Ok, about a year ago I got a 1995 SOHC Highline for really cheap.

I fixed the 100's of misc. issues and the car runs great, daily driver.

I just got a 1999 DOHC Sport with power everything, but it is wrecked in the front. Minor structural damage that has the left front wheel bent in at the top and the suspension support in the unibody bent, I have no plans to fix the 1999, but the engine and interior + doors and everything are in great shape.

I already plan on swaping the doors, and interior so I can get the power windows (front only) and power locks and mirrors. Did I mention these are both black?
Both, unfortunatly they both have the automatic transmission.

My question is this.

If you had a full gargage with all the tools needed to do just about anything, what would the 1995 end up with for a power plant? Full engine and PCM swap from the 1999 DOHC, just a head and PCM swap, or just leave it alone and sell off the DOCH engine with the PCM?

I don't plan on racing this car, it will always be a daily driver, but I really like working on my cars, and if I can gain a few horse by swaping out the engines then I would do it to just do it.

Thanks in advanced, this forum seems to be full of great Neon junkies!

 

Really it is preference. The tricky thing is if you decide to swap the motors, you can't use the 99 PCM because the 95 PCM's were of a different style, you would have to used the 95 harness and splice some wires, then find a 95 DOHC PCM unless you want to switch out the dash harness and run into other possible problems. How many miles are on both? If the DOHC has lower miles, I would put that into the 95 but I would wait until I could get a donor car and do a MTX swap as well. DOHC auto is the worst combination power wise.

 

Not necessarily power wise, but accleration wise it is for sure. The ATX gearing doesn't allow the DOHC to achieve it's full potential.

 

just swaping the head is going to lower compression. not the best idea if your trying to gain performance.


i would just swap the entire engine and get a 95 DOHC ATXPCM

 

the way my car is done is that they tore out the 95 wiring from the front bumper to where it connects in the dash then swapped in a 96 wiring harness to the dash up to the bumper... its alot of work but then you will be able to run the 96+ pcm's. but like they said dohc atx was a bad thing... I would just leave the sohc in it for now and do a mtx swap if you have a good jy around you should be able to get away with doing it for about 350 400... then swap out the dohc...

 

^^^96 PCMs are control the fans differently than the 97-99 PCMs.

 

The '95 SOHC has 180,000 miles on it, but the enigne has been gone through a couple of times.
The paint is poor, doors are scratched up and are all manual, the interior is not that great compaired to the '99.

The '99 DOHC has 58,000 miles on it, and I do not know much about it.

The '99 has the nicer dash cluster with the Tach, which I would like to swap out as I am planning on swaping the entire interior including all 4 doors, and the trunk lid, front right fender, and rear bumper.

I know this statement is going to hurt, but I really like the ATX for the daily driver, is their anything I can swap or do to the ATX to gain acceleration but keep an ATX?

Doing the full swap on the wireing harness is something I could do, this wont be an over the weekend project for me, I plan to start in the spring when I can start driving my summer cars again. This is primarily my winter / backup driver, but since I have the '99, I would like to makethe '95as nice as it can be with the parts from the '99.

Thanks for the great feebback!

 

Really if you want to do the engine swap, it is easier to just use a 95 DOHC pcm. As for gaining accleration in an ATX, one word. TURBO!! Lol, with that you will notice the largest difference. So I say do an interior swap from the 99, FYI the cluster should plug right in (some early 95's did not have the wire for the tach), and keep it SOHC if you arent going to do an MTX. Just my honest opinion.

 

I would beg to differ jr... there are aftermarket parts for the atx crowd that would make any neon owner proud and probally make up for the 1 sec dissadvantage they have to our mtx's... Plus there upgrades are cheap.

modern doesent sell these anymore... however you may want to call cory at modern and see if he knows somewhere you can order them so it dont take "3-4 weeks"

http://www.howellautomotive.com/inde...amp;ProdID=800

http://www.howellautomotive.com/inde...amp;ProdID=795

Now one word here... howell automotive is slower then **** shipping or even getting off there lazy ***'s to ship there product... many story's of custom built crate motors taking upwards of 2 years to get... So like I said before... I would try to call Cory at Modern (he's the ceo and loves neons to death) and ask him since he doesent carry the above listed products anymore if he knows where you can order them other then from howell, maybe he has a phone number...

But as you can see the atx does have options, that are cheaper then mtx options. Plus tire cherping shifts.

 

Thanks for the info on the '95 - '96 DOHC PCM and the ATX mods, these are items I am certian to look in to.