I'm def. a fan of this topic considering one of my buddies owns Elite Imports here in Philly (yes give them a call for your engine).
ALOT of companies buy in bulk from Japan and Malaysia. What they do is pick up the phone / or email and say "yeah I need 10 of this and 10 of that, etc etc." With this you get some guy over seas randomly grabbing engines and tossing them into a container. Some of these engines are actually sitting outside in the elements. The Company doing business like this gets very cheap prices but in turn is taking a risk of getting crap. Then, they pass this risk onto the Customer.
Companies doing business this way have put fear into the industry and have raised many questions like yours.
The RIGHT way of doing business within this field is like what Nick from Elite Imports (
www.elitejdm.com) does. Nick flies out to Japan to hand pick what he will buy so that when this engine reaches the customer there are no worries! He will actually drive the car before it’s broken down or if the engines already out he will do a compression check, check the plugs, etc. on the spot before loading.
I know I sound like a commercial or like I’m trying to get in some quick advertising for my buddy but everything I say is true. I'm sure everyone has heard the term "if your going to do it, do it right the first time". Any Business following that goes by this should be praised.
www.elitejdm.com (they are also in the vendor section here)