Any good shops in Columbia SC?

Yea I thought it'd be cheaper too, but Stevie says he wont know until the front cover and head come off. He actually had another guy working on it earlier today.
But Im still here about to head to a motel for now. Decided to tear into it and see the damage before I make another move.
It's just a really hard choice to make, because with a few extra things here and there, Im looking at almost a factor reman price. But I'll have to wait and see what they find. Stevie definitely seems like a standup guy though.
I Will keep this post updated.

 

I didnt take any pictures, was too pissed off to think about that.
As for buying another truck, the truck is too clean to not fix. If I buy another truck I still wont know how long the engine will last before it needs work. At least this way I know what I have and it should go a long time before needing any engine work.
Unfortunately there is no cheap way out of this one. I gotta have a few beers tonight

 

Truck is still there, I got a ride home by one of our drivers the day after getting the truck towed there. I spoke with Stevie on friday and he's still taking it apart, I'm guessing they're busy with other work and cant put a full days work on my rig.
He did say they're having trouble getting the bullgear and camshaft out, seems like #### is seized up in there.
Also he says for sure it was due to the aircompressor seizing up and putting extra load on the bullgear then the gears started snapping from there on. When he pulled the compressor off he said he doesnt spin, and all the teeth on the gear are gone, all the other gears arent as bad as the compressor.
Im hoping he'll have it apart next week, really need to get back to work asap

 

So today I found out the crank is junk too.
Found a used motor with 175k on a rebuild, dont really have much proof its been rebuilt. $9000 shipped, plus about $6000 for labour, including the hours Stevie has in it so far. Thinking I should change the waterpump before it gets installed, set the overhead, check the bullgear for play. Anything else I should do /check before installation? Not sure if I should do the rear main seal, not even sure if its leaking or not, but now is definitely the time to do these things.

 

I found these guys in Miami, they sell alot of diesel engines. They advertise on ebay alot, thats actually how I found the motor. I was looking for a specific serial number so I had to make a few phone calls to find this one. I just hope I made the right choice going this route. I could've bought another truck locally, with everything new on it, including an inframe (50k on inframe) with paperwork and still under warranty for about 22k US. I would have bought it if it was a 99 for obvious reasons, but it just happened to be a 2000 like my truck, which was the only cons.