• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Sleeves?

Share this page

B

Bob Buxbaum

Jedi Hopeful
Offline
I will now reinforce the notion that I'm nearly clueless about the 1500 engine.

Some parts suppliers list cylinder sleeves for the 1500 block. So, since I do not know, I will ask --- are the 1500 blocks sleeved from the factory, or are these listed parts replacements (inserts) to bring a block back into specs? I do a LOT of work on cast iron block 6 cylinder BMW engines, and if one cylinder is out of spec and the others are are okay, sleeving one hole costs about $60-70 parts and labor vs boring the block and spending big money ($700ish minimum) for a set of pistons.
 
Actually not looking for new hardware --- YET. The car is a genuine 15,000 car. The issue I am having is how ALL of the coolant wound up in the crankcase. The head has been pressure checked and is okay. The block will be pressure checked Monday or Tuesday. When I pulled apart the engine, the head was VERY secure to the head gasket, and the head gasket was quite stuck to the block. Close inspection revealed no obvious tracks over or under the gasket to indicate that the coolant got into the sump that way. I have resolved head gasket issues on my GT6 and TR8, but the failures were to combustion chambers. Not so on this 1500 cc engine. Also, I have a lot of engine experience with E30, E36, and E46 BMW 6 cylinders as well as GM engines. NEVER seen anything like this. There was almost 3 gallons of gray goo that drained from the sump. and there was ABSOLUTELY no coolant in ANY of the cooling system of heater core. Also, the car was ALWAYS garaged. NEVER left outside. I am simply trying eliminate potential places that coolant could move to the oil pan.
 
Bob, guessing you did not see the PM reply regarding this. The answer is yes.

Bob Buxbaum said:
I will now reinforce the notion that I'm nearly clueless about the 1500 engine.

Some parts suppliers list cylinder sleeves for the 1500 block. So, since I do not know, I will ask --- are the 1500 blocks sleeved from the factory, or are these listed parts replacements (inserts) to bring a block back into specs? I do a LOT of work on cast iron block 6 cylinder BMW engines, and if one cylinder is out of spec and the others are are okay, sleeving one hole costs about $60-70 parts and labor vs boring the block and spending big money ($700ish minimum) for a set of pistons.
Click to expand...
 
Gerald, I did. And it seemed to say they MAY be sleeved. Maybe I read it wrong. If this a sleeved block, and if a sleeve is leaking, the upcoming pressure test of the block will reveal any problems. IF there are sleeves, and IF any are leaking, then I will be challenged as how to resolve it !!!!

I may drive to the machine shop to look at the bare block again.
 
Bob, My name is GeraRd, not GeraLd.


Bob Buxbaum said:
Gerald, I did. And it seemed to say they MAY be sleeved. Maybe I read it wrong. If this a sleeved block, and if a sleeve is leaking, the upcoming pressure test of the block will reveal any problems. IF there are sleeves, and IF any are leaking, then I will be challenged as how to resolve it !!!!

I may drive to the machine shop to look at the bare block again.
Click to expand...
 
Gerard, Bob, 1500's aren't sleeved are they? I have had mine stripped down completely and have no recollection of this.
 
Bob Buxbaum said:
I certainly do not know !!!
Click to expand...

True. :grin:

I am certain they are not sleeved - For your task, and for a 15k car you shouldn't have to do more than hone and re-ring. In a worst case scenario 10 thou over (you might do 20 just for fun) BUT when I did mine - I freshened the engine - all was in spec so I just re-ringed and it was many more miles than 15k.

you should be good to with a bit of cleaning up.
 
I'm not a 1500 guy but it sure seemed to me that they were sleeved. Bob, where is the block? Should be obvious if they were sleeved from the factory.
 
There is an outfit called Noland's Cylinder Head Service in downtown KC, Mo. They are absolutely best shop for head work in the region and THE absolute "go to" for aluminum heads. In this case I took the head, block, and misc parts to them to run through their ultrasonic cleaning tank. The head has been pressure tested and passed. He will be testing the block today or tomorrow. The head will be fully serviced as well. If the block is leaking, he will know where, and then I have to see how that can be resolved. If not, then clearly the head gasket had to be leaking and simply was not something that could be seen.

As for the rebuild, the crank has been polished and measured out just fine. The pistons are are in spec, but there is enough scratching that I will be replacing then and simply running a dingleberry hone through the bores. Cam is fine. I will be pulling apart the rocker assembly today.
 
I wouldn't say that they are all sleeved, but I know that when it came to A-series engines, blocks would be sleeved if there were imperfections or not within tolerance issues. I'm not near as familiar with 1500 engines, but it stands to reason that the same circumstance would exist with the 1500 blocks. What I can provide as circumstantial evidence is what is in the post linked below. I would assume that the information is reliable given the experience of the poster.

https://www.mgexp.com/phorum/read.php?3,2410602

What I had suggested to Bob is that lacking any evidence of a cracked head or block, that checking to see if the block was sleeved. I think with the 1500 higher cooling system pressure, that a breach in a sleeve is a potential source for the coolant leak.
 
Back
Top