removing a sleeve or 2

[hbstang]

anyone every remove a sleeve by hand cutting?what about welding ?big block ford a460 block.wondering whats underneath the sleeves.theres no damage or cracks in the water jackets.they are right at .100 thick for the sleeves,at a 4.420 bore,and that would leave approx .180 left on the cylinder thickness.tey are siamese bores.
i thought about trying to cut a groove down them to loosen them up.any ideas?

[GerryP]

I suppose if you were a brain surgeon, you might be able to do it that way.  Otherwise, you bore them out.

[pbf777]

.............what about welding........

     I would agree that boring the sleeves out is probably best and as we do them most often; but I have seen them heat/weld shrunk out; this by laying lines of weld material deposited starting at the bottom drawing a bead to the top, let cool, and test for movement possibility, if not lay down another strip 180° from the first, let cool, test for movement, if not rotate 90° and so on until they fall-out.  Just be sure not to penetrate the sleeve and manage to weld it into place!  Now, once you start this process you are going to be committed to it, because no machine shop is going to take on attempting to bore them out once you start laying beads of weldment in there; and it's going to take more shrinkage than the .001" - .003" interference fitment as the sleeve isn't going to shrink evenly and will be distorted out of round and square in the vertical.   

     Not to mention, it's going to look like a real 'Farmer-Jones' in the barn sorta execution. but I have seen it done!   

     Scott. 

[fe468stroker]

Welding will "draw" metal and the others chiming in are right.  Be careful of your heat setting on the welder so you don't burn through.  After laying two beads opposite each other, you may be able to use a punch from the bottom on the welds to coax it out of the bore.

[BigBlueIron]

Ive welded them out replacement sleeves in diesel engines, a few of those where extremely tight and welding and or boring was the only solution, a sleeve puller wouldn't budge them. Never done it on a repair sleeve but I would think it would work the same. As noted above you don't want to use so much heat it fuses on the back side, other wise works well.

[TomP]

I would wonder why an A460 Motorsport block was sleeved to a bore size most any normal 460 block can go? Those things go 4.625" easily.