• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

pistons and sleeves

Share this page

S

sp53

Yoda
Country flag
Offline
Hello tr3 people, I have a question on pistons and sleeves. I am working on a 1961 tr3 project car and I am trying to be economical, and plus get the most bang for my buck, (good quality) demonstrating my Scottish heritage. Anyways, I am wondering would it be best to take a set of 83mm sleeves and bore them out to say 86 or 87 mm. After that get a good set of good used 86 or 87mm pistons and put that together. I can get the stuff used for 100 bucks, and the machining should be about 75.00. The rings are what 50.00? Or just purchase the 87 mm piston and sleeve kit. In other words, are the pistons and sleeve kits of good quality? My past experience has shown me that some of the after market stuff is of inferior quality.

George
 
You are right to be concerned about aftermarket piston and liner sets. Some are first rate, others not. I just bought a set of Mahle 87mm piston and liners for my TR3 project from the Roadster Factory that was on sale for $650. A lot of money, but I wanted the most displacement available without machining the block. Victoria British has 87mm sets for around $500, but they don't say what brand they are.

I think the biggest problem you will encounter is carefully measuring the used piston set, as the Mahle set that I got is actually 87.02mm, and I see that VicBrit has 87.04 pistons available. The machine shop you use should have the pistons in hand in order to get proper fit on the liners. Then, you have to track down the right size rings to fit.

All of this proved to be too much of a hassle for me, so I opted for a matched set. Keep your eye out on ebay, because I've seen new piston and liner sets crop up there very often...most of them 86mm.
 
Hi George,

There are some less-than-great sleeve and piston sets out there. And, there are some that are sometimes good, sometimes not so good.

If at all possible, I'd suggest trying to find a nice, new set of AE Hepolite brand 87mm pistons and sleeves. These seem to be consistently good and are priced somewhere in the middle: a little more than the riskier sets, a lot less the custom made, "bulletproof" sets.

The rings that come with AE's are known to bed in a bit slowly. Racers who need their motor to break in quickly, will switch to other rings as a result. However, for a street car, the slower bedding rings will most likely give long, long service.

By the way, I've got a fair bit of the Scot in me, too, but opted for a set of new sleeves and pistons rather than buy someone else's problems. It's true that you *might* be able to save $200 or $300 and pick up a good, matched set used. But, I've seen too many obviously damaged sleeves and pistons, would worry about what might be hidden that I can't see. The cost of magnafluxing all the parts to insure they are sound would be greater than just buying a new set.

Skipping expensive testing like that, the risk of a problem goes up dramatically. And, it would likely be even more expensive to find out some bad news after the motor is back in the car and have to do the job over again!

Just my opinion!
 
Hi George,
I pretty much concur with the previous responders. I would say that after 30 years of dealing with these engines including racing that you can trust boring out old liners. If they look OK on a visual inspection ie clean surfaces on the o-ring and head gaskets fit and no obvious cracks they'll machine just fine. I think a consideration these days is if they are 86mm liners they do not withstand the same abuse knocking them out of the block as an 83mm would if someone doesn't have the proper puller. Hepolites are an excellent cast piston and worked just fine in the race car for years and I very recently picked up a new set on ebay for $220 (about average). Mahles are good and so are Repcos (though they're a bit on the heavy side). Good luck on your project.
 
George bored sleeves are a great idea, but get your used pistolas first so the machane shop can fit them....correctly. In the bad old days we would take our old liners out ,turn them 90degres, and drop them back down on new fig 8's. This reduced the piston slap and would let you go maybe 10k before the rings went south again. by then the cylinder was ovaled both directions and with shade tree honing could go .010 over!!!!(WE BLEW UP OFTEN)but it was "cheap"
MD(mad dog)
 
Back
Top