The down side of buying a rebuilt or "crate" 292 is that is has the standard deep-dish pistons with only about 8to1 compression. If you could find an engine to rebuild you could use the propane pistons for about the same price as originals and have at least 9to1. It would also give you the oportunity to pick your own camshaft. I just finished doing just that and and installing it in my '64 C20. We are very happy with the results but only have a few hundred miles on it. They can be made to run well. We have another 292 in our '56 2 door sedan with flat top pistons, a fair amount of cam, four barrel and headers. It is still street driven but we open the headers and drag race it a bit - mostly 1/8 mile stuff at our local track. It has run high 13 second 1/4's at just under 100mph.
