How thin a sleeve will get

[Nedd]

Working on the SO and my homemade sleeve puller couldnt
quite cut it. Sleeves stuck in there since 1945. Got a hydraulic
jack and chain around the block to help try to press them out.
No good. Had to take block off and hit with hammer to jar the
rust off. What a pain. I dont think Ive ever removed so much
rust from a block. The back sleeve has rusted to about 1/16-
1/8 inch thickness in a spot. I think the rust was actually
pushing the sleeve out-of-round because it was scratching the
piston in that spot.

The sleeve orings were so hard a square, its hard to believe
they were round once. Ill post again when I get it more
together

 

[fixerupper]

They can be a bugger. The sleeve O rings in my SC started leaking ten years ago or maybe a little longer. The sleeves were tough to get out and like you there was a gallon of rust in the block. I put new O rings on the sleeves and stuck them back in using JB weld to fill and smooth out some pits. I just cleaned up the head and bolted it back on. I was a little unsure about the O rings sealing so I poured plain water back in the tractor for the rest of the summer. All was fine but old dummy here forgot to drain the water that fall. The next spring I experienced the joy of laying the tractor on it's side and welding a broken block. The weld held OK but I will not make that mistake again.