My buddy blew the motor in his 97 Chevy 1500 pick up truck. The motor is, I believe, a 305. He said he needs a longblock (means with the heads I guess, I haven't swapped a motor in about 20 years) and the engine is an "M code."
He found two locally, one for $ 1279 with a one year warranty and one for $ 1399 with a 5 year/60k  warranty. He thinks the $ 1399 motor is from a rebuild company in Toronto, but isn't sure.

Whatya think? Buy one of these two or is worth looking around on the net, or elsewhere, for another? If we knew where the place was in Toronto, if it was a lot cheaper we could just pick it up there (and patronize the ballet & the fine barley products of our neighbors to the north, of course) but I don't know if we could find the right place and if they'd sell a motor to two wiseacres who show up at the door.

I would strongly advise against getting a reman done by Marshall.  My brother bought one, paid Toyota to put it in ($3,000 total), and when started up it clattered.  The parts store put another one in with an unknown mechanic and it used bunches of oil.  They put another one in and then it seemed okay, except for an oil leak.  I bought the truck from my brother at this point.  They finally fixed the oil leak and it continued to use a quart of oil per 1,000 miles.  I then paid a mechanic $1,000 to put the fourth "free" one in.  It used a quart of oil in each 300 miles.  I finally gave up.  I had a tired engine in another truck, so I paid a race engine rebuilder to rebuild it and it is going on two years and 50,000 miles with no problems.  Screw Marshall Engines.

Thanks guys, we'll call around to some dealerships tomorrow (I have a client who has been a  mechanic at a local dealership for 10+ years) and I e-mailed the two places DFBonnett
listed for prices.

He bought the truck from some place out in the boonies in PA. There is not even electricity at this place, they use generators and you go down some dirt roads to it. Anyway he says there are just acres of cars out in the middle of the woods, it sounds like a dealer only deal, but they sell to anyone. My guess is this truck was a repo, the spare tire had been taken out by cutting the bolt (which frequently rusts around here) and the radio was gone; so I was afraid it had not been maintained well. Although anyone can get into trouble financially, particularly in this economy I think repoes are often used and abused and I stay clear of them. He bought this without talking to me first.

Anyway, as always, thanks for your suggestions.