Yes, a wet sleeve is a whole different ball game. The beauty of the wet sleeve is that it can be pulled and the new sleeve put in its place without removing the block and sending it to the machine shop. It makes an in frame overhaul very complete.

The sleeve in the 616/617 is like the one that they use at the machine shop to repair a damaged bore in an integrally cast cylinder. When you replace one of these sleeves it is necessary to cut off the top and bore it to size. This means that when you sleeve back to original bore size, you will have a slightly larger bill from the machine shop than if you were to simply have the block bored.

I have had pistons serviced as you describe to bring ring to land gap back in spec. I have done this on gas engine pistons with good success. The problem is that the entire piston is under such great stress in a diesel environment, that I don't feel comfortable reusing it. That's just me. I've seen write ups by P.E. (I think) and others who have had success in reusing the pistons.

My $0.02,