Good day people! I've been reading this forum for quite some time now. I've recently been gifted a 2001 4.4i E53 Black/Black comfort seats 192k miles (Black Betty 3). I love the vehicle, especially since it's free!
Got the car in NYC, it's been an NYC car all it's life. Previous owner was a female that only wanted to drive a BMW for the name. She drove it regularly from the city to school upstate. She traded it in for a malibu

. I'm a dealer, my brother works at a the dealership she traded it into and gifted it to me. I had been driving his 2013 X5 5.0i, which was a blast, so I gladly accepted.
I hadn't known what I gotten myself into, done my own checks on fluids, changed the spark plugs, added some lucas synthetic oil and gas treatment and got on the road to Georgia! I got on the road and all went well, until I switched into sport mode and overtook a slow moving car and the i85 and Black Betty slowed to a crawl 132 miles away from home. "Engine Failsafe Mode" popped up on the dash, could't go over 25 MPH. The few mechanics I could make it to in SC told me it could be huge or tiny problems. Got a code for the cam shaft position sensors, changed those on the spot to no avail. Eventually, I called AAA and got it towed home the rest of the way.
So I'm stuck at a cross roads, do I keep the vehicle do an engine swap, or count my losses on a free car (absolutely none) and sell it for parts as I've seen '06 4.6i's for sale around $3500 low miles in the auction? My intentions for her were to customize it to my liking and use her to tow my cars home from auctions out of state. Is that possible or far-fetched thinking?
Thanks alot for all the information you guys share on this forum! A true wealth of knowledge here. Nice to meet ya!