Old pro stock question

[The Iron Icon]

So i was just going thru old articles and posts on speedtalk. Ran across one talking about putting way oversized sleeves in 302 and 351c and brazing them in. Couldn't tell by pictures but looking at the ford blocks i have would you not bore into the side of the main saddle if you did this? Making a weak point weaker? I know the sleeves probably wouldn't last long but the main saddle thing definitely surprises me if they were part of removal.

[Stan Weiss]

So i was just going thru old articles and posts on speedtalk. Ran across one talking about putting way oversized sleeves in 302 and 351c and brazing them in. Couldn't tell by pictures but looking at the ford blocks i have would you not bore into the side of the main saddle if you did this? Making a weak point weaker? I know the sleeves probably wouldn't last long but the main saddle thing definitely surprises me if they were part of removal.

Phil
You have to remember it was a different world back then. There were no after market blocks or heads. While I never saw one of the Ford blocks a friend had a 426 Hemi that that had been done to. Basically the cylinder is bore out and very little is left to hold the sleeve. Then the sleeve is furnace brazed into the block.

You want to see something else interesting lookup Booth & Aaron's AMC Pro Stock heads.

Stan

[peejay]

You want to see something else interesting lookup Booth & Aaron's AMC Pro Stock heads.

Stan

Are those the ones that are two heads stacked on each other, with inches-thick amounts of epoxy to fill the bottom of the ports?

At least the brazed up 351C blocks had to last five hundred miles at a time! Jeez, we have it easy nowadays.

[Steve.k]

Phil the p/s cleveland racers installed a .250 sleeve and I beleive they left a ledge at bottom of cylinder to sit on. The block had to be heated to near molten status when sleeves installed and then left to cool. This would distort all of the machined surfaces so the entire block re-machined to spec. At the time I've heard costs near 3000us which for the time very expensive. I beleive most of these were for the bigger cube match race motors. Jon is on here he may have done some of these with Dyno Don.I bought p/s cleveland parts from a guy in Florida who was friends with Dyno, he said he couldn't afford the furnace brazing just ran new blocks from Ford. He had no issues with ford blocks then.

[Brian W]

I have a friend who did this in the late 70's. built a 327 Cleveland. Due to weight/per ci. They bored out block and he said you could put your hand in front cyl and take it all the way to the rear cyl and not touch cyl wall... They installed John deere sleeves and furnace brazed them in block. They also fitted a chevy 3.250 stroke crank in the block because there was not any aftermarket cranks available.

[Steve.k]

Brian its very interesting the ingenuity these guys had. No dyno sim, computerized cam graphics nothing. Spinning those cast iron small engines past 10,000 rpm and running mid to low 8's. True pioneers in racing to say least.