WWGRMD? Repower ol' (mostly) reliable, or upgrade to newer hotness?

My 2006 F-350 Super Duty decided to have a myocardial infarction the other day.  This is a 5.4L 3V with about 165K on it, and while she's not perfect, she's paid for and does an excellent job of doing truck things.  This has been used over the last 30K miles as a delivery truck for the business, tow pig for my 26' enclosed race trailer, mulch hauler, snow plower, etc, and if it gets a scuff or scratch, it just adds character.  Last month, I installed stainless steel headers and a stainless cat Y-pipe as I was planning on keeping it for the long haul....man plans, God laughs.  

The misfire in cylinder #4 unfortunately was not a cheap and easy sparkplug or coil, but diagnosed with a high probability as valvetrain related.  I'm probably going to have the shop do a compression/leakdown test to be sure, but #4 is definitely no longer reporting for duty.  Not having a truck becomes readily apparent quickly, especially when you are three days away from moving out of your house of 16 years to the new casa and now have no easy way to move items larger than the cargo bay of a Subaru Outback.

Due to the aforementioned new house (and corresponding payment), I would really like to avoid a new (or new-to-me) truck payment.  That said, a reman'd motor (5 year/100K warranty) plus install is going to run somewhere in the $5K range, or roughly 6-12 months of truck payments.  I am leaning towards having it repowered and keep running her - mathematically, it's the cheapest option, even if the cost is almost equal to the Blue Book value of the truck - but am not sure when you just call time of death, cut your losses, and move on.  I've been known to run pretty far down the rabbit hole trying to save lost causes, and while I'm not sure I'm ready to cut ties yet, I'm trying to approach this logically vs emotionally.  I had considered having the heads pulled and just rebuilding those...it's actually less hours to R&R the entire motor, and everything would be fresh.

Any feedback, brutal honesty, or a shoulder to cry on would be greatly appreciated.  

I’d rebuild the head. At least you know what you have at that point. I definitely wouldn’t dump 5k into a reman motor 

Also, uhaul rents moving trucks so you have options 

Considering the circumstances, especially with the move, I'd throw the fresh engine in it. Cheapest way to keep going.

I've done some version of that a bunch of times when money was tight. The last time was when I was a broke vet student and had to get to my summer externship.

I swapped out the cracked short block in my Panther LTD right in the parking lot of the apartment complex, then broke it in on the 800 mile drive the next day.

I've put a brand new 90 horse outboard on a 40 year old boat. Repower is often the cheapest way.

In your salty part of the world I would look really hard at the frame rust before I put an engine in it. If the spring perches and the main rail joint are rust free then re-engine it and run it 10 years. I just put spring perches on a Ford truck that got a fresh engine a year ago. And welded in a new driver's outboard seat belt anchor. Customer won't give up, but I sure would.

Thanks all.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to repower it and keep on' truckin'.  Overall, the truck is in decent shape as it lived the first 7 years of it's life in the South.  I did end up pulling the trigger on a U-Haul for the big house move, but now that it's over and done with, I've got a little bit of time to get this sorted.  After spending a bunch of time pricing new and lightly used trucks, getting more miles out of this one seems to be the right way to go.

Thanks for the input and feedback!

Jason

I would get 1  reman head and call it a day.  

If it’s just the one cylinder and it’s diagnosed as in the valve train just rebuild (or get a remanufactured) head. No reason for a whole motor rebuild if it’s just the valve.