I recall reading that GM was running their engines on natural gas for an initial start - seemed reasonable practice for mass production of a complete engine.....Ford....dunnoWould a (huge) re-builder like Jasper power a short block with an electric motor? Given the choice I think I would be prone to immerse the sucker in circulated filtered oil!!!!!
I once read an article about a well known pro-stock builder that was using an externally oil pressurized, electric motor driven "dummy" engine assembly to operate the valve train at various speeds. This was done while using a strobe to carefully examine behavior of the valvetrain. My guess is that there are more than a few NASCAR shops that have done this too.