Engine trouble - time to replace anyway?

[condor16]

168k miles in, the original (5.7l TBI) engine in my 1990 Jimmy may be toast. . . under light load, I hear a sudden clattering from under the hood aand the oil pressure immediately dropped to zero. Still running normally (except for the little noise/oil thing), but I pulled over immediately and got the truck to a local shop.

Fast forward a week: shop tells me that the engine is "toast." Broken rod, according to the guy who looked at it. This isn't breaking my heart, since I've been thinking about getting a little more hp/tq in there anyway.

Because it's a TBI engine, the direct replacement crate options don't seem that impressive for the money- 210hp/290tq rebuilds from GM ($2200 from the dealer, $1800 from Summit) or Jasper ($1800-ish).
The repair shop told me that they had "a deal" on a tbi 350 from a local junkyard - at $1300 for a 117k motor.

The truck's in great shape and I don't mind putting that or more into a new engine, but I want the money to be SPENT rather than wasted... So I had the Jimmy towed back to the house to sit while I decide which way to go -

1) Find a used, stock 350 (for less than $1300!) and get back on the road
2) Try to find a local shop to rebuild current engine
3) Get that tall-deck 427 or the 454 that the little voice in my head says it needs. . . and deal with the ECM headaches of putting big-block TBI into my 350TBI truck. . .

The Jimmy's not a DD, but I also don't want to get into a major teardown that could drag on for months of weekends - I'll need it to get to work next winter.

Any thoughts/comments are welcome!

 

[Polski-Chevy]

For $1300 with 117k on the clock is this just for a direct swap?

What is the engine out of anyway?

I ain't a mechanic by the way, just handy with a wrench, sometimes

 

[4xcrazy]

Must be your neighborhood I guess, I just had my TBI 350 completely rebuilt last year and even had them upgrade to roller cam & lifters, cost me $1200 for total rebuild, heads and all. and 98% assembled. Meaning they left the oil pan and intake off so I could do final rod & main bolt torque inspections and the intake so I also could visually see the upgraded parts and whatnot.

granted it's still a basic stock type replacement, but in the Burb, i'm not driving it like it's a Corvette, it's a big heavy truck, and I just wanted something to last a long time.

 

[Wyomingboy]

go with a 3rd gen 6.0 or 5.3. You can get good 5.3's for $500 now with @ 120k on them complete.
You can get a wiring harness built for your truck to graft it in.
Then you could keep emissions equipment and actually be upgrading your truck a lot !