Agreed. If you're going to be swapping trans' might as well just go H22. H series has/had a strong aftermarket support and is pretty stout stock. 190HP off the bat with a manual transmission would be nothing to sneeze at in these cars There is no point in modifying anything while the car is automatic. Auto trans in this car is the anti-thesis of performance
The only problem with H22 swaps now is that is a 20yr old motor (at least) with FRM sleeves that's already known for oil issues once it gets high mileage. Not saying you can't go that route, but do your homework first.
I bought my JDM H22A powerplant from an Ebay store, it was very clean and had 55k miles. If you buy a JDM import, it will have low mileage. One problem that I had was that the ecu arrived doa, so I am now using a p28 ecu, egr delete, and butterfly delete plate. This setup is faster than my cb7 with JDM H22A and a p72 ecu. Both are tuned with a vafc2 and a wideband, both have msd ignition and aftermarket intake and exhaust, both have extensive full suspension upgrades and both are very fast.
Unfortunately really the only route to go for anyone that wants to get out of 15's in the 1/4 miles and stay 4 cyl
