Chipped sleeve - would you reuse it?

[poissonn]

Need a bit of advice here! 3 years ago I had to tore apart the engine because of a failed crank bearing. I reassembled the engine using the old pistons/rings/cylinders. One of the sleeve was chipped a little at the head o-ring as shown by the red circles on the pictures below but I reused it anyway at the time.

It ran fine for the past 3 years this way. I'm now putting a new top end because compression is a bit on the low side (130 on each). Would you replace the sleeve, run it like this, or "repair" it somehow?



Thanks!

 

[AKnarrowback]

The only right answer is to replace it.

It's pretty impressive that it ran three years that way.

If a person found some steel, was very patient and meticulous I could see a small curved piece of metal, laying in that gap, supporting that o-ring. I know it could be done, I know it could work BUT if the machine is in good shape I would go the extra mile and get a new cylinder.

I used to work as a mechanic at the local Ski/Sea-Doo dealer and was impressed with some of the improvised fix it jobs we saw on machines that guys would do. When the guys were hundreds of miles away from their village and things broke down they did what they had to to make it work and get home using whatever they had with them.

To answer your question. No, I would not re-use it.

 

[mikidymac]

That poor o-ring was barely holding on.

 

[etemplet]

Toss it. Anything you do will be hit and miss. I just took a 717 apart that had a peice of the o-ring missing on the head and the groove was in excellent shape. This isn't something you want to roll the dice on.

 

[poissonn]

Alright! I figured this would be the outcome, but I was curious anyway! I'm quite amazed actually it ran fine for 3 years also...Thanks for the input, appreciated as always