Your knowledge of auto mechanics obviously is far in advance of mine. I was a desk-bound wildlife biologist for the past twenty five years although I come from a long family line of auto mechanics and gunsmiths. Also while in high school in the 1960s, I built a 1956 Ford Fairlane that is remembered by my old high school contemporaries when they can't seem to recall me. I'm just returning to something in my retirement that has always been a love of mine and appears to come naturally.
Your comment about using Ferguson tractor sleeves on a TR3 is amusing. Although I had one of the little TO30 Fergusons which I never restored, I have refurbished several of the very similar Ford 8n tractors in the past five years. Here a some pics of a few of the tractors I've done since retirement. The little 8n also has a sleeved engine. Very easy to rebuild.
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Restoration can be therapeutic and a great hobby
So you kmow the O-ring sealed cylinder sleeves
TR used to tell reuilders to even rotate sleever 90° if the started to get wslightly oval shaped to save bucks if the sleeve was othwise in decent shape
I rcall some guys used piston rings a bit to hard and forever waiting for them to seal and forever expect the initial oil butning to stop
Now a great range of parts and suprior oils makes that no problmo
I recall an Allis-Chalmers tractor w bought that started on gasoine and then swapped to tractor fuel after it started and warmed up
Ak of this alternative fuel and hybrid stuff the Greenies spout as “new” is a joke
Farmers in South Florida ran fuel lines aroud exhaust manifolds on boneyrd Buick engines for pumping water in and out of ditches onto crops - not burning pump gasoline either - and often run day and night in hurrican seasons