59AB blocks, sleeve

3

32 ford barn

Senior Member
I am curious if Ford could have installed a factory sleeve in a 59 AB block? I just got a block that has nearly no cyl. wear. It s still standard but has one sleeve in no. 4 cyl. I know anything could have happened through the years. Thanks Jim.
 
Sure seems possible - Ford was not fond of throwing away blocks or anything else. But - most of the ones I've seen sleeved, had sleeves in every bore - or four at the least.

With that said - I've never personally seen one with STD bore and a sleeve . . . so, is it STD bore?
 
IMHO: Back in the mid 70's when I started working automotive parts, I worked for a large (at the time) parts supplier up here. We handled a popular manufacturer of rebuilt engines, heads, cranks ect. I have seen rebuilt motors of all types & sizes that had been remand with a single bore sleeved or bored out, multiple od sized bore combinations in the same block but not all holes the same. Cranks with one journal undersize on a main or rod & all the rest std or a different size. Just sayn anybody could have just sleeved one hole in your block in the last 70 years. Back when money was scarce they got em back on the road as cheaply as they could.
 
Could have been a warranty repair where a wrist pin came loose and gouged one cylinder wall right from the get-go.
 
We have in the shop at this time a standard 8BA all is good no cracks but #2 has a good
scratch as 40 deluxe said wrist pin lost its keeper so that will get bored sleeved back to
standard. Just finished a Hercules MCL (JXD) and #3 had exhaust valve bent over so bad
it took the top off the valve guide. How ? I figure maybe spark plug porcelen? Don't think so, & if so if it got stuck under the valve no way is the valve spring strong enough to bend
a valve. I'm only saying any thing can happen. Ole Henry didn't reject anything, check out what Chrysler did back then, remember my father new 9,000 mile 51 DeSoto that
took a dump. No big warranties back then, fathers shop took it apart; thing been bored
crack turned hello : New car .... their ya go failure bad oil pump. sam
 
Bored&Stroked said:
Sure seems possible - Ford was not fond of throwing away blocks or anything else. But - most of the ones I've seen sleeved, had sleeves in every bore - or four at the least.

With that said - I've never personally seen one with STD bore and a sleeve . . . so, is it STD bore?
Click to expand...

I have. Sleeves were stuffed in a standard bore so now there is a smaller
bore . Gotta remember things were tough especilly war time called do what
ya gotta do/ you would not believe things been done to engines in our shop
now the heat is on for rebuilds. Good news, We now have 8 flatheads on
the table and amazing all clients are under 30 yrs old! I like that. sam
 
If you found only one sleeve there is a good chance that cylinder was damaged, or had a "sand hole" in the wall and was factory salvaged. If the cylinder wall was cracked, be sure to check the block in the area below the bore to be sure that there is no signs of cracking there. At our shop we reject any block with that type of damage. It is possible that someone installed the sleeve followed by a dose of stop leak, and crossed their fingers.
 
If that engine with the bad cyl came through my shop. I'd just bore that cyl out to clean it up and install a larger piston of the same weight as the others. Boring for a sleeve is expensive, and not necrssary for a street engine.
 
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