Man, it sounds like a conundrum. Have you tried putting it up on craigslist? If you have the money for a replacement, personally I would go with that (and dont just rely on the carfax as im sure you have learned by naow)
Im no real mechanic, but it sounds like theres a good bit of stuff to do. While it should go for another 100k miles, throwing money at something that seems to keep breaking is no fun.
So, my suggestion is try craigslist, just say you are selling the whole thing and are not parting out due to time/space limitations. If noone nibbles, then off to the junkyard. It sucks that youd be getting so little for it tho