Pinning Cylinder Sleeves while motor still in car

[Justinb]

I've got that annoying tick in my 4.2L V8 from the cylinder sleeves moving around. I've done my research and believe that pinning them to the block should resolve my problem.

Question is: Has anyone ever done this while in an MGB? Would I need to drop the front cross member to get to the #1 cylinder to do this?

Thanks!
Justin

[tdecell]

I saw this previously, good article....
http://www.landroverresource.com/docs/Pinning_V8_Liner.pdf

[NCtim]

Thanks for this. I think this is an easy fix for the ticking.

Tim

[MGBV8]

Can't imagine there is room to work with the engine still in the car!

[BlownMGB-V8]

I'd be a little concerned about getting the sleeve up against the head gasket well enough to get a good seal. Doesn't seem like combustion gasses trying to go between the sleeve and the block would be a good thing at all.

Jim

[mgb260]

I originally posted a while back on pinning the sleeves. I agree with Carl and Jim B. First there is no room to work in the car and if the sleeve is moving and hammering the head gasket you should pull the heads and change the head gaskets first before pinning. I would put the motor on an engine stand for the work. If you look at the top of the sleeve there is a chamfer and it doesn't touch the fire ring. Bad design. It should be flat. The problem in my opinion is when the engine overheats and the aluminum block expands and then contracts the sleeves lets go. There are tabs on the bottom of the cylinder to hold the sleeve but nothing on top. Once loose, the rings grab the sleeve and move it up and down, that is the tapping noise you hear.

[Justinb]

Good discussion!

I realize and embrace that the proper procedure would be to rebuild the motor with the flanged liners and all that, but I'm not willing to go that far. I'll drive it until there is a catastrophic motor failure and then decide what to do from there.

So far I've gone around 5 years with the problem and it hasn't gotten better or worse, so I'm willing to invest a day and $40.00 in parts to try this out. Not much more than that though.

I wonder if I could pull the front cross member and engine mounts, and 'lower' the engine enough to do this?

Thanks for all the input!