Well I managed to get a lot done since last year.
December 30th I went out and bought a new sbc. The ad said it was a 400ci from a 77 k20. Everything checked out while I was there, but once we got home, I cleaned off the casting numbers, and it turns out it was a 305.
No matter, it still came with a weiand street fighter intake and an edelbrock 1406 carb. I was pretty stoked while rebuilding the carb. about 30 min of prep, and this motor fired right up. So the plan is to get the truck running on this until I get the 327 running perfectly. I'm hoping that by the time that happens, it'll seem like a huge performance upgrade.
I also got a steering column off ebay, for $160 with shipping. It's a tilt 32" floor shift no key column. I'm pretty happy with it, though I think I'm going to re-engineer some of it. For instance, the tilt level spring seems to be mounted the wrong way. Which keeps the lever annoyingly close to the turn signal all the time. That, and I think I may turn some new levers at school. I like the idea of custom turn signal levers with knurling and all that good stuff. Other than that, very satisfied.