Installing cylinder sleeves or cylinder liners correctly will take you some practice, no question. It’s a somewhat cumbersome process that requires heat in addition to tools, and knowing how to dial everything in to create the right fit is a skill.

Before we go any further, we will tell you the WRONG WAY TO INSTALL CYLINDER SLEEVES. Many old timers used to (and unfortunately still do) place a block of wood on top of the sleeve and hammer it into the cylinder. DO NOT DO THIS. Dimensions, interference fit, and clearance are all critical to running your high-performance engine. You are likely to mess something up using this method and cause yourself more harm than good. Can you get a sleeve into your engine this way? Yes. Do you want to? No.