Engine rebuild - cylinder re-sleeve

[Chris58]

Im in the process of a rebuild of my Storm. After deciding to use & ordering JE high comp pistons, I realized my bore was not perfect.... I either needed a set of os high comp pistons made, or resleeve the bore and use the ones i have.
After going to 3 machine shops, I've finally found one capable of doing a resleeve job.

I havent found any info about resleeving a storm, so I thought id share the experience.
After sending the block to the machine shop they told me that these sleeves cannot be pressed out, they are actually cast-in sleeves. So far, Ive had them bored out and im waiting on custom ductile iron sleeves from advanced sleeve.

Heres a pic of the block after bore job. It shows the remaining ribs left in the cylinder; used to hold the sleeve in the casting. The new sleeve will be installed with a 0.003 interference fit and sized to the JE's.

Will post more pics/progress if anyone is interested in this process or the reassembly of the engine.

Cheers
Chris

[Stephan]

Good luck with built. I had the same problem, but realized it before ordering je pistons and went with os pistons route and new bore. I wonder you found the shop willing to do work on cylinders in crankcase, for me it was nightmare to find one for new cylinder bores.

Keep up with pics and progress of your work please, it is always interesting to read things like that, and you have some kind of diary you can work with in the future

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viewtopic.php?f=36&t=35255

Fyi mine is not finished yet. Currently playing with tuning per afr reading on each cylinder, open airbox, carb springs stifness, going to install fuel pump.

[tony.mon]

Me, too.
I found a machine shop who could rebore to oversize and hone but the cheapest way was to buy a low mileage engine with a failed cct, light hone and use std high comps.
JE didn't want to sell me one pair of oversize pistons, they said their minimum order was for four.
Oversize std compression pistons are easy to get direct from Honda but you may have to wait a while to get os ring sets.

[fabiostar]

keep us updated how this works out

[Stephan]

Me, too.
I found a machine shop who could rebore to oversize and hone but the cheapest way was to buy a low mileage engine with a failed cct, light hone and use std high comps.
JE didn't want to sell me one pair of oversize pistons, they said their minimum order was for four.
Oversize std compression pistons are easy to get direct from Honda but you may have to wait a while to get os ring sets.

the best is to verify actual status, as it is changing time to time. When I did mine engine, there was no problem to order 2 os pistons from JE, but oem os rings were not available in japan part store, while today according to US guys, you can order oem os piston rings. I still doubt about it unless somebody will get them.

[Chris58]

Thanks for some feedback, I will post more when I can.

I may start a couple other topics for a few other mods i am doing as well:
Wide band 02 sensor to tune carbs easily
Ignitec programmable ignition module
I have a flow commander installed, so maybe a little reveiw while using the wideband.
There is a dyno in my town as well, so there will be dyno results by spring

[E.Marquez]

There is no need to re sleeve if only going a single or two size overbore, the motor as is can easily handy it.
If the motor had a catastrophic failure that significantly damaged the bore there are still other options than re sleaving.

The OEM case/ cylinder can be bored and honed
It can be bore, plated, honed.
Or repaired though welding then bore and plating.

Why did you choose to have new cylinder sleeves installed?

[Stephan]

If you mount hole for o2 sensor, I suggest to do ot on each cylinder (placed before pipes connenction). I found that my rich fuelling issues comes only from front cylinder.

[Chris58]

There is no need to re sleeve if only going a single or two size overbore, the motor as is can easily handy it.
If the motor had a catastrophic failure that significantly damaged the bore there are still other options than re sleaving.

The OEM case/ cylinder can be bored and honed
It can be bore, plated, honed.
Or repaired though welding then bore and plating.

Why did you choose to have new cylinder sleeves installed?

I had ordered the JEs in standard size, assuming it would work out.. but the bore wasnt in good enough shape to uses them.
Its very expensive to have custom high comp pistons made..and I cant return the ones already purchased. So it made sense to me to do a resleeve.

I see now that it would have been smarter/cheaper to get it apart and measure the bore before getting pistons.. Its a lesson learned, re-sleeving will work out just as well.

The resleeve will cost $900 total...custom pistons are more because you have to buy 4.

[Chris58]

If you mount hole for o2 sensor, I suggest to do ot on each cylinder (placed before pipes connenction). I found that my rich fuelling issues comes only from front cylinder.

Great advise! That is the plan, I have one sensor with a guage, but I will have a mount on each pipe with a plug in one, or the other. This way I can tune the carbs seperatly.

[Stephan]

There is no need to re sleeve if only going a single or two size overbore, the motor as is can easily handy it.
If the motor had a catastrophic failure that significantly damaged the bore there are still other options than re sleaving.

The OEM case/ cylinder can be bored and honed
It can be bore, plated, honed.
Or repaired though welding then bore and plating.

Why did you choose to have new cylinder sleeves installed?

I had ordered the JEs in standard size, assuming it would work out.. but the bore wasnt in good enough shape to uses them.
Its very expensive to have custom high comp pistons made..and I cant return the ones already purchased. So it made sense to me to do a resleeve.

I see now that it would have been smarter/cheaper to get it apart and measure the bore before getting pistons.. Its a lesson learned, re-sleeving will work out just as well.

The resleeve will cost $900 total...custom pistons are more because you have to buy 4.

you can have custom pistons from CP and only two, for cost about 500-600 usd, don´t remember exactly. But in your case, there was no cheap way how to solve it.

[tony.mon]

If you mount hole for o2 sensor, I suggest to do ot on each cylinder (placed before pipes connenction). I found that my rich fuelling issues comes only from front cylinder.

Great advise! That is the plan, I have one sensor with a guage, but I will have a mount on each pipe with a plug in one, or the other. This way I can tune the carbs seperatly.

I did this with two displays.
It's much easier to see them both at the same time.
It wasn't expensive, either, but I had to make a waterproof housing for the display as the ones I used came with just bare circuit boards.
I posted how I did it in the knowledgebase, but now that the Photowomble-it people have committed business suicide you won't be able to see the pics...

Buying four os pistons won't cost much as there's probably more of a market for OS than std os pistons as these engines are getting older.

[E.Marquez]

I had ordered the JEs in standard size, assuming it would work out.. but the bore wasnt in good enough shape to uses them.
Its very expensive to have custom high comp pistons made..and I cant return the ones already purchased. So it made sense to me to do a resleeve.

I see now that it would have been smarter/cheaper to get it apart and measure the bore before getting pistons.. Its a lesson learned, re-sleeving will work out just as well.

The resleeve will cost $900 total...custom pistons are more because you have to buy 4.

Ahh, got ya...

May never come up again, but having them Nikasil plating then honing to size takes care of most wear situations... though not damage which can be repaired though welding before plating.

But hey, re selaving is going to work as well so your getting it done.... Just another option for ya.

[Chris58]

Yeah that sounds like it would have worked great, I didnt know that could be done to make up for wear.
I imagine there would also be less risk involved taking that route

[Chris58]

Ill have more pics to post next week, the machine shop is now pressing in and boring a couple 0.25" thick ductile sleeves. Going with 0.003 piston/bore clearence.

Also sent cams out for grinding and gas nitriding to surface harden. They said they may or may not have a profile suitable for my cams.
Not sure weather its worth it to do JEs with stock cams...but i may have to.

Also, any opionions on the insanly thick .25" sleeve?? Cant find much info on pros/cons. It seems to me like it is a good thing, but won't disapate heat as quickly.