To try and make myself clear, I'm not saying that an engine shouldn't be sleeved. I've overhauled and run engines with sleeves . If one of my blocks had sleeves and the babbit was in usable shape , I would sure overhaul it and use it, if I needed it.
As for the babbit being fishing weight lead, I doubt that!!! Babbit that was running loose will look dark but can clean up. Old engines that haven't run in a long time is not going to have a mirror polished surface. The engine in the coupe had dark babbit. I had stored it in an old school bus for 19 years. I took the engine to my shop in 1991. I cleaned it up, had it bored out to .080. I installed rebabbited rods , new pistons, rings and valves and its still running good now, 23 years later. If the babbit lasted long enough to wear out the top end and still looks that good , it must be pretty good. I would worry more about the rust on the crankshaft. I've had pretty good luck polishing up slightly rusty crank shafts. Local machine shops have almost become a thing of the past. I think there are some good machine shops in Birmingham that can do the machine work and sleeve the cylinder.
