BLANCO to the fuggin' rescue....I couldn't have said it better.
For one.....hes NOT building a monster....but something fun to drive with an aggressive v-tec change over....READ for gods' sake!!!! One of the larger motors would be great if he was out to set records with the damn thing..but hes not gonna do that with $2500. So "NOTICE" what he said pertaining to the swap idea...." $2500 is alot to spend for 40hp....."
Sure if he had future plans to go big then yeah.....go B,H,K...hell he could go F...... But BLANCO will tell you that $2500 could build a turbo D that would be good for 300hp , and that includes buying the turbo components too!!!
Going NA with a D compared to the other "swap", sure the others will make more power...but not if all your money was spent on the engine.
MRTTurbo; Do what you want to man, if you wanna swap, then SWAP!! It will make your car fun to drive and you'll see that aggressive change-over. But you can do it with a D too. If you want to keep your D, it won't make your car worse or a piece of shit. But I'll leave you with this....even if you screw your D up, you can find another one in no time for $100-$400 ,chocking up the wheels of one of these "swap-wagons" that ain't running rightyet or they're gonna need the money to buy the right axles, or the right ECU,or the right tranny, engine harness.....you see where I'm goin' with this? Even the guys that have swapped over and over again will still be trashing there perfectly good D's 'cuz they don't want them anymore. Either Idea isn't a bad one, it all depends on your skill level and what you want the completed project to be. Sit down and plan either route/idea out on a piece of paper and factor in EVERYTHING!! Are you doing the work or do you have to pay labor? how much down time you have for this car? Parts you need/want? just think it out and get mack to us.