I have nothing bad to say about BPE, I hope that when I get an overhaul that I can get BPE to do it. With that said, I went with a Lycoming Thunderbolt (and I am very happy). Here was my reasoning:
1) BPE (at least 12 months ago) was really overloaded. Communication between us was really lacking. Nothing against them, they were just really hard to get a hold of.
2) Taking (1) into consideration, I never got past the "finding a core" stage. Not to get into specifics, I just felt like that if we did find a core I was going to get the bottom of the barrel because I was low priority. I realize they wouldn't do that because they do really stand by their engines, but that is at least how I felt.
3) Conversely, when I contacted thunderbolt I got a call first thing the next morning asking what I was looking for and we ended up in a 30 minute conversation with my mission needs.
4) Thunderbolt was able to configure the engine how I wanted. Cold Air, 9:1, etc.
5) Thunderbolt did not charge me for things that I did not want. They were true on their timing, they always answered the phone (not that I called them more than twice [for the SB question, and the small hole mounting ear swap out])
6) Since my exact configuration was new to the RV-10, Thunderbolt was nice enough to send Vetterman one of their cold air intakes and specifics in order to get an exhaust built. No questions asked.
7) I am not running/flying yet, but knowing the history of my core and knowing that for the two times I had call them, they happily answered all of my questions. I am happy!