Crate 360 vs DIY Built
The benefits you get from a good engine builder are features such as head porting, establishing optimum quench, flow testing, having your heads cc'd, cam degreeing, expert selection of components, etc, etc...
I have a great head guy in Detroit that ports and does all my valve jobs. He's good, old guy retired from an engine plant - know his ****. His son started working for Racing team who races twin turbo 1/4 mile after working with his dad in the back garage.
When John (my head guy) found out how racer's guy was prepping the valve seats, he asked to let him do a set for him. With John's heads, he went from 6 second 1/4 mile into the 5's. John will even do valve jobs on private planes, which are more strict than cars.
You don't always need the fancy equipment to get good results.
Some of the guys on here, like me have been doing this for a while and know how to match our components. RustyRatRod is one of them, and there are many others, that I can't recall all of their names right now. My expertise is with the street/strip, and daily driver engines.
Figure out who knows what they are doing and follow their advice. Also, the more people that agree on a point, should indicate that it is right. If 3-4 people agree and 1-2 disagree on the same point, then I would listen to the majority.
But if you want to buy an engine already built and ready to go, I would use Mike at MRL before going crate.
My philosophy is to try it myself. If I f*ck it up, I can always pay someone to fix it, or learn from my mistake and redo it until it works. You learn more by doing it yourself, even if you make a mistake.
