I will be building a 422 and Im unsure if I will use a Iron block or a resleeved aluminum. I have heard I could possibly have oil consumption and major issues with the Iron 4.040 bore and a big stroke of 4.125. If anyone has done this Id love to talk with you about it.

Other idea is to have a aluminum block resleeved with the new Dartons. Ive heard of a guy that does this that was part of the new designs and he does it on the side for members. would this be a better way to go and how much did you pay for your block and who did it and have you hade any issues

 

This is the guy you are talking about. He was part of the sleeve building, and he also installs them. http://www.raceenginedevelopment.com...4927/index.htm Like I also said, the 4.040/4.125 combo has .010" less side load than a "all stroke" 382 aluminum motor, so it will be fine to, for much less money.

 

No i think this guys name is Steve he worked at darton and help develop the process. guys let me know what you think about the ideas.

 

No i think this guys name is Steve he worked at darton and help develop the process. guys let me know what you think about the ideas.

 

I would call ARE 905.420.9195 They use a dry sleeve and it has been proven sound time and time again. At least if you are doing research you should call them.

My resleeved aluminum block now has 3 years and 17,000 miles with no issues and no oil consumption. There are quite a few people with ARE blocks that have held up equally as well. On another note I was at the shop on Friday and they have a skid of brand new LS6 blocks ready for resleeving

 

If you go dry sleeved ARE seems to have the best record. If you want to spray big shot's on NOS on a resleeve ARE has the set up for clamping the heads down.

If you go with a wet sleeve set up Steve the co-inventor of the LS1 wet set would be a good choice to do the sleeves. MTI & LPE also should be able to a wet set up and be good choices.

If you select someone else like a local shop. Ask and find out if they use LA sleeves. If they do RUN! The LA's are far more prone to drop than ARE dry or Darton wet.

Good Luck!

 

MTI or ARE

 

Agostino Racing Engines (ARE) seems to have perfected the process. No issues here nor have I heard any. Good luck.

 

OK, the problem going with strokes longer than 4" on these blocks is lack of deck height. You end up with the wrist pin in the oil groove of the piston and a piston with a very short skirt. Same holds true whether this is the iron block or the aluminum block.

The MID sleeves make the finished aluminum block far stronger in the cylinder wall area than the iron block would be even at stock bore size. The ductile iron used in the sleeves is close to twice the strength of the gray iron used in production blocks. Further, the MID sleeves are substantially thicker than the cast walls in the iron block. I'll be doing some R&D shortly on the feasability of putting the MID sleeves into an iron block to beef those up.

I'm Steve from Race Engine Development by the way. I never worked at Darton but I worked very closely with them in the design of all the MID kits. Dave Clinton, owner of Darton, Gary Cyr, shop foreman, and I are co-inventors of the sleeve design and co-patent applicants for it. I do the R&D on block machining for new designs and perfect the machining and installation process for Darton. This info and my photos are used to write the online installation manuals.

The accuracy of the machine work has everything to do with the finished product. There is an order of machining that should be followed as well. The most important thing is to use a machine with coolant to keep the block at constant temperature from start to finish during the machining process. It is impossible to hold the half thousandth dimensions without flood coolant.

That said, I do installs for Darton, a lot of tuner shops across the country as well as members of this site. This has turned into my primary business leaving little time for engine builds. I have also gotten into selling the CNC machines complete with fixtures to do the installs correctly for those shops that are interested in doing their own work.

Send me a PM or e-mail and I will get back to you on price.

Steve Demirjian
Race Engine Development

 

One day you will learn grass hoppa.