Msp in very bad shape.

so I've had this 03 Mazda speed protg for about a year and a half. It hasn't been the same since day 1 but today I took it to a shop and they told me that my engine is shot and it would cost over 2k to fix. I am stuck with a bad engine and no other car. I need help and opinions on what I should do. I'm not knowledgable enough to fix most things on my car So I can't even start to fix it now.

Should I do an engine swap?
rebuild it?
take however much someone will buy it for?
what other options are there?

Are you sure the motor is bad? I say put a new motor in it and drive it but if you can't afford to sell it to someone that will. These cars are rare and get parted out way too often. Where are you located?

hornsfan10609 said:

Where are you located?

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The United States! Duh!

But seriously, where are you? May have a knowledgeable and helpful MSP owner nearby or an MSP owner nearby interested in purchasing it.

Replacing an engine sounds like a huge, monumental task to someone who knows very little about cars, but the MSP is incredibly easy to work on and, outside of MSP-specific parts or aftermarket, performance parts, they're relatively cheap to repair.

engine swap isnt a big deal, all you need to be able to do is read instructions/interpret drawings, and turn a wrench. there isnt some magic to being a mechanic. it really is just as simple as reading drawings. it does however require a certain amount of balls, a good cache of tools, cause you always need tools that arent listed in the "Guide" and friends with bigger tools help a lot.. or friends who have a truck or some vehicle to get said tools from rental.
if you were to take it on yourself, the easiest thing to do is buy a second car to drive while you work on it. i might be a little further along in mechanics than you but im not like any of these other guys. still, it took me about a month to pull everything i needed from a donor car and basically reassemble a car from the bottom up. just an engine swap and nothing else should be accomplishable in a weekend with the help of friends who are kind of car savey.
otherwise, as pref said, try to hook up with a fellow mazda enthusiest in your region.

but if its your only car, if you have a place to park it/work on it, buy a beater and look for a motor/donor. lots of information on this forum about what makes the msp different but any 2liter protege/mx6/626 would make a suitable donor. or just buying a junkyard engine and swap msp specifics over.

i should also mention that how far you want to go with this would depends more on the condition of the body. if its rusting and falling apart, id prob part out the car. i dont mean a rust spot here or there. if your underframe is falling off, there are holes in it and the fenders/struts towers are gone.. maybe move on. definitely keep your hands on a clean msp.

Just to chime in... I recently bought a nasty MSP and swapped an engine, and believe me I did not really know what I was doing (first engine swap ever). It was not as hard as I expected. If you at least have a little mechanical knowledge and some tools, I'm sure you can do it

Same here I recently bought an MSP with a blown motor and swapped it in my garage. Car runs great now, I drive it every day.