LS1_Newbie55

OK! Here goes nothing. Due to having a lot of time off i am looking for a project LS1 engine. Im looking for some guidance on what route to take as far as a rebuild vs building an engine from scratch. Now that we have that out of the way my plan is to build a streetable engine between 4-500 horse power that down the road i can drop into an old c10 or whatever i find at the time. Nothing too crazy right? I have a budget of 6 to 7k for the engine. My original plan was to buy a high kilometre all aluminum LS1 off criagslist(280 000 kilometres) for 2500$ and have it shipped across canada to my place for about 680$ so id be into the thing for 3180$. Id do the rebuild on the thing and do a cam and a set of heads if my budget allowed. Today i drove down and had a chat with the high performance parts guy in town. He told me by the time i pay the 3100$ plus the cost of the rebuild id be better off to buy a brand new short block with the 3100$ id have to spend on the engine to start with and build it up from there. He says the stock connecting rods are a weak link in the engine, from what i have read on the internet i was lead to believe the bottom end on these engines are pritty bullet proof. So whats the deal is this guy just trying to up sell me or what? He was throwing around some pritty high horsepower numbers like nine hundred which is just not what im trying to accomplish. Being newer at this iam leaning towards a rebuild because id like to start with all the parts to begin with to make this stupid thing run. Beyond that maybe the guy does have a point. 3000$ to buy it and another few grand to rebuild and im into it for 5-6k for a stock LS1. By the time i did the cam and heads maybe i would be better off starting from a short block and going from there. Does this seem reasonable to you guys? And remember im not looking to build some crazy race engine or anything like that just something to go rip around town in and **** off my neighbours.

Mappinsj

Buy one already done. Look at the classifieds here. Unless you are dead set on building one. But getting one rebuilt involves buying all the rebuild parts. Getting it all down to a machine shop, paying him. Then putting it together. $$$$$

I have seen lower mileage engines (where you don't have to touch the bottom end)
And then you can get a nice top end set up. All for less than 5k easily.