Sand casting is still a common manufacturing method. Using sand limits your detail size and how thin the walls can get, but otherwise is well understood and quite reliable.
Raw cast aluminum strength and durability is primarily based on the metallurgy, cooldown time, plus any thermal conditioning, not the method of containing the molten metal in the desired shape until it solidifies.
For high-end turbocharged engines, you can get some metallurgical improvements in your casting by using semi-permanent molds where the bulk exterior of the casting is formed by a metal mold. The more rapid chilling that the metal surface causes in the melt has an effect at the grain level in the metal as it crystallizes/solidifies, and that can give you higher mechanical properties.
For a normally-aspirated aluminum block gasoline engine, no trouble at all with sand castings.
Same for pistons, iron rods, iron cranks, etc. All the parts end up a bit bigger and less detailed than is possible with more precise methods, but you can make a perfectly serviceable engine with sand castings.
Most of your reliability will be based on the cleaning, inspection and secondary machining processes. If sand is left in, that will grind stuff up. If there's porosity not found, it could crack or leak. If the machining is done poorly, etc.
The rest of the plant could be a CKD factory, not sure, no way to verify:
Jalopnik
CKD has been used in many places to bootstrap a manufacturing base. Sometimes you have to get the money flowing and get used to procedures before you invest in tooling, etc. to get equivalent local capacity.