Old beater...what do I do with it? Replacement? [big post]

Ok...here's the predicament. I have a '97 Neon Sedan, MTX, single cam. NO options other than air conditioning. It's basically a death trap...and kind of an ugly one at that. The issues include:

-Rear shocks are shot
-Guages don't work right
-AC has a leak...currently doesn't work
-No reverse lights...not sure why
-Cat. is hollow/gutted
-Has body damage(been wrecked on the front passenger corner before..panels don't fit right)
-Cracked Windshield
-Peeling clearcoat
-Out-of-alignment windows
-The biggie...the engine. The car will not run with the cam sensor plugged in...we've determined through multiple replacements that the sensor is not the problem, nor is the crank sensor. With the sensor unplugged, the car runs in something similar to a "limp" mode...no power and horrible gas mileage. Lots of sputtering.

On cylinders 1,2,and 4, the spark plugs are firing on every cycle, though rather inconsistently. Cylinder 3 is perfectly in time. The computer throws up only one code, indicating an issue with the cam sensor.

We took it to a mechanic, who said that the computer was reading the sensors as in-sync with the cam sensor unplugged, and out of sync with it plugged in. He also said that there were wires underneath that were bare for the first 2 inches or so, and several that had stuck together from being so hot...shorting out I assume. He eventually gave the car back to us after three weeks, only slightly less confused than we are. The dodge dealer said that they would simply start throwing parts on it and see if something worked.

What do I do with something like this? I've been driving it like this for the last year and a half or so...is was more-or-less like this when we got it. I really like the car, bit I have a 50-mile commute now, and it's just not reliable or affordable enough.


PART 2

I've found a Neon R/T Coupe with an MTX for $2200. 150K miles. It's missing the lower of the two belts...alternator, I think? The other serpentine belt is twisted and ready to break. It also has rust all over the underbelly...other than that and some abuse-marks on the body, though, it seems fine. I could probably talk down the price. What do you fine folks think?

Have you looked at the bare wires and rewrapped them? Have you tried swapping in another PCM to see if it runs correctly?

It is possible the engine isn't timed right. Did it ever snap a timing belt?

For $2200 you can find a neon w/o any problems and RUST!

The engine's in time, though I don't know if it's ever snapped a belt. The mechanic rewired the sensors, and this problem was there with the ECM that came with the car as well. (When I got it, it had an ATX ECM o.O)

If it ever did snap a belt, there is a good probability that the valves were bent. Have you checked the compression on it yet?

It will run with the ATX PCM, you would just have a lower rev limiter and a code for the torque converter.

I've swapped the ECU since...took me a few minutes to figure out why autozone's reader was showing a TC code..heh

I guess my next thing is to check compression then.

...for some reason I was thinking this was a non-interference engine like the 2.2 was...not sure why. :confused:

It is an interference engine.