Looking around online I'm seeing Darton sleeves and Dan Bensons sleeves seem to be the ones that everyone talks about being the best. I live in the East, (Mass.) and a shop not too far, RameyBuilt, is offering LA sleeves, deck, bore, hone and O-rings for $1350. Honestly have never heard of LA sleeves but seen on another thread they aren't too bad but just wondering if I should be leaning to Darton Sleeves or Bensons instead for the price. Trying to make well over 400hp, want to get block bored to 84 or 84.5mm and sleeved for boost. (Boost by gear, 15/20 max.) Have a Type R head on on my block.

 

Personally I prefer Darton sleeves, but they only offer flanges sleeves or MID sleeves. Flanged are cheap to buy and install, but aren't designed for high hp. MID sleeves are pretty frickin expensive.

There are a lot of sleeve options, and LA Sleeves are great. But sleeves are only as good as the install. I've seen some botched installs of all different brands. Just make sure whatever shop you use has a good reputation for sleeve installs.

 

RJT machine in Lawrence, Ma does all my sleeves (darton) and all my machine work. You might wanna look into the CSS blocks from cncwerx. I have built numerous 700+ hp engines running CSS blocks with zero failures.

 

What do you consider cheap?
And I was told by someone at Darton they see over 500 regularly, maybe not Pro drag levels, but on the other hand think of what people get out of stock sleeves, man, those flanged ones are a lot stronger. I think they would take 6 or 700.
But yeah, who can install them and end up with straight, round holes?
That's a problem in my town. Hell...I'd gladly go to Dallas or Austin, I'm between them both.
Wonder if those dry sleeves cool ok?

 

cheap; around $75 per sleeve to buy, and $600-1000 for install depending on the shop. compared to wet sleeves that are $150-200 per sleeve to buy, and $850-$2000 to install.
The power level they can hold is dependent on 2 things. 1) sleeve thickness; dry sleeves are obviously thinner than wet sleeves, so they can't hold as much power. but yes they should be able to hold 500-600hp quite well, only if #2 here is addressed as well; 2) whether they are installed in an open deck or closed deck block. when installed in an open deck block, the cylinder expansion strength is increased, but the lateral strength is not increased; the cylinders can still crack like stock.

dry sleeves cool better than wet sleeves. wet sleeves are all steel. dry sleeves are thinner steel surrounded by aluminum. aluminum has drastically higher thermal transfer properties than steel.

 

Mindless4banger
LA Sleeve has been around Longer than Darton. They specialize in motorcycle sleeves. They do offer sleeves for the Honda blocks and work well. Don't be afraid to use them. Benson uses Darton He does not have his own sleeve. Golden eagle has there own sleeves. They make them in house. You choices would be Darton, La Sleeve or golden eagle they all work well. Good luck