My brother had a 461ci built for his GTO that he drove for a long time before he discovered the builder had not installed the water pump sleeves. It always ran on the hot side. If the weather was cool and you were moving, it could maintain a somewhat acceptable water temp. But if it was warm out and/or you got caught in traffic, it the temp needle would start climbing and it was very hard to get it cooled off again.
My brother decided to replace the water pump to see if that would help the situation, and when he removed the old pump that's when he discovered there were no sleeves installed by the engine builder. My brother also installed a new radiator and clutch fan at this time, and now the car never overheats. But since he changed a number of things at the same time, we don't know what the primary cause of overheating was. We both suspect it was the missing sleeves.
This is all just to say that the engine will be driveable without the sleeves, but in my brother's experience, it will have a tendency to run hot.
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1966 Pontiac GTO ( restoration thread)
1998 BMW 328is ( track rat)
2023 Subaru Crosstrek Limited ( daily)
View my photos: Caught in the Wild
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