good deal or no?

Keep your eye on Craigslist and other car ads and something will come up. There are a lot of Durangos, Dakotas, Rams, and even Jeeps out there with 5.2's or 5.9's. Some people, like Dave, use a donor vehicle to do the swap. That's the way to go if you can swing it. Otherwise, you will do a lot of parts scrounging like me.
I have a 2001 5.2, original 904 and 8 1/4 Jeep/Dakota rear with 3.55 and trac-lock. It's not running yet but I'm still working on it.