is a reco cylinder head a bad thing to see in a car's history

[alfaalfaalfa]

Hey Guys,

i've been checking out some alfa 156's - they are finally getting cheap enough for me to own, and i have found a nice clean twin spark manual,

i dont' know much about cars - i confirmed the cars service history and noticed that the cylinder head had been reconditioned at the last major interval (belts and pulleys also)

this was done by a dealer at an alfa mechanic close to the area,

i was thinking - is this the sign of an engine that has been mistreated (ie - thrashed, low oil?)
and would you be wary of an engine like this,

the car is a 2001 and the engine has done 130000 (belts and reco cylinder head at 118000)

the car drove well (a little variator noise i think) and it cold started with no smoke at all, or during hard acceleration gear shifts,)

[jayarr]

Hi,

I can think of at least one reason that this would happen, failure of the cam belt. Never heard of anyone doing a reco voluntarily, as it would be expensive at a main dealer, and at low K's would be unnecessary. With a 118K service it should have already had at least one cam belt change prior to that, might be worth checking.

Assuming someone reputable has done the changover, should be OK, but can check cylinder compression, presence of contamination in the radiator overflow, mayonnaise on the oil filler cap. Can't think of an easy way to check that valve are all straight, other than getting someone to hook up examiner (diagnostic computer), and see whether the 02 levels are normal. Should probably checkout error codes present on the examiner as well.

Of course the above checks will cost 

Cheers.