Crate engines are a neat concept I only learned about recently. Suppose you bought some awesome old car from 70s and its engine was on the way out. What if you don't want to risk a junkyard buy? You get a crate engine, that's what.
Straight from the factory, ready to drop in a 50 year-old vehicle, and infinitely better made than they were back in the day. GM alone has dozens of engines available. They're not cheap--$8,000-$10,0000 isn't unusual--but what a cool option for a real enthusiast.
As long as you're custom building a car, Chevy sells the Corvette's engine[1] in a crate for $20k. Might also need to upgrade the transmission on a 50-year old car to handle it, but it's totally an option!
They also have the "Connect and Cruise" option that includes a transmission and a warranty. The E-Rod versions have a longer warranty and are CARB approved.
It depends, they are used to give very meaningful life extensions to cars that otherwise are already very expensive to keep in a working stater. If it drives another 10-20 years with minimal need for maintenance, it's very reasonable.
A few of the companies specializing in this type of conversions go out of their way that the conversion is fully reversible as well. In their view, putting the old motor back in should always be possible. Likewise, they anticipate similar upgrades will happen to the car again when new tech becomes available in a few decades.
A few car manufacturers (VW, Aston Martin) have started supporting these conversions as well for some of their classics. There's also an emerging market for converting non classic cars simply for cost reasons. It's usually the ICE bits in a car that break down. The rest could still go for another few hundred thousand miles with a new drivetrain.
Straight from the factory, ready to drop in a 50 year-old vehicle, and infinitely better made than they were back in the day. GM alone has dozens of engines available. They're not cheap--$8,000-$10,0000 isn't unusual--but what a cool option for a real enthusiast.