New cylinder sleeve, bore after install?

[Countrytour]

I have a 1950 C that I had to replace the engine. The replacment is a 1952 super C that has a large groove in cyl 3. The only replacment sleeve I can find is a stock 3.125 bore but the engine has replacment Zollner 3.1875 pistons, so I have to bore the new sleeve out. Is there any way I can bore out the sleeve before I install it in the tractor? A few machine shops say it needs to be installed before boring because of distortion. If the engine was stock size, would the sleeves need to be bore checked after install for stock pistons? Or is it a drop in and go if it were stock?

[ricky racer]

The machine shop will need to decide about how the boring should be done. As far as dropping in replacement cylinder sleeves, you should never assume everything is correct when you're working with tight tolerances. The new sleeves should be fine but it can get expensive if you just assume everything is within spec and just put it together.
Would it be cheaper to replace all the sleeves and pistons than having a machine shop bore out one sleeve?

[ricky racer]

Another option might be, have a machine shop bore it close to the final size then hone to size after it's been installed in the block. With a proper hone, honing can be very accurately done. I don't know if you can rent a hone like this one locally or not but it would be worth checking.

[Jim Becker]

. . . A few machine shops say it needs to be installed before boring because of distortion. . . .

That is probably a legitimate concern for a dry sleeve engine. Yours is a wet sleeve design and I can't see any risk.

[SamsFarm]

Well if you buy a new sleeve and piston kit, they are made to spec, no machineing required.

So if you have that sleeve bored and honed to spec while it is out, it would be install and go, just like what I mentioned above!