I dropped my piston kit and cylinder block off at the local machine shop for bore/hone. A few days later the machinist calls and says that he doesn’t recommend proceeding because the cylinder sleeve wall thickness will be too thin (citing potential overheating and/or reliability issues). He’s recommending re-sleeving with larger O.D. sleeves.
I don’t think I’ve heard of this being necessary. Is my machinist just being over cautious?
Just looking for a show of hands… how many of you have run this kit using stock sleeves, and any reliability issues encountered?
Additional details:
I’m using a KZ700 cylinder block, because I wanted the beveled fins to match the GPZ750 head that I’m using, and it was the nicest block I found on eBay. I'm not sure this is relevant because the sleeve outer diameter is the same as my original KZ750 block, but worth mentioning.
The machinist is not a motorcycle specialist… rather it’s the machine shop at my local NAPA. I called around a few moto service shops in my small town, and that’s who was recommended. He’s quite busy and seems competent, lots of automotive jobs but a motorcycle specialist he’s not.
The machinist did not touch the bores, just made preliminary measurements, so not hiding anything. He said that he called Wiseco to ask about the wall thickness issue, and was told that Wiseco used to sell an “optional” sleeve kit but no longer does. They provided a part number, and the name of the company that manufactured them for Wiseco (LA Sleeve). I called LA, and they confirmed the number/application, but they told me that the sleeve OD was the same as stock but could make custom sleeves for a pretty penny.
I called another sleeve manufacturer that Wiseco had mentioned (Advanced Sleeve), and they said they could make custom sleeves for $75 ea (much more reasonable).