piece together vs buying one done

I have never bought a crate motor before and I have had several motors put together from a 273 all the way to a 426 hemi. One both the hemis I purchased pieces as money permitted then took it all to the machine shop, but I am just wandering is it worth all the leg work? I see several places that off turn key done motors and was just wandering what's everyone else's view on this?

Only as good as the man who did the work.
If he's not there, doesn't remember, didn't complete it you're walking into a minefield.
I could name a famous MoPar shop that forget to check if the rods cleared the block before they shipped it... and they didn't, the engine had never been turned over.

Agree, there are good and not-so-good.
I'm paranoid enough now that on a crate I'd want to open it up & double check, and I'd want to run it on a test stand before plugging it in.
But much of what I see advertised seems a pretty good deal. Time is money in some situations...
About 30 years a go a noted & well-known SoCal engine builder with Hemi experience from his days in SS driving & tuning for Landy, rebuilt my tired Hemi.
Ran great - still does - though I had to get the carbs sorted out.
10 years after that, he went through my drag-race SB, and it had problems right away, and I took it back to him.
Those flaws went uncorrected & turned fatal on its 3rd pass, only saved the intake & valve covers.
$10,000 out the window, teardown showed horrible stuff, valve reliefs milled through the pistons, oiling & fastener & torque mistakes, I could go on.

How is that even possible? Got to spin the crank to install the rods. Just absolutely pathetic.

If it isn't a daily driver, then no reason not to do it yourself if you have the knowledge. Even on daily driver stuff I will still buy a core and go through it, then swap it out. Just this last year, I have bought two small block stroker builds with spun bearings because so called machine shops used full width bearings on fillet crank journals. I just can't bring myself to trust anyone else's work.

The only way for a shop to be efficient at building crate engines is to use all new parts but that option doesn't exist for SB or BB Mopar engines. So the whole concept of crate engines for SB or BB Mopar engines is lacking. The shop I work with has a supply of core engines and he builds one BB Mopar per month on average. That isn't exactly a crate engine shop but he builds them often enough that he keeps parts in stock and he knows how they go together. If you go to a shop like Barton or Best Machine they might build more than an engine a week. Volume helps to keep the price down but nobody offers true volume pricing on Mopar engines since nobody is building enough engines to drive the price of parts down.

I would trust a crate job as far as I can throw it!! Even just machine shop work has to be rechecked for accuracy!

it is sad that I live right outside of Indianapolis and I bought a set of heads from Porter off the east coast.

I enjoy the building part of it so for me I would much rather piece it together. Plus that way I can put the best parts in it. I enjoy building the motor more than driving the car. I guess I'm a motorhead. When a friends car blows up he thinks it's the end of the world and I'm over in the corner thinking.......YES!

I agree,yet the machine work needs to be verified and rechecked BEFORE assembly!
Have heard too many stories,,,,,guides to tight,,,or loose. Final cylinder finish,pistin fit, you get the picture.

I typically (when time isn't a concern) piece a motor together. As stated prior, you get to put the parts in that you want at the price you want to pay. I look for opportunity's for cost savings and don't feel the need to have" a motor that has all new parts in it when sometimes used will do. Also as with what was posted (somewhere here on MOPARTS) Speedmaster (for example) had a 40% off sale. You don't get those discounts when buying a Crate/complete motor assembly.