I just did a starter on my '97 5spd...
Some things that may help:
- Auto and 5sp starters are different.
- The starter is located below the throttlebody/air intake hose.
- Replacement is not that hard, literally 2 mounting bolts and 1 for wiring.
- Common failure is the internal contact components, I found a walkthrough a few weeks ago on how to rebuild them fairly cheap... I'll try to dig it up.
Oil prices are based largely on speculation... so the prices can be artificially driven up overnight. Food prices aren't "real time"... so recent decreases in energy costs (oil) doesn't always impact food prices.
Get on LS1tech and do some research, as well as look at some cars... People generally list good prices for their cars. I would steer away from the LT1 4th gens... they just don't compare to the power of the LS1.