[bobcowan]

351W's and their derivatives are pretty common. If you're not looking for anything spectacular (racing engine), then you have a lot of good options.

Be prepared to spend a bit of coin. You're not building an FE, so you don't have to sell the children and mortgage the farm. But a quality assembly won't be exactly cheap.

When looking for an engine, there's a few things to look for, and a few things not to look for. Drive quality is more important than power output. You can get 500hp out of a 302. But don't expect it to be easy to drive on the street, or handle pump gas well.

In no particular order, here's my opinion on various sources.

Mike Forte, Brent Blykins, and Gordon Levy (in no particular order) are probably three of the best sources for a "custom" built engine. They've built enough of them to know what works and what doesn't. Their prices are reasonable, and their work is excellent. They will stand by their products if there's a problem. You can usually get them on the phone on a Sunday afternoon.

Mike Forte built my engine. If I needed another, I would call him again in a minute.

The Engine Factory: seems to have a good reputation. Assemblies are nothing special, though.

Ford Racing: The Ford crate motors sound good, but there have been a number of quality issues with them. I would consider them if you could get a really good price.

Rousch Racing: They have a very poor record for quality builds and customer service. I wouldn't even consider them.

Anything from a shop in Indiana should be suspect. There was a scammer operating out of that state. He sold some real junk, mostly through e-bay. He kept changing his name, the shop name, and his location.

But, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.