Personally I would go for the option you mentioned in the OP. Reman shortblock with a warranty and what not. I've seen some pretty low prices for Remans in stores, and the 3800 is a dime a dozen. You'll also get clean oil/coolant passages, etc...

I would only rebuild if it were cost effective (no machine work on the block, etc...) or for performance (bore resizing, block strengthening, L67 rotating assembly.

Random thought of the morning...

When I had the belts off last week, I noticed A LOT of valvetrain noise on the back side. I couldn't really hear it if I leaned close to the front bank, but it was pretty pronounced in the rear. Not knowing which components could be causing the noise, could that create some metal shavings?

Any out of place noise or even a lack of noises can contribute. It'* hard to say what may or may not be the contributing factor until the motor is torn down. With that in mind and the information you are mentioning about valvetrain noise... that would be the first area to concentrate your efforts on.

For my 4.3L block, it was $150 to bore it 30 over, $150 to line hone it, $60 for a hot-tank and $10 for a magna-flux.

That comes to $370. Machine work is becomng more and more expensive.

As a side note, don't run the car to the point where the crank get'* destroyed and you cannot get a core out of it, such as the previous owners of my Blazer

I wouldn't even be driving it at this point

I have to drive it unless I buy another car. If it goes down, it goes down. I'm not worried about a core, I've got plenty of extra parts, except for L67 pistons and rods.

I do have extra lifters. Maybe I should drop some in and see what happens?

Changing the lifters is a possibility, although it you are seeing metal the odds are that the cam has gotten some scoring and needs to be replaced also.

New cam would mean new (to me) engine in my case.

At ~$220 for it, um.....yea

I agree, if it needs hard components like a Cam, you might as well do it correctly the first time and have the engine compleatly rebuilt.
It could be the cam thats starting to wear, but it could be too many other things as well.

Don't forget, my oil pressure has dropped in the last two years to ~15psi at hot idle with 10w30. Typically stays above 20 with 15w40.