MID Sleeving 5.4

What are the pros and cons of using wet sleeves (MID) in the 2011-12 5.4 aluminum block?

Biggest recommendation is to go with experienced shops that are known to have success with high hp modular builds. Livernois, L&M, MPR, BES are just a few with proven results with sleeved blocks. I’m not confident in discussion of sleeve specifics but going with a shop known to build them surely would! If you can’t get a good feeling with a shop I’d personally be calling a few others. Let us know what you find
-J

I've got my block at Livernois right now. I ordered a set of sleeves for it, tgat I thought were dry. But they turned out to be Darton MID wet sleeves.
Livernois just called to confirm that I wanted them to install these sleeves, as they would be fairly expensive to do...

I knew a con was cost, but I'm not sure if they're any better than a dry sleeve. But, it may be the only option if you have a damaged cylinder.

It's about twice the price to install these over the dry sleeves.
Pros, from what I've read:
They can correct core shift from the original casting and you are able to increase bore size and still have meaty cylinder walls. The iron sleeves surrounded by coolant, can expand at their own rate. Not the same with dry sleeves - two dissimilar metals reacting to heat, before reaching the coolant.

Con is cost and finding a competent shop to install...

Has Livernois done this wet sleeve before? They are an experienced shop but if it's their first, might need to consider an alternative.
What made you choose these over their standard dry sleeve? Can they be exchanged?
I'm sure Livernois can figure it out, but I like to have the shop I'm working with pick their preferred method for the power/build goals.
Are you local? I'm 35-40 minutes from them and they've built a 427 W for me in the past.
Good luck!
-J

I know when I asked L & M to install M.I.D.I Darton wet sleeve system on my 3V block, they told me to send directly to Darton to be installed. Not a cheap deal to be sure.

I’m sure the install cost is significantly higher than dry sleeves. You should shoot @rotor_powerd a PM. He just wet sleeved a 5.4 last winter and could fill you in on the details.

We sleeve the 5.4L aluminum GT500 blocks for some of our Cobra Jet builds. It allows us to go up to +.080" over bore as per NHRA allowed spec and gives you more core stability. It is about finding the right shop to handle the work. We use a local Machine shop who has done many for us.

Some photos of a 4.6L with dry sleeves we recently had done...

JimIII@jdm said:

We wet sleeve the 5.4L aluminum GT500 blocks for some of our Cobra Jet builds. It allows us to go up to +.080" over bore as per NHRA allowed spec and gives you more core stability. It is about finding the right shop to handle the work. We use a local Machine shop who has done many for us.

Some photos of a 4.6L we recently had done...

Click to expand...

Jim, is that the Darton MIDI wet sleeve on the 4.6?

They are LA sleeves

biminiLX said:

Has Livernois done this wet sleeve before? They are an experienced shop but if it's their first, might need to consider an alternative.
What made you choose these over their standard dry sleeve? Can they be exchanged?
I'm sure Livernois can figure it out, but I like to have the shop I'm working with pick their preferred method for the power/build goals.
Are you local? I'm 35-40 minutes from them and they've built a 427 W for me in the past.
Good luck!
-J

Click to expand...

I took the Darton part number listed in the Hotrod article about sleeving the 11-12 GT500 and ordered. The article was showing the installation of dry sleeves.
I think I could return them, but I haven't made up my mind yet.... lol
I wrote Darton to see if they had a recommended installer in the Detroit area.
I'm in London, Canada. About 2 hours from their shop. Where are you?

JimIII@jdm said:

They are LA sleeves

Click to expand...

Jim, do you go .080 over on the dry sleeve?
Without doing the math (lol) What displacement does that overbore give you?
Given the overbore potential of MID sleeves, is there an ideal bore size for the 5.4 with GT heads (to unshroud the valves etc)?

JimIII@jdm said:

They are LA sleeves

Click to expand...

Jim, the Darton wet sleeve appears to be more involved machining/installation wise, have you worked with this system at all? Any thoughts? Thanks.

I see they offer this for the GT500 guys also.

Weather Man said:

Jim, the Darton wet sleeve appears to be more involved machining/installation wise, have you worked with this system at all? Any thoughts? Thanks.

I see they offer this for the GT500 guys also.

View attachment 1495813

Click to expand...

No we have only used the LA sleeves and Ford Performance sleeves that were used in the Cammer engines.

Seeing the machine work required for those wet sleeves makes me queasy... I would try to sell em and get dry sleeves unless youre up for a project and have the cash for the machining.

OP, if Mike at L&M says send it to Darton for installation, I would think twice before letting your local machine shop take a wack at it. For what it is worth, when I contacted Steve at Darton, the quote included: vibratory stress relief of the block, decking, and boring within honing range.

Paul Dube said:

Jim, do you go .080 over on the dry sleeve?
Without doing the math (lol) What displacement does that overbore give you?
Given the overbore potential of MID sleeves, is there an ideal bore size for the 5.4 with GT heads (to unshroud the valves etc)?

Click to expand...

We do dry usually and typically it's adding 15 cu in at .080" over and stock stroke.

Paul Dube said:

I took the Darton part number listed in the Hotrod article about sleeving the 11-12 GT500 and ordered. The article was showing the installation of dry sleeves.
I think I could return them, but I haven't made up my mind yet.... lol
I wrote Darton to see if they had a recommended installer in the Detroit area.
I'm in London, Canada. About 2 hours from their shop. Where are you?

Click to expand...

Are you referencing the magazine article where they sleeved Jay T '1320 Junkie''s '12 block? He's on this site but I thought it was Car Craft. Either way, I'll do some searching, but I'd wonder why you would order the sleeves on your own vs. working with a proven shop and building it with them to your power goals?
It seems the consensus is dry sleeves.
How much power are you looking to build?
I'm 30-45 min south of Livernois, they have previously built me a 427W.
JDM built my 5.8
-J

This article. Yeah about Jason T's 2012 GT500 build
www.hotrod.com/articles/add-darton-sleeves-to-2011-and-up-shelby-gt500-engine-block/amp/

Anyway...
I read the article and wanted to build a strong aluminum block. After seeing consensus that the aluminum isn't good for much over 1200hp and just wanting to build an engine that would last and be durable, I ordered the same dry sleeves as Jay T did. Turns out that someone didn't do their homework at Hotrod (me included) and I ordered wet sleeves.

I've gone over my build with them and it's pretty straight forward. I just went ahead and ordered the sleeves, telling Dave at Livernois that they were dry sleeves. He was ok with that plan. It wasn't until he ran the part number, that we realized they were MID wet sleeves.