While doing a compression test on my eng I found 2 bad cyls. Pulled head and found a gouge running up and down the #4 cyl.
(not sure what is up with the #8 cyl yet, but bore looks good)

I'm trying to find the most economical way to repair.
My rotating assy is already balanced, so I'm trying to avoid having to re-balance it.
Eng has between 15 and 20k miles since re-build.

I suppose my options are:

1= Get another block, bore it 30 over, and re-use pistons.

2= Get the bad cyl sleeved and bored 30 over.

I've never sleeved a cyl before. Is it cost efficient? Is it reliable??
The eng is a stroker. Will having a sleeve cause any special problems for clearancing??

 

I had a BBC sleeved a couple of times. Cost is roughly $80-$100 but ask your machine shop.

A sleeve is just a tube which represents a new cylinder. They bore out the block. Depending on the casting, how much they bore out varies. I'm guessing about .150 over bore. This should make the cylinder walls, if there's any left, paper thin. The new sleeve is then pressed into the block (very tight fit). Once the new sleeve is in, it's just like having a new cylinder. They'll then bore it out to your requested oversize. Once it's done, you normally can't tell it's been sleeved.

The downside is that sleeving one cylinder can cause distortion to the adjacent cylinders. A rehone should be done.

Sometimes it's more economical to use a different block. Depends on how much you have invested in the block. Calculate the cost to bore out 8 cylinders, line hone, deck the block plus any other machine work and it's cheaper to get a sleeve or 2 than to start over with a new block.

If you have a very rare or expensive block and it's been bored out to the maximum, you can have all 8 sleeves replaced and bring the bore back to a factory bore size. For what I paid for my BBC Dart block, it would be cheaper to sleeve all the cylinders than it is to buy a new block if it ever came to that.

 

Got the eng broke down and took it to the machine shop. The #4 piston is broken between the 2 top rings. The gouge in the cyl wall wasn't very deep at all. Might be ok with just a re-hone.

Didn't see anything obvious with the #8 cyl/piston. I left him the pass side cyl head to breakdown and inspect. I'll know more next week.