I need help bad, please read...

I dont know what to do, ive been without a car having mommy and daddy drive me everywhere for 7 months. My 1996 Stealth ES was running great until the day before summer, it was the best summer i ever had, first my tranny went out, then my engine stopped running. I replaced my head gaskets, thermostat, fuel pump, battery, and a few other things. After all that it ran pretty crappy for a day then wouldnt start. I took it to a shop and they said overdrive went out and a piston is knocking so they adjusted the idle so it runs but not for long. What would the cheapest route to fix it? a cheap SOHC motor and tranny swap? or a piston kit and have a shop fix it? they said my tranny might be electrical becuase it revs really high when i get to about 40 MPH, then is slips into gear and keeps going, but its blowing smoke from the exhaust. That was all about 3 months ago and its still running and drives but i don't trust to take it anywhere but around the block once a week to keep it running... What should i do? any suggestions?

honestly, it would probably be jus as cost effective to buy a JDM motor, as it would be to rebuild, especially to have a shop work on it.... i don't know what your budget is, but you could get a DOHC Tranny, ecu, and Engine for around 800 bucks, which would be great because that is a hell of a step up over the SOHC... but, you still gotta swap it, or pay someone to do it. But, what i would do, if you gotta lil cash, is take it as an oppurtunity for a TT swap... you can get a VR4 5 speed tranny, ECU and Engine, as a package for about 2500 shipped, which isn't really that outregeous... jus my 2 cents...

ya i was thinking about that, i have about..2500 bucks for a budget too, but would i have to do any modding? would it just drop in? since mince is a 96 would the first gen TT motor and 5-speed go in since my gen was the 6-speed? Im more of a muscle car guy so i dont know everything

yup.. there is some modding.. you can look at stealth316.com there is some good info on there showing how to convert JDM motors to fit US standerds.. you also can look on there how to wire in the CAS..
Jason

sounds like quite a predicament. TT swap sounds like the best way to go. However, new2mitsu said the package would be around 2500, which IS your budget. Would you have enough to have someone put it in or do you wanna do the whole TT swap yourself

actually i dont, but since my car is an automatic, would i have to do alot to swap the engine/tranny with a DOHC/5-speed? I hope i would have a little left over, and i dont think i could do it myself i would have a shop do it. But im sure they would charge a ton. How much work do u think i would have to do to do an auto to a manual swap? and about how much would that cost?

sounds like you might need to just stick with getting a $800 engine

unless you wanna save up more for you tt swap

A DOHC swap on a SOHC is huge pita. Theres alot of extra work required and its not a simple drop in. Find yourself a lower mileage SOHC engine and drop it in. I blew mine last year and basically had an engine given to me. Had 80k on the clock. Deals are there to be found.

I concur with stealthee, replace the soch, get chicks with the look of said vehicle, then if you want speed save up for a vr4. otherwise i think you will be hurting for money.

as far as the cost of the swap... for SOHC to SOHC with tranny already attached to the engine it calls for 13-14 hours of labor... and if you go to a shop that dosent kno jack bout 3s cars, they'll prolly take 20 hrs+ to do it...
but assuming you go to a shop that is 65 bux an hour, and it only takes 13 hrs, thats bout 845 dollars... for labor alone, but if you do go SOHc to SOHC, you'll not need too many parts, id say you can go SOHC to SOHC for about $1000 plus the cost of the engine... then you could use the rest of the cash for new exhaust and a 100 shot, and still have about 500 bux left over if you play your cards right, that's what i'd do...

sounds like a plan to me. Can an SOHC engine take a 100 shot of nitrous safely? I dont know much about nos but it seems like a bit much for the SOHC

I would think so.. I would honestly feel good about doing it.. but I am not tight with money and know how to work on 3k's so the risk for me is minamal..
Jason

aaah theres the difference. IF i were to ever work up enough money to put NOS on my car, I wouldnt have enough to take care of any damage. So I'm a little stingier on what I do to my car. But once I graduate college and Med school and become a surgeon...Im gonna be blowin money left and right on cars lol

good luck with that.. hopefuly it works out for you

Jason

i'd say you could take a 100 shot no problem, but if you wanna be safe, i zex kid comes with a 50shot nozzle, 75 shot nozzle and a 100 if i'm not mistaken... plus i think it has an auto shutoff saftey switch for fuel cut if you hook it up right...