fiveoboy01
Pattern Altitude
Priority is airframe condition, corrosion is ungodly expensive, takes forever to fix, and often leaves planes as salvage. Any airframe money spent is money down the tubes with a chaser of resale value. Engine overhaul money on the other hand is nearly perfectly prorated down to core value at 75% TBO. The greatest value comes buying at 75% TBO with a solid running, clean oil analysis, core value engine, and then running it until the oil analysis or other indicators say you are about to lose your core value, then you overhaul it. The hours you flew the engine in between were 'free'. In a 182 or a Dakota, it would not be rare at all to see a 'free' 1000 hours, a 172, Archer, or Warrior, there are plenty of examples of 2000 free hours.
I didn't say the engine was the only priority.
Your numbers make sense, but that all goes out the window when something unexpected happens. Opening a mid time engine can be a big can of worms.
If I could do it again, I'd buy the plane that had the 0 SMOH engine.