Can you sleeve a duramax

Increased counterweight angles, diameters, and thickness make it the easiest crankshaft to balance, a timing gear keyway eliminates the factory dowel pins which are known to shear off , and rod journal width is reduced for improved strength. The crankshaft itself is machined from triple heat treated V steel, and custom strokes are available. To tie all of the main bearing caps together and add more block stiffness, main bearing girdle kits are available from both SoCal Diesel and Industrial Injection.

The one shown is produced by Industrial Injection, and includes a girdle, modified lower crankcase and baffle assembly, and ARP main studs, washers, and nuts. Used in most high-end, high-horsepower Duramax builds these days are billet main caps. The factory cast units are known to slowly collapse when subjected to extreme stress, which takes out the main bearings and eventually the crankshaft.

These billet caps come from Empire Performance Engineering and are made from aircraft quality steel. The most popular aftermarket connecting rod for the Duramax is the forged steel H-beam unit from Carrillo.

At roughly 1, grams apiece and capable of handling 2, horsepower, they are said to be the lightest even lighter than stock and strongest rods on the market. For street-built Duramax mills, Mahle essentially owns the market. Engine work and sleeve installation from AR Fabrication comes with a 1-year warranty. Photo courtesy of AR Fabrication. This is an example of a sleeve being machined. The clearances need to be correct for each individual sleeve.

But with diamonds and CBN technology and a lot of work on our part to get it right we can keep the cylinders within a tenth or two and not have any issues. Just as new technology can play a big part in being precise, so too can the material of the sleeves being used. You cannot bore out as much material at one time as you would with cast iron or aluminum blocks. Speeds and feeds need to be adjusted when using ductile iron.

You cannot install a sleeve that exceeds , tensile strength the way you would a sleeve that is only 30, tensile. This Mitsubishi 4B11 block is being honed for sleeve installation. Aluminum blocks like these benefit from sleeves for higher horsepower capability.

What this all boils down to is the importance of being accurate. According to Boyle, making sure your diameters are true and your ledges are perpendicular is crucial to being accurate. Since accuracy is key when sleeving, many engines require the use of a stress plate to accurately measure the diameter and roundness of the cylinder. Measuring the cylinders of these engines without the stress plate can give false readings. The biggest concern for these folks is having the sleeves stay in place.

The first and foremost issue is the way sleeves are installed. The sleeve has either a step or a register and the installer will ultimately take a mallet or a hammer and hit the top of the sleeve to force it all the way down.

Size Matters Gasoline engines had dominated the fullsize pickup class, so General Motors' goal was to design a diesel engine that would take up no more space than the gasoline engine it would replace as an option. Because a diesel requires additional equipment-such as a turbocharger, injection pump, and intercooler-this needed to be acknowledged during the early stages of development. Due to this requirement, the architecture of the engine would include the following: the turbocharger, fuel-injection pump, and fuel rails that would be installed in the valley of the engine block for a smaller engine profile.

The oil cooler was directly attached to the left side of the cylinder block. Coolant would be distributed to the left and right banks through a water passage in the flywheel housing. This simplified the coolant piping and would also increase reliability by facilitating even temperatures for both sides of the engine. Auxiliary equipment-such as the air conditioner compressor, the power-steering pump, and the alternator-would be driven by one serpentine belt.

The mounting brackets for the accessories would be located on the front surface of the engine for ease of in-field service and assembly plant installation. Engine Block The rigidity of the cylinder block was a concern not only for durability but for noise suppression as well. This was accomplished with a deep-skirt cylinder block structure and by connecting the bearing caps to the lower part of the block with side bolts, in addition to the two main bolts.

The Duramax block is manufactured from a special gray iron alloy. The upper portion of the block is a closed-type and has a structure designed for minimal deformation at the high combustion pressure of a diesel engine. Another goal was to decrease the lower portion of the engine's width. Minimizing bore distortion was important for maintaining the piston rings' sealing performance and to ward off engine seizure.

This was done by evenly positioning six cylinder-head bolts around each bore by evenly distributing coolant around each independent cylinder and arranging cooling water holes on the cylinder-head deck surface.

The six head bolts around each cylinder also help the gasket withstand the high in-cylinder pressure of a direct-injection, turbocharged engine. The upper portion of the linerless cylinder bore is induction hardened to reduce wear.

Cylinder Heads The cylinder head is made of gravity-cast aluminum and has a four-valve design for good volumetric efficiency and blowdown during the exhaust cycle. The fuel injector is located in the center of the combustion chamber along the cylinder line. A stainless sleeve is pressed into the cylinder head, and the fuel injector is inserted in it.

The arrangement of the valves is categorized as a "twist type. Adequate and even cooling of the valve seats greatly contributes to minimizing any change in the valve lash.

There is a large space between the valve seats that uses the cooling ability of aluminum to reduce the heat deformation. We do not try and repair blocks with "spun" main bearings. This is the latest technology in surfacing cast iron.

To ensure proper gasket sealing we check all surfaces with a profilometer, a device used to check surface finish to ensure gasket life and efficiency. We do not use head gasket "shims" to correct block height errors. Crankshafts are heat treated in our thermal convection oven, which is better and easier on the casting than the standard production rebuilder's thermal oven, shot peened to relieve casting stresses, and machined a maximum of.

Our crankshafts are then balanced in a Stewart Warner digital balancer. No welded crankshaft journals! No rear seal " speedie " sleeves, which will leak over time! Connecting rods are also heat treated, shot peened and machined to OEM specifications. This is part of a blueprinting process. We do not try to recondition rods with "spun" bearings.