I love thread revivals lol, is there any real longevity bonus to running sleeves or barebacking it out as far as the waterjacket o-rings are concerned? i would think so... this makes me curious on material choice as well. Is inconel worth the price over titanium, both are by no means cheap metals. Feedback would be wonderful if anyone is still around from this convo

 

The only person I know of that has these sleeves is thewird. He used them on his turbo 20B track car. Shoot him a PM and let him know of this thread again.

 

if you're having issues with the standard inconel sleeves then i'm fairly certain titanium will give you even more headaches.

why would you think titanium would be a good choice of material in this application? its lightweight benefits are going to be marginal at best. titanium is not the strongest material, it is one of the most durable for it's weight but not for overall properties.

the sleeves usually only have bending and blockage issues if the pins holding them in place become loose which allows the sleeve to pivot up and into the exhaust stream which then compromises them. almost no material known on the planet will survive that scenario and amount of pressure/heat involved. when they sit in the proper position the flames travel over the surface and the material remains rather cool. the port design is actually made for the purpose that the flame has a buffer area as it expands in pretty much the same way that the sleeve is shaped.

if you need more port area than the sleeve can provide you should just eliminate the sleeve completely and weld up the port air holes in the housings.