Ford Ranger Engine Shop or Swap?

well the nearest salvage yard (which happens to be 6 miles away) is from the reviews a quality area but also a walk-in and grab the part go to counter and pay. But anyways you've been of amazing help and i've learned much just talkin to you  

i deal with my local auto salvage quite a bit.  If i was you I would make some phone calls.  Talk to local area shops whatever area you are comfortable driving to and having a possible doner truck towed from, and tell them what you are looking for, that way they can give you a call if one comes in and you can tell them to leave the engine compartment untouched.  
-Cody

after doing some looking around the lowest price currently was an estimated 3 grand and some vital pieces were missing (ECU, fuel rail) so i decided to look into craigslist and i get '92-'95 for around 2 grand that runs and has everything (with minor damage). so really now its just should i put this in that or keep this as that?  

You mean an entire truck for $2k? Shoot. Unless you have a sentimental attachment to your old truck, I'd get a new (used) truck.  

really the only connection to the truck is that it's my first one, but im thinking the craigslist is the way to go, and i'll alone the road put up pictures of before and afters of whatever i do to it  

Well, sometimes it's hard to look at restoring or rebuilding vehicles logically. More often than not, you sink more money into them than they're worth, in terms of market value. If it's a labor of love, sometimes you've got to overlook the value equation, but if you're just looking for a workhorse or commuter, sometimes it makes more sense just to sell it an get another than end up spending even more money trying to fix it up.  

Research really pays off I have noticed, for around 200 bucks, I could rethread the Block holes using Big-Sert (Time-Sert's oversized thread inserts good for when heli-coil fails) now I say 200 because first, the kit costs approx. 100 dollars and I'll need to buy 5 more additional inserts, and the other 100 bucks for gaskets and new headbolts. You are right it is a matter of labor, which I've always enjoyed on trucks, and also of what's best given the cirumstances, and really I am not sure, I could spend the 200 and get the truck running again and over time add on some parts (even though the resell value will more than likely never go for more than the amount of money invested) or I could spend a few bucks more and get easily a newer truck with less mileage and less dings on the body. To me however, its all about pride, I think there's more pride in saying, yea i took this junkyard truck and turned it into the headtuner it is (hopefully) rather than yea i bought this in good shape and put on a nice little decal. I think also reading the article "2005 Ford Ranger Fantastic Four" renewed my love of working and re=inspired me to give this a try, that was a great article and the Ranger really turned out nice, I also liked how it uses the same engine size as in my truck.

*edit* by the way it says you used the Boss 307 but on the webpage it looks more like a 304  

Yeah, if you've got the time & patience, then go for it. It seems like a lot of people don't have the patience or time to put a lot of sweat equity into a project, although it would save them a lot of money over hiring someone else to do the work. Let us know how it turns out!  

well, after investing in some time-sert inserts i installed the new inserts, replaced the head gasket, put the head back on and...this time it torqued like it should! after that i replaced everything back on gave the dead batter a jump (sitting for two years) and she started right up, i just went from sellin it for 100 bucks to now being able to sell it for around 500 after some timing adjustments are made  

Shows you what a little "sweat equity" will do!