The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop speedi sleeve questions

About to install speedi sleeves on crankshaft rear main seal area and harmonic balancer. Those areas currently are good condition without deep pits. Just want to be sure because whatever tiny pits are there will only get worse over time.

1. Instructions say adhesive is not needed but to "apply a light layer of a non-hardening sealant to the inside diameter of the sleeve." To me that means RTV, but I've also read that some use red locktite. Just wondering the rationale for one versus other.

2. Also need a better idea of where the seal will ride on the harmonic balancer. As shown in pic, the sleeve isn't long enough to cover the full length of balancer shaft. Will it ride more on the area marked A or B?

Hmmm...the ones I've used have been inwardly lipped at the end so they'd bottom at the open end of the balancer shaft there (as in images below). That puts the sealing surface where the groove has been worn in the balancer shaft. I just applied some threadlocker (think I used red) and gently installed mine with a piece of wood and a small hammer. I've got an extra. Want me to send it to you?

The sleeve just needs to cover the groove (between A and B in your picture that was caused by the seal.) It should have come with a cup to drive it on. IIRC with the balancer sleeve, you just use the cup to drive it as far as it will go, then remove the cup and if you want to, break the flange off the end of the sleeve. Non-hardening sealant would be like Permatex No. 2 gasket sealer. Link It just fills any voids that might be in the part under the sleeve so oil can't sneak between it and the sleeve.

If you're willing to send it I'd very much appreciate it. Do you still have my address? Looks a bit longer than mine and would eliminate guesswork when it bottoms out. Mine is a National brand with cup to install. The main seal sleeve is SKF.

Since these are the first I've done there's an extremely remote chance I could mess one up.

Interesting, the gap between A and B does not look like it was caused by a seal. It looks more like it was made that way.

Closer look.

That's a wear groove, for sure.
On your pic of the sleeve, notice that slight groove near the flanged end? That's so you can break the flange off after installation.

A another option is to get it metallized, I worked at a large CAT dealer and metallized U joint yokes on a regular basis. They never used speedi sleeves because they would hold up. They tend to heat up and fail.

I do...same as where I sent the other package a while back? I'll put it in the tender hands of the USPS this afternoon. If you need a tracking number, please send me a PM and I'll reply with it.

Yes Jon same addy. No tracking needed. Thanks very much.

Unless set up to do metallizing, it would be expensive. A speedi sleeve should work fine for the service on a Stovebolt engine. Not that much heat involved.

One thing to take into consideration, if the new seal will ride where the old one was causing the groove then go ahead and position the sleeve at that spot. If the new seal is more shallow or more deep than the original then you want to position the sleeve where it will allow the lip to ride on the sleeve.

Showing my ignorance here ...

... and I am a GMC guy, not Chevy, but ...

How does one install a Speedi Sleeve at the rear main "on crankshaft rear main seal area" as OP Skooter says at the top of this thread? Seems to me that it would be hard to get it by the flywheel flange at the rear of the crank. Picture below is from 1929-54 Chevy Master Parts Catalog.

Bill on the GMC I don't believe you can install one...the design is all wrong as the sealing surface for the GMC is down on the shaft (before where it meets the flange) and in the Chevrolet it is up on the flange itself so the seal for the Chevy is longer and just different. I think on the GMC all you could do would be to have that area of the crankshaft polished. But fortunately the GMC does have an oil slinger (which I have felt for a long time the 235 needed). Jerry (HotRodLincoln) has built a jig to allow the Chevy block to be machined to accept a one-piece seal using a portable boring bar approach and we've been discussing other ideas about how this same procedure could be turned into a drill press approach. The problem is you can't find those old seals made with asbestos so easily anymore. Since the late 70s they've been banned.

On the GMC I've not figured out how to use a one-piece seal, though. You'd have to remove the flange and machine it so that it would attach back using bolts and dowel pins and man...that would be a lot of work and $$$.

So in the Chevy drawing I attached above the seal rides on the OD of the flange that the flywheel attaches to???

Yes, it does. And in the 235 around late 1955 or early 1956 a neoprene (may not really have been neoprene...could have been viton or some other similar compound) 2 piece seal was designed to replace/improve the rope seal. But interestingly it wasn't used by Detroit exclusively. It appeared in some engines but in others the old rope seal was used.

On the GMC crank with the wider flywheel flange, a machine shop with a submerged arc welder can build up the seal surface and regrind it back smooth and the right diameter so it doesn't damage a seal. A few automotive machine shops still do that type of work, but they're getting scarce. The closest one to me that I know of is about 100 miles north, and it's run by an old geezer in his late 70's. Jon, both the shell end mills we discussed have arrived- - - -now I need to find someone to sharpen them to the right configuration for the stovebolt block modification procedure. One of them can also be used to narrow the thrust bearing web on a 216 to use late model 235 main bearings as well as rough out the lip seal counterbore with the same tooling as the drill press seal method.
Jerry

Sounds good Jerry. I’m very interested to hear how that goes for you.

Skooter You know I think my local crankshaft grinder guy could weld that and regrind it. He does sbc mains in between counter weights all the time. That should be easy,just a thought.

Appreciate the suggestions. Got main sleeve installed this morning. Gonna give sealant a good day or two before trimming flush at flywheel flange. As sleeves go, a longer narrower one would self-straighten as it goes, but this one required some attention to that detail because it's so wide. Was able to get a good look from all angles and in the end it's nice and straight and I'm satisfied it'll work great, as intended.

Is that cup/cap on the right in the first photo the tool that's used to drive it into place?

Yes

Great! That will give you the right size and right surface for that area. Thanks for the images.