Inframe vs. new crate motor?

[JimT]

from my experience, if you have the opportunity to inframe the engine then it will be roughly half the cost of a crate engine. final price will depend what additional parts to need or choose to replace at the same time. My rebuild ran about $22,000 in parts including new head, rebuild kit, new oil pump, new oil cooler, new fuel pump (~$4k), new cam shaft (~$2k), new rockers, new damper and a few other smaller odds and ends. Things like fuel pump, cam shaft, rockers, injectors and turbo don't need to be replaced unless there is a valid reason. Pretty much anything that doesn't require the head to come off can be address as needed.

the other thing to consider is the value of your investment over the useful life of the vehicle. If you drop a crate engine in to a truck with 800,000+ miles on it, will you keep it another million miles, fixing all the other non-engine parts that will eventually wear out? Will that be more cost effective then doing an inframe and getting another 600,000 miles out of the vehicle before retiring it? What solution will be the most cost effective (not strictly cheapest), the best value, for the life of your ownership of that vehicle?

we can debate the quality of a crate engine vs an inframe all day, but at some point the real world economics will come into play and weigh heavily on every decision a business makes.