The conclusion:
I took it to a couple of independents who thought there could be other testing that could be done and possible repairs done, but that it wasn't going to be cheap fix any way that I went.
Later in the afternoon, I heard back from the service director at the dealership. He stood by his techs recommendation and said that it's easier for them to replace a engine with a 3yr/unlimited Ford crate engine than to tear an existing engine down and repair and have significantly less warranty, which makes sense.
However, it was what he said next that made my decision...during part of the discussion and while not making a direct statement of fact, but rather kinda like the "family relative that NOBODY talks about because their the black sheep of the family", there is a somewhat known problem with this engine, this happens more often than people are aware and he had another truck in the shop as we spoke with the exact cyl #7 misfire diagnosis.
I had read several people talking about having problems with cyl #8 as well, and part of my diagnosis was that cyl #4 was starting to have misfires as well. In my mind, with all three of those cylinders being on the back of the block, there is a design problem and that no mater what repair I make now, there's no reassurances that the problem won't occur again in the future.
From having been in the car business a while back, I know that no matter how much money I put in repairs, it's still a 6 year old truck with 125K miles and needing a new set of tires, so the truck is worth what it is. I figured the money I was gonna spend on tires/repairs plus having a clear title would go a long way toward a new truck, so I went shopping.
I've got a buddy whose a used car manager at a Dodge store, and he gave me a fair offer to trade knowing all the problems, plus they were discounting the remaining 2018's by about $12K off sticker, so I pulled the trigger and traded for 3/4T diesel 4x4 crew cab.
So...I'll never know how the story unfolds with my old truck.
Courage is the feeling you have right before you fully understand the situation
