I busted the timing belt on my dx and it didn't screw up the head, I was going about 50 mph when it happened. Those heads are pretty durable when it comes to broken timing belts. If you *want*(key word) to change the timing belt yourself it's not too hard, just be mindful of the crank pulley bolt it's a bitch to get off, but it can be done. That would leave you with ~500 bucks to play with so head down to your local picknpull and see if you can dig up an mpfi swap, the hardware should be around 200-300 bucks, see if you can get the si cam also, it'll give you a little more power. Figure about 50 bucks for odda and ends like sealant, a gasket and wire/solder etc. so you've got about 100-150 left, make a homemade CAI for about 60-70 bucks, then do a good tune up like oil, filter, plugs, wires, clean out the distributor. yu've got a nice little engine and chances are extremely likely that you didn't screw it up so you might as well have a little fun with it while you're saving up for another one.
