size around cylinder #3, that always runs the hottest.

 

Is there a way to tell if the sleeve will or has sunk?

where would the coolant leak come from?

 

The sleeve will sink a fraction of an inch, just enough for the HG not seal. A machinist would be able to check that on a big vertical end mill. Due to what cases it, I think they usually remove & re-install the sleeves.

The leaking will be around the sleeves at the bottom of the water jacket area. Usually they just use special leak-stop stuff like the powder junk you find at walmart. These are very uncommon problems, especially if it was sleeved by Benson.

 

Yes. If it's a Benson block 84 is ok.

A sunk sleeve is bad news. Chances are you'll notice