I have an 01 sunfire GT that needs a new engine and I would like to know if anyone can tell me exactly what make/year of cars I can use to keep the cost of the swap to a minimum. Also if there are any close make/year matches that would have only minor complications, what issues would I have to deal with? My priorities are to keep the cost as low as possible while still getting an engine with reasonably low mileage. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Aw c'mon. This is really a tough call as the cost of an engine swap is as much dependent on your ability to do the labor as it is on the availability of parts. Neither of which you indicated in your post. We have to go on some assumptions to estimate anything. For example...
IF (in this case)...
1. There are no donor parts/cars available and you have to buy everything (at retail) AND
2. You have to pay someone to do all the work.
THEN
Your cost will likely be lowest if you take the car to an independent shop that sources a used engine of the same year and model as yours, and installs it using as many existing parts as possible.
If you either have access to parts/cars and/or low/no cost labor, the possible variations are limitless.
Now the SIMPLEST (not necessarily the cheapest if you have a usable donor car already and can do all the work) method is to replace the existing engine with a like engine. COMPLEXITY (but not necessarily cost, again if you have a donor car, etc.) increases with the dissimilarity of the replacement engine, whether or not it was available in your car originally, or ever.
Since your car is an '01, 2.4, you can use a late '99 or (preferably) '00 through '02 2.4 from any of the cars that were built with them (Cavaliers, Sunfires, Grand Ams, Aleros, Malibus, etc.) with minimal COMPLEXITY. Finding a low mileage used one varies in difficulty as most of these cars have over 100K miles now due to age alone and these engines are getting scarcer since they were discontinued. A great web site to search for engines is www.car-part.com where you can locate engines anywhere and show the results in several ways (ie: distance from you). And, plugging in your car information will automatically return engines from all the models that have/had compatible engines.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Tuesday, February 17, 2009 1:22 PM
Your 2 assumptions were correct. I apologize, I didn't think to mention those things. The info you gave will help alot thanks for taking the time to help out.
The eco swap is probably not a good idea considering I can't do any of the work myself and at 55$/hour, the cost savings of a cheaper engine will quickly be offset by the extra labor. I have found several to 2.4's to chose from ranging from 90k to 130k miles, prices ranging from 450$ to 850$. Buying a used engine, especially with that much mileage, comes with a big risk but then again so is buying a whole used car instead. You can never be sure. I just have to hope that luck is on my side for once. The rest of the car is in very good condition and I am pretty sure this is the best route.
After re-reading my post, I felt I'd been rather sarcastic and didn't mean to be. Sorry. The prices you found for used engines aren't bad and often they come with some sort of warranty. With good maintenance, these engines (the 2.4) have been known to last for near 200K miles or more. I'm still looking for a reasonable one near home that I can pick up as a spare. Good luck. - Mark
