It is super expensive to custom build an engine these days. Shops have a lot of expenses that they have to cover so someone has to pay for it. The shop I work with has cut way back on "oddball" jobs since they usually don't pay very well. He doesn't do Flathead Fords anymore or old tractor engines or weird stuff like 50's Cadillac engines. The weird stuff requires a ton of time and most of the customers aren't willing to pay for it. A lot of guys who have weird engines are guys who have owned them for a long time and they still think that a full engine rebuild should be around $1500. So the guys who have the weird stuff that takes a lot of extra time are the same guys who don't want to pay much.

Crate engines wiped out a bunch of business around here. The local tracks switched over to crate engine racing which is probably good for everyone but it does wipe out a lot of business for the shops. There are still a lot of bracket racers who want custom engines built and there are a fair number of guys with muscle cars who aren't afraid of spending $10,000 to $15,000 for a ground up stroker build. But most of the rebuild business has gone away over the past 20 years. The engines in new cars last a long time now so there is no need for rebuilds. I have a Toyota 4Runner with 220,000 miles on it and it doesn't use any oil. Still has the original exhaust system on it. When I was a kid my dad rebuilt the engines in our cars at 100,000 miles. They just didn't last much past that back then.