After reading through this thread a little I have to concur with Paul. Put it on a hauler and get it to a good independent shop. Look at it this way, you could ship it to one of the referenced independents, get it repaired, fly down and bum around for a couple/few days when it is time to pick it up and you will save thousands
Heck, for that matter you could bring it to my house and I could figure out if you need to pull the engine or not. hmmmm, wonder how that 5 cyl turbo diesel engine would look in that engine bay