Hector, I'll skip the "pay up front" question as I went with a domestic auto.
I'll also skip over who you choose to build your engine. Instead, I'll just point out that it's
pretty easy to drop the engine and trans in to these cars. I have to believe there's a local speed shop there in Louisiana, that you could have the engine shipped to, and they can drop it in. You know, if you picked somebody like Gessford (the others, too, probably), he'd break the engine in on the dyno, dial in the bellhousing for you, and throw in the correct length driveshaft as a freebie. Then just pay to ship it to your installer and it's really a pretty quick job and you could be there when they did it.