Cars With Engine Swaps Questions???

[slimddozen]

I have a 99 Civic EX, auto tranny, and im going to sell it for about $7500. Ive been looking in the local Autotrader and have found the following cars.

1) 1993 Honda Civic SI, B18C1 swap, rebuilt transmission,new motor mounts,Clutch Masters Stage 3 clutch,short shifter,STR ajustable CAM Gears,Greddy one pace race headers,Greddy stainless exhaust, with front and rear strut braces. Price: $5500. The problem is i can get a hold of the guy to ask how many miles are on the engine.

2) 1992 Civic Hatch, Alarm system, EG Civic w/B16A2 swap, Only 25K on engine., new paint job, 17 inch rims, intake, exhaust,clutch,Skunk2 ECU, for $6500

3) 1994 Civic EX, $2500 very good shape inside and out. Shitty engine.
But I could use the remainng money to put a GSR in there. But that would take a long time also.

Which of these would you guys go for? I need to f**kin get a hold of the guy with the 93 SI!!! Its basically between the first two. The only reason i threw in the third is it is possible to start from scratch, and I dont really dig the whole hatchback look. But I heard the GSR swapped SI's are fast as f**k, plus all them extras!! I dont know what to do. Help.

The main thing is i f**king HATE driving my automatic. It isnt fast enough nor fun at all. But im a little worried that a swapped engine might not be so reliable. What do you guys think about all this?????

 

[sherpagoodness]

if the engine swap was done properly all youre doing is sticking another honda engine in a honda...should only extend the life of the car. the thing with buying a car that has been already swapped is that they have probably been dogged to s**t and/or the swap was done incorrectly and now the car is nothing but trouble so theyre selling it...but its ur money
personally i think their is alot more to be proud of if you do it all yourself

 

[Handlebars]

problem with most swapped cars is they are usually beat on pretty hard. very few people get swaps to baby them. you also have to see the quality of the swap, what mounts were used, the wiring, etc as that all shows how well the owner did the swap, or how the shop did it. some will have quick and dirty wiring or have used poor quailty parts to increase profits or reduce costs.

 

[wilsel]

Honestly, if I did it over again I would of bought a car with a swap arleady in. You can save a ton of money buying someone elses investment. I would do a 30-1hr test drive (to make sure it doesn't have overheating problems), leakdown test, and compression test before buying just to make sure the motor is healthy. A lot of people save, get a swap, and then decide to sell. One reason is it's not fast as they imagined it would be, and some just want another car thats not an economy car. Just do a good inspection of the car, and you'll be set.

 

[SiGuy]

im gonna get a swap to baby it

 

[bman]

Listen to WILSEL... he seems to know what hes talken about.

 

[PANGES]

do the swap, it's probally gonna be more reliable