I am looking at a running, complete 250 that has a Recon engine rebuilder's tag. Starting with a nice, rebuilt shortblock would save me alot of $$ I would have spent at the machine shop that I could put towards a nicely worked head. I did some reading about Recon engines, not much of it was good. This rebuild would have been a long time ago, but the engine was in a garaged Camaro until last week.

What do you think? Gamble on the Recon shortblock and get a nice lump-port head? Or play it safe with my existing block and only have money for basic head work?

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Well, there is nothing wrong with recon'd engines for the most part. But you could be getting an engine that is .060 over already with wear, and a crank that is .030/.030, you just never know what it looks like inside.

Thanks for the reply. Recon is a specific large volume engine remanufacturer that apparently has had some quality issues. I was wondering if anyone had any feedback about them.

You already have the story on Recon, large volume builder has more chances for error. Unless you have heard the engine run or can trust the PO, the engine needs to be checked out. The minimum I would do is a compression check. I bought a 292 with supposedly 10k on a rebuild. I did a compression one cylinder very low. Pulled the head and found a score down the cylinder an inch wide. Bought a 350 from a trusted source, did a compression check, it was reasonable. Checked the cam lift, because early sbc are suspect, bad cam. Replaced cam, engine runs like a top. I bought a 63 C20 with an Olds in it. The PO had bought the engine out of yard, pulled it down and checked all the clearances. When I bought the truck it supposedly had 300k on it. Your choice and watch out for Murphys Law. :^)

Larry