That's entirely dependent on your situation and how much you value your own time and convenience. Many would definitely scoff at the idea of replacing the whole engine, but others wouldn't hesitate to ditch the car in your situation. For reference you can get brand spanking new 5VZ's from Yota1 that are very pretty, very high quality and ready to drop in but run upwards of $4k, and if I'm not mistaken low mileage crate motors from Japan usually run about half that around $1.5-2k - but I may be speaking out of turn here since you're far more inland than me so shipping may or may not be a pain, and it's been a while since I checked price/availability. Most people with head gasket failures usually end up spending $1-1.5k it seems, if they need a teardown and resurfacing - if I'm not mistaken a pair or new heads runs in a very similar price range and would probably save you some money in labor, but I wouldn't expect much as they still need to disassemble and reassemble them on the block. Keep in mind here I didn't mention any labor cost with replacing the motor, which would surely be up there. So I would juggle those numbers personally and think about works best for you, as I imagine you'll get 5 different answers from 5 different people here. On this site it'll probably be heavily in favor of doing it yourself since labor will be the biggest bill
I do understand the predicament though. I want nothing more to move to Wyoming but any and all industry is so damn scarce it's downright intimidating (aside from coal and oil that is.) I've often wondered how difficult it would be to get spare parts for wheeling or an emergency, or have decent work done to your vehicle, etc. :target:
