Engine Rebuild

[abc234]

I currently have a 2004 Chevy Aveo LS hatchback with the E-Tech II 16V engine and I am currious what this engines potential really is. Yes i know this is an economy car however, I willing to replace alot of the stock parts on this car to support a stronger engine and so I was wondering what I could bore out this engine to? Has anybody here attempted something like this before? Yes i know it may be cheesy by taking an economy car and beefing it up a little bit however it would be a cool little sleeper car. I only have about 48,000 miles on the car and I'm thinking once I get towards the 100,000 mark I may do a complete overhaul on the engine, new exaust system, possibly change the chassis a little bit, new susspension, New intake, etc. Yes i know buying lets say a Toyota MR2 (1685-89) models which are really fun to drive and restoring it would most likely be cheaper, but there again not as much of a sleeper (yes it could be one too if you did everything right to it in my opinion). Anywho, long story short anybody try boring the engine out to a different size? Let me know your thoughts.
JZ

[J-Ri]

Welcome to AF!
Sorry to say it, but honestly, I don't think it's worth it. The car is just a re-badged Daewoo, not known for anything good. Those engines are just about the worst. Low HP, poor reliability/durability, they don't even get very good gas mileage compared to other engines of similar size. I think they're also just about maxed out in stock form, I'd be surprised if you could bore them more than .020" over, and good luck finding oversized rings. With such a small bore to begin with, that would gain very few CCs anyway. The larger the original bore, the more you gain. I would be willing to bet (but don't know for a fact) you couldn't find the parts you'd need to get it to 200 HP. If you want a nice little economy "sleeper", get yourself something with the 2.2 or 2.4 Ecotec and boost it. My Cavalier (in sig) currently has 230HP (will be 250 in a couple weeks ) and is truly fun to drive. The 2.2 engine can safely handle 250 HP in stock form (not sure about the 2.4), so unless you want to abandon the "economy" part completely, you wouldn't have to upgrade the engine at all and it would still take just about anything on the road. With a few thousand in engine upgrades you can get them to 400HP and still have it fairly streetable, from what I hear.