safely bore a 289

[thehotrodder]

mbstude: That is way cool! I have a neighbor who is putting a Packard 374? ci w/2 4bbls in a golden hawk. There are a lot of cool things going on right now.

doofus: I don’t think I understand your last post. As long as you don’t remove the head bolt holes wet sleeves should be fine right? The head will keep the liners stationary right?

packardV8: well, now I am way more mentally invested than I ought. 400?! That’s crazy! Has anyone ever attempted it?
I found a site. Powerbore.com. I looked through their catalog to get an idea of price and. . . Nothing. It’s like reading an edelbrock catalog. However, I assume that custom sleeves are stupid expensive. I propose the machine work on the block be done to try to use a production sleeve like a Buick (deck height is about the same). If the studebaker block can be bored to accept common wet sleeves then pistons and rings are already figured out-ish. I assume a lot still depends on rods and wrist pin size.

I sure hope the Studebaker Amsoil crew gets a wild hair and turns this theoretical build into a working engine. I would copy the studebaker team’s parts list so fast!

also, I would donate a block and help in any way else I could

[Mike Van Veghten]

Anyone near me...SoCal. Near Pomona, east of Los Angeles. No shipping, walk it in, walk it out.

Will sonic check your "clean" block for lunch at the local Mexican food restaurant.

Mike

[DEEPNHOCK]

Anyone near me...SoCal. Near Pomona, east of Los Angeles. No shipping, walk it in, walk it out.

Will sonic check your "clean" block for lunch at the local Mexican food restaurant.

Mike

No limit?
You could eat for free for months with some of the hoarders around here <lol>

[JoeHall]

Necessity is the mother of invention: in mid 1990s, I rebuilt a Packard 352 that had been bored .030" OS, in the 1960s. The bore job was terrible, with .003" to .007" clearances. But the NOS .030" pistons were gold, back then, and only had maybe 20,000 miles on them. So I had all eight holes sleeved, and drilled for the .030" pistons. The block lasted about 100,000 miles, before a top ring wallowed out sufficient for the ring to break,
'Waynes Engines' in Riverside CA did the block for me, not sure if they're even still there, but they were very competent back then.

[PackardV8]

But Joe, even back then, weren't .060" pistons less expensive than eight sleeves? I know they are today.

Where we're back to maybe sleeving is 374" pistons are NLA in any oversize, so we have to sort through several engines worth of used STD pistons to find eight usable and then sleeve the block back to STD bore. The cost for that is almost as much as custom forged pistons, so I usually recommend going that way.

The block lasted about 100,000 miles, before a top ring wallowed out sufficient for the ring to break,

The block was probably not the problem; the pistons with 120,000 miles of wear were the failure point.

jack vines

[JoeHall]

But Joe, even back then, weren't .060" pistons less expensive than eight sleeves? I know they are today.

Where we're back to maybe sleeving is 374" pistons are NLA in any oversize, so we have to sort through several engines worth of used STD pistons to find eight usable and then sleeve the block back to STD bore. The cost for that is almost as much as custom forged pistons, so I usually recommend going that way.

The block was probably not the problem; the pistons with 120,000 miles of wear were the failure point.

jack vines

If you recall, back then the only pistons available were EGGE, and they were junk. That's why the OEM, .030" OS pistons were gold to me. Agree, it was the pistons and not the block that wore out. I recall the machinist ask if I wanted 'thick' or 'thin' sleeves. He advised thick would cool better, and allow for future oversizing, if ever needed, so I opted for thick. Not sure how much overbearing they'd tolerate, but IIRC, the sleeves are .125" thick.

On EGGEs, I have been hearing, for quite some time, they are now good to go, but back then there'd be as much as .002" - .003" difference in a set of eight. In the late 1980s, I took a set back to them, and they allowed me to sit in a corner and go through several boxes of 352 pistons, with micrometer, and select the closest eight. They were stacked poorly, on top of each other, so no wonder they were deformed, or whatever the problem was. I'd buy from them, with confidence now though, based on what I've heard.

[doofus]

OK, the wet sleeve idea we were looking at started with a junk block. cylinders bored completely out (2) and my thinking was this. the cylinders join the Deck to the Crankcase, lots of meat their, the water jacket encloses the whole thing,less meat their. the head bolt bosses are cast into the deck underside,not hanging onto the cylinder sides. with the cylinders replaced by wet sleeves only the water jacket is left to hold the whole thing together. wet sleeve engines have way beefier blocks as they were designed this way. would the head to deck sandwich be strong enough to maintain overall block integrity? I didnt know, then a friend pointed out that 1 in 5 6.2 gm diesel blocks was rebuildable because of main web cracks that slowed the project, then health issues retired me and the project halted. hope this is understandable enough. Luck Doofus