Ok, so I just received my $600 stimulus check and I'm trying to decide which direction to jump.
Today, I happened to go to the junkyard down the way from me and man oh man did I find some good stuff. I found an 04 2.2 ECO cav with 35k that was in a bad front end collision, however the only thing hurt was the plastic intake mani...the rest of the motor was great! I also found numerous 97 2.2 ohv motors...all were auto, so I'm not too sure if I could swap that ECU into my 96 manual very well. However, the engines there were all in the 135k range, so I'm assuming bad headgasket on em. And the kicker is that next Sunday the junkyard is having a 50% off sale....for everything!
So my dilemma is this. Buy the Eco and start a build on that and then start accumulating all necessary things to do the swap? Buy the Eco motor, turn around and sell it for $600-700? Buy the 97 2.2 ohv motor and start a HARDCORE build on that? Buy the 97 auto wiring harness and ECU and purchase HPT to mess around with? Or finish off my sound system(about $500 worth of stuff left)?
My current setup is a 96 manual 2.2 ohv Cav.
-Home Design Intake
-Ported TB and Intake mani
-Ported Head
-Pacesetter 4-1 Header
-2 1/4" exhaust (thinking about doing mandrel 2 1/2")
-Upper and Lower motor mounts
I need to upgrade my Fuel pump and injectors as I cannot go WOT at my current setup because it leans wayyyyyyy out. My current motor has 145k and the lower end is in so-so shape. I am thinking about doing the 1.6 rocker mod as well. Money is going to be kind of tight for a while since we have a baby due middle of December. This car is my DD but I'm a hardcore "tinkerer".
Help me decide!
i say eco swap but thats just me
