Everybody has their own opinion; if you love the truck fix it up. Check out wrecking yards for 73-79's. My 66 started out as a F250 but now has 1/2 ton axles and 77 power steering, disc brakes, tilt wheel and even power windows. It's easy to work on, comfortable and never goes out of style. Parts are cheap and strangers will stop and comment on it.

 

Well im a little north of you (sheridan wy) but i am in the middle of rebuilding my 64 f250 4x4 right now. My 64 had a 352 swapped in and i recently had it completely rebuilt including being bored, having the crank turned, getting the rocker surfaced, everything in the heads (new valves, new seats, new springs, etc.) and a full parts kit I paid about 2500. this is with me doing the tear down, assembly and install though. Im also redoing the brake lines and some other things, but this truck is worth a lot more to me than its market value.

On the other hand, what makes you say that your engine "blew". Unless it threw a rod through the block, broke some piston rings, or spun a bearing there is not much that can stop these old motors. Mine had a broken ring on one cylinder and had another cylinder that was badly chattered and it ran just fine, i decided to rebuild it because i wanted to. Is it possible there may a less drastic problem with the engine that is causing it to do what ever it is doing?

 

Heres a little more fuel to the fire. You say the top end was rebuilt recently on the engine with the problem. And the 600 dollar engine has a standard transmission bolted to it. Buy the 600 deal, convert it to accept the C6 and install it in your truck. Then sell the transmission and related parts, sell the heads off your engine, take all the extra stuff to the scrapper and drive on. If you are at all handy with a wrench you can do this swap in a couple of days.