Use to see these situations all the time when I was still in the game, people taking the cheap way out thinking they were going to save themselves some bucks. Then when it all goes to crap, they come back complaining that they spent X amount of dollars at a mechanics and now the engines stuffed after only so long (days, weeks, etc) It's like if they gave us a sob story that we'd be great guys and just do the job for nothing, sorry but you made the choice of go to whoever to try and save a few bucks and now it's gone downhill on you. That few hundred or even a thousand dollars they tried to save is looking like it should've just been done that way first time around. So that two grand or whatever is now money down the drain and there may be even further damage done to the engine (crank beyond repair, dropped valve, etc) which now is even more money on top of that original price it was going to cost to fix properly in the first place.
The best advice I can give you from a someone whose witnessed this scenario so many times, is just do the job properly and know it's done right (providing a well know engine shop is doing the engine and who knows Clevelands) and with a warranty. It will be a total piece of mind and knowing that just maintaining and servicing it will give you many years of trouble free service (engine wise) Rather than that thought in the back of your mind, if it's going to be alright and not give out on you. Do it once and do it right is the best philosophy.
On a side note, is that for real $3200 to R&R the engine, remove heads and sump, clean it up and replace the oil pump and gaskets. If that is, then that's another crazy price I've heard of to do work on cars. Maybe I should really consider getting back into the game, at those prices I'd only need to do a job (2 days tops, if I took it easy) like that a week, maybe even a fortnight, lol. Anyway all the best with it and hope you make the right decision.
