The Imps steel liners should be bonded into the alloy block using Loctite 648 retaining fluid, not cheap but its the right product for the job. If for any reason you need to remove those liners, a mandrel will require making as a press tool, another size of liner can be turned down to fit inside the Imps liner. You will require the use of a standard garage hydraulic press to do the liner removal, I was told its an easy job this way.
Loctite 648 retaining fluid.
Low speed is very important, move the drill up and down as you sand, never stay in one position while the drill is working.
The alloy Imp block as it looks after the original liners are machined away, this block was later welded and the alloy liners support holes were distorted about 0.003" meaning the steel liners would no longer fit.
In the case of the 998cc block made here, the liners were not exactly level and I asked they be pressed out and I would refit them myself.
The question now was how do I get those new steel liners to fit back in the holes they came out of? They were numbered using a black felt tipped pen.
The perfect tool was a low priced solution to the question, the flapper sander is 80mm in diameter, the alloy hole is 77mm (about) and with a bit of hand reforming, I made the flapper sander fit. Using a Bosch 500 watt electric drill and a low speed, I was able to lightly sand the deformed alloy untill the steel liners fitted.
Low speed is very important, move the drill up and down as you sand, never stay in one position while the drill is working.
We need a drop in fit, this is because we need to coat the liners with the Loctite 648, then refit by hand before lightly bolting down a re faced cylinder head to give us a perfectly flat set of four 998cc Imp steel liners.
Looking inside when the liners are in place, I have used a good Mk1 cylinder head to hold the loose liners down.
The liners are back in the block, prooving we can do this kind of machine work ourselves. The welding on the top of the block was milled off first.
The first fit was done on a warm afternoon, the next day they would not come out, such was the fit and with a by now cold block, they had become fast. I warmed the alloy block up in the morning sun (its winter) then I was able to remove the liners again. I lightly dressed the alloy sockets down with the flapper sander and was then able to fit and remove the liners.
Block saved? well we still need to check the crank journals are true but we are becoming close to having a good 998cc Imp block.
I have just checked the 998cc Imp block more fully, sort of one thing at a time, its as I suspected , the block is bent. Down about 0.015' in the center and more to the rear of the central journal. This in effect means the next step is to skim top and bottom surfaces and then line bore the journal, not a job Roy can do. It may just be possible that the line bore can just be on the center journal, if so its easy, they remove metal from the cap face, the cap then is higher into the block and means they can rebore, simple but what will it cost?
Roy
