[PRattenbury]

Have you ever built an engine before? If you haven't, you may want to save yourself some headache and just buy a GM Performance Parts crate engine. I mean, if you don't mind ruining some stuff and redoing some work, it would certainly be a good learning experience. But there's ways to do things, and special tools required even beyond the stuff a local machine shop would do for you, like torque wrenches, ring compressor, to name a couple. I don't mean to insult you or anyone. I have certainly ruined a lot of engine parts and redone a lot of my own work. I learned, of course. But it cost me. It's up to you. But if you want the simple, easy, most cost-effective way to do things... crate motor FTW.