How much of a hassle would it be to swap in the 2.2l cobalt motor into a 1997 cavalier, my cavy is racking up miles and want a low mileage motor to swap in.

A lot of money bro. Couple thousand actually. You can use the 2.2L motor, but need a 00+ cavalier donor car for the cars fueling, EVAP, entire cars wiring harness, HVAC, Dash.. Your 97 has to be upgraded to the GM Class 2 wiring harness. Also you need a cavalier ecotec throttle body. Cobalts have a drive by wire TB.

It would be easiest to find a 03-05 j-body with an Ecotec in it low miles that was totaled out by insurance. I got one with 40k miles that was in a roll over for $1,165 delivered to my work where I stripped it down to nothing but a shell.

http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/8180/20070816image0002cl0.jpg

http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/9527/20070816image0003zb9.jpg

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/8747/0821071913ajw7.jpg

No joke when i said you've got to gut the car..

http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/5931/0821072153akq7.jpg

Wow, now that is one expensive and time consuming swap!!