Pm me your estimate or I’ll give you an email to send it to. That’s beyond BS. There’s a good honest experienced guy running the service dept at Smith Tractor down here. I’ll get him to work up something for you. Send me the tractor serial number if it’s not on the estimate you’ve gotten.
Cheapest and easiest out may be a used engine from a wrecked tractor in a salvage yard. Deere is good about using engines in multiple platforms. That’s just crazy.