Ductile iron or gray iron for cylinders

LA sleeve provides ductile iron for cylinder sleeves. Axtell supplies ductile iron cylinders for Harleys. Grey iron is OK for the street but its soft and wears out too quickly on a race bike with a high HP high RPM motor. Ductile iron has a higher tensile strength than gray iron and is generally a harder longer lasting material. And if you want a high milage street bike you might want ductile iron sleeves or the Bore tech carbide treatment for cylinders. Personally I still use the grey cast iron liners that came installed in the Alum cylinders on my street bike and have no wear problems (50% Amsoil helps). But Ductile sleeves are available from LA sleeve and provide a better option for those who want a more reliable Norton. Its worth considering.

Some info at:

http://www.powerboresleeves.com/ductile.html

Would this cylinder be a candidate for resleeving? Undamage cylinder appears to be on standard bore but worn.

A sleeved 750 cylinder will break, usually near the bottom flange but some will develop cracks between the fins halfway up the bore.

Un damaged?

htown16 said:

Would this cylinder be a candidate for resleeving? Undamage cylinder appears to be on standard bore but worn.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, Jim.

Undamaged being the left cylinder of course. :roll:

You can only re-sleeve 850 cylinders or aluminum cylinders.

But . . . . you could bore out the "sleeves" of a stock cylinder block and then press/freeze sleeves into it, right?

john robert bould said:

Un damaged?

htown16 said:

Would this cylinder be a candidate for resleeving? Undamage cylinder appears to be on standard bore but worn.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I seized a piston in my Atlas and broke out a piece of the cylinder flange as in this picture. It was repaired by a technique called "metal spraying", then bored 0.020 over. I do not remember the type of metalworking shop that did it, but it has been in place for about 50K miles. It is definitely an alternative, and less expensive, to re-lining. Try Google-ing it.

Slick

xbacksideslider said:

But . . . . you could bore out the "sleeves" of a stock cylinder block and then press/freeze sleeves into it, right?

Click to expand...

As long as it's an 850 or an aluminum cylinder it is a good candidate for sleeves.

A 750 cylinder is very thin in places and if you bore it for a sleeve then the chances of it cracking are very high.

Spray welding is an option -if you can find the right person to do it. Jim

the stock cylinders do NOT have sleeves. it is a one piece casting.

xbacksideslider said:

But . . . . you could bore out the "sleeves" of a stock cylinder block and then press/freeze sleeves into it, right?

Click to expand...