alright, as you may have read, recently i have been toying with the idea of ditching the OHV since its starting to leak, and lose coolant, and its an automatic...

im planning on a 5 speed eco swap.

i know i could PROBABLY get it done with help from friends and stuff, but i have decided to go the correct route, and get a local custom shop to do it...
before i go around to some places and start getting quotes, how much would you be thinking it would cost for this to be completed... assuming they do all the work

2.2L ecotec
matching 5 speed transmission
cooling system
all odds and ends
clutch addition (since i have an automatic right now)

i would like to get away with less than 5 grand. i know im going to get flamed for not just buying an 03 plus, but i like this car i have now, and want to see it through from start to end. im approaching 100K miles and i want to do this before next fall. so any info you could provide on prices for parts and stuff would be great, or just a ballpark figure...
i was thinking between 3-6 thousand
and my friend was thinking upwards of 10... which i doubt.


thanks guys

Cavalier engine swaps isn't really something most performance shops see. I would be surprised if they actually give you a quote becasue they don't knwo who much work it will take.

Your much better off tackling it on your own/with friends. You can pay to hae a welder come out and bring there equiptment if need be to weld in trans mounts and what no. But man its just not a good idea to have a shop do it. I can understand wanting to see your project through and not buy something with an eco but its just throwing money away. For the cost of paying a place to do the swap you could keep your current car for a DD/winter driver and spend the money for an entire car.

It may not make sence to you right now to do that but trust me, in a few years you'll be kicking yourself for literally throwing all that money in the garbage.

thats what i was thinking. but im really not in any position to be buying another car, or anything. i have money to mod my car and go to school. idk to much thinking....

its not really a performance shop, they do motor swaps and transmission swaps for "all makes and models" so its not about performance, but idk if they would do that for me... like you said.

Some shops will swap engines if its a dirrect swap they don't wana do any rewiring. My buddie has a Prelude and it came with a h22a4 which is USDM well he went out and bought a h22a1 which is JDM engine. We ended up calling every shop in town and shops in twin cities no one would do it other than one shop which quoted him at $3500 to do the swap.

So I think you are better off doing it your self.

Herb Wilson wrote:thats what i was thinking. but im really not in any position to be buying another car, or anything. i have money to mod my car and go to school...

If you have $5K to drop on having the engine swapped, you can get another J-body with the engine and tranny you want. You'll have a car you can rely on, which is very often not the case with a modded car, and you can sell your current one, or keep it for a backup. The bottom line is throwing money into modding a car is just money spent, that you'll never get back. Granted we all do it, but if you are thinking about spending money on something like that, where you could get another car with what you want already in it, it's really just a waste. At least if you buy another car with the same money, you've got something worth at least some of the money you spent on it.