89 or 86 cr250? Good bad an ugly

[jellybelly559]

ok guys! finally got it tooken all apart (kinda just forgot about it over summer because money) but i have the money to fix it i got it out of gear the guy i got it from didnt connect the shifter all the way or something stupid......im gonna have to do a full top end job ( sleeve,piston,etc) but was wondering if there is a steel sleave i can buy for it instead of renikelsiling the original or getting a nikel siled sleeve

[Red Rider]

Does your current cylinder have a sleeve, or is it the stock nikasil plated aluminum cylinder? If it is the stock cylinder, I personally would leave it that way (unsleeved), and just get it repaired/replated if necessary. I tried an '89 CR250 cylinder that was sleeved once, and it worked fine until the first oversize bore, then the sleeve was too thin, which caused the exhaust bridge portion of the sleeve to bulge out when it would heat up, gouging my piston & rings. In the long run, it'll be less expensive to repair/replate a cylinder, than to have one sleeved, without any of the headaches associated with a sleeve, such as mentioned above as well as the infamous leaky head gasket due to an improperly installed sleeve. The only advantage re-sleeving has over nikasil is that it can bored a few times, but with the CR250 cylinder, that just wasn't the case for me.

[jellybelly559]

its the stock sleeve but to renikel it is 300 at a shop down here but to just get a new stock sleeve in is 100 plus the sleeve so 200 total.....im thinking about getting a stock sleeve and seeing how long it lasts....the shop is real good at making sure its a tight fit (my buddy gets his bikes resleaved all the time there) he has several bikes