Building or restoring any classic car is a daunting task. Before you can turn a single wrench, though, you have some important decisions to make. Namely, what to power it with in the first place?

Crate engines provide an excellent alternative to rebuilding a stock engine or purchasing a remanufactured long block to renew the HEMI power plant in your Mopar or swap it into your project vehicle.

The idea of ordering a mail-order engine would never occur to some hot rodders, any more than buying a finished hot rod would. For such people, building a car at home--including the engine--from ...