Astra - New Engine vs Engine recon

So ive been using my astra as a daily driver for a few months now and its not been very happy. Keep getting the engine management light on and its burning loads of oil and smoking/smelling really bad. Almost to the point where you cant have the windows open whilst driving along. (although when stationary its ok)
Had the diag check done and no suprises the light is on cuz the egr is blocked....again lol. Ive been told the cause of this is the stem seals been knackered and the oil getting to all the wrong places etc.
Ive been quoted £850 for a replacement engine and about the same to have mine taken out and reconditioned. Iv heard horror stories about people paying for engine recons and then them being worse than before but at the same time i dont wanna put a new engine in and for it to happen all over again.

What do people think?

As for the egr mate take it out clean it then blank it I've done this on the missis and runs a lot smoother try and do the work yourself if you can afford to have it off the road mate and just rebuild it at least you know it won't mess up as you will know what you have done if you know what I mean mate

what engine and year is the astra ?

Think it's a 52 buddy he has a build thread up I think mate with aload of pics buddy

As said stem seals arent a biggie really can be done with just taking the cylinder head off.and then blank off the egr to stop it blocking up.crabbie did the egr delete on his 1.6 from what i remember?

yup the 1.6 16v z16xe engine can have the egr valve delete done with a blanking plate and programming done at the dealer sadly i cant do it with the software ive got for vauxhalls

stem seals are a piece of pi55 jonb

i took it to have the egr blocked off and the garage didnt do it as they said its burning so much oil and theres so much in the exhaust its not worth it. needs a recon or to be changed. its a garage i trus as been going there for years so if it was worth doing im pretty sure they would do it.
New car already on the road so this is now for sale lol

give you £100 and a mars bar?

make it a twix and you sir have (another) new motor! lmao