Is it possible to completely sleeve (on all 8 cylinders) a 455 or is it not recommended? How much cilinderwall do you need at least to safely put a sleeve in? Good cores are hard to find here in Europe and I have one core with 0.040" over, that could be saved if I can put sleeves in. The other core has bad lifterbores and the third core that I have has bad core shift with paper thin lifterbores, but still has the original bores. There are some complete blocks available, but they ask $1750 for a questional block, that needs rebuild.
Found these threads, I suggest you PM Jim Weise and ask. I'm sure he would say just find a good block, but in your situation, that may not be an option. https://www.v8buick.com/index.php?threads/sleeving-a-buick-455.242641/#post-1983090 https://www.v8buick.com/index.php?threads/sleeving-a-455-block.25539/#post-182561
Decades ago, my automotive machine instructor said sleeving all the bores on a block is a not a bad idea. Of course cost and availability plays into it and your situation warrants it if your machinist is good. His reasoning was that that the sleeve material is usually a better grade of cast iron and improves ring seal. Also if done properly, with a torque plate to locate sleeve bores, all core shift is eliminated and depending on sleeves can actually increase wall thickness. Increasing strength of the block would be a by product as well.
It is possible but expensive. Also, the block will need to be decked after therefore if it is the original block you will lose the numbers and code.
On that .040" over block How much of a increased Bore size does it need to clean up? If it' only needs like .010" over and some bores would have thin area then those bores might be able to be offset bored and then you get custom pistion and rings. This would save that block and be far less expensive then slamming in 6 to 8 sleeves, which by the way I would never do to any factory block unless it was to live its new life with nothing more then a 2 bbl on it.
Keep n mind, intalling a sleeve will distort the bore of the cylinder next to it. I would do every other bore first. Then when done sleeving use same torque plate to re center bores in correct location. Starting with a smaller ID than what is needed when finish would allow a light bore cut to straighten out bores. I realize a Buick torque plate could be even harder to find over seas.
Every time a sleeve is crammed into a typical automotive block, the deck surface and the block in general becomes less strong. The cylinder wall may be better than the original iron, but the block as a whole suffers. Installing two sleeves on a bank wouldn't bother me too much as long as they're not sequential. All four...nope. Find another block, or sonic-test and hope for enough cylinder wall to bore again. Custom pistons may be required...but good luck getting a block with enough cylinder wall thickness.
Thanks for the replies, I discussed this with my machinist and he told me not to do this. After a lot of searching I found a decent block with original bores that I going to use. I found out that the lifterbores on this block are at 0,003" so I need to find a solution for that. This block has little core shift but the liftergalleries are on the thin side.
