So I was on her a little while back with a bad heater, and an inoperable 4x4 system on my Ranger.

Shortly after my original posts, the driver side timing chain broke. Going into a Colorado winter, and broke as a joke, I let the truck sit.

Flash forward 12 months, and I'm in a position to do something, but unsure what to do.

My truck:
2006 Ford Ranger XLT 4x4 4.0L SOHC with 254k miles on all original equipment. Purchased from my dad who was the original owner, and never off-roaded it.

I'm in around $3000 on an 11 yo, high mileage Ranger in otherwise clean shape, that needs a motor, transfer case rebuilt, and a seat cover.

It was intended to be the fixer-upper for my now 15yo for when he starts driving, and double duty as a farm/kick-around truck.

Cheapest survivor motors I've seen start around $1200; Remans start at $2400. Unsure if they still exist, but fordparts.com, the official Ford parts site, shows a 6007 complete engine assy with FI and some amount (undefined, but visible in the fiche) of the wiring harness for $3600.

I was thinking I'd take a whack at rebuilding the transfer case myself, or donors start at $200.

So what's my play here? Trying to resuscitate the original motor at 254k miles on it seems weak. It needs a rebuild. The truck has only a bit of surface rust in the bed. Other than a fresh coat of paint, the rest of the truck is solid.

Thoughts?

TIA

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2006 Ford Ranger 4x4, 4.0 SOHC, 230k