I wish more people would fly behind mid-timed engines. Your 1990 engine is relatively new - it's been flying a nice number of hours per year so it's probably not rusty, but the price needs to come down to around $9-10K.
The 10-12 year lycoming teardown thing is one of those certified CYA/wives tales/hogwash! Sure, if it's been SITTING for 10-12 years, then definately it's due. But, if it's been flying lets say 100 hrs per year and now has 1100 hrs on it, then to tear down a pefectly good running engine that isn't making metal, has good compressions and is pretty AD straight, is kind of crazy....
If your budget is tight, and you don't want to be the guy test flying both a new engine, new airplane and/or new pilot all in the same combination, then a running engine makes perfect since.
Anyway, my general take on this is don't let people scare you from buying a used engine. Sure there are lemons out there, but there are also a lot of diamonds! You'll hear a lot of "I heard you should do this and I heard you should do that", but the fact of the matter is a good used engine at the right price is a great buy for an RV! In this case though, anything much above $10K is too much, as others have said.
Just my 2 cents as usual!
Cheers,
Stein.
P.S....now ask me about buying a 10 year old "mid timed" audio panel and my opinion is a little bit different
![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)