I agree with Sony, new rings and crank bearings with light machine work will run about $1200 plus labor so about $2000 if you get it from summit and find a good shop. I personally dont like remanufacterd because you never really know what your getting. Plus if you decide to sell a rebuilt number matching car is always better than some motor that supposedly has 80,000 when it was pulled.

Yes, because most of the time, you can't just slap in new rings. You have to rebore the engine and install new pistons too, and it would be stupid to do only that. You need to rebuild the entire engine if you don't want to tear it down again in a year or 3.

just a simple rings and bearings is not to bad. really depends on what your working on. several v/8 engines you can do a ring and bearings job on, not many smaller engines though. the small engines have to work so much harder that they normally are needing to be bored oversize and new pistons.

depending on the car it may make more sense to just get a used engine installed

yes.