yess preach koolaid as far as work man if you want a s13 make sure the undercarriage, Qtr panels body and chassis are somewhat solid a lil rust on the qtr is ok rust holes in your fender wells on the floor.. etc is a quick red flag... i would stay away... as far as working on them i would say the worst part is that they are 20 plus year old cars and bolts that havent been taken off or just rusty is gonna be your main problem...the beauty of these cars is that subframes with the control arms brakes coilovers if you have etc can be taking out at once! a few brake lines unbotling the whole subframe itself off the chassis and bam everything from the diff to bushings to Rear contol arms diff fluid can be changed quick and easy! which makes it hell of alot easier instead of working on it from under the car... as far as swapped cars go man you gotta watch out i would say get a s13 with a single cam in it buy a welded diff coils a seat and a wheel you can probably find one like this for about 1200 stock to about 2500 with listed parts above! and just have fun man get use to it perfect car to work on aslong and if you have any question about a car your looking at looked at etc just drop in here and see what any of us with experience have to say but if a swapped s13 or s14 is what your looking for heres a quick guideline
- what kind of harness is it.. alot of these kids just hack up old 20 year old s13 harness with the engine harness of the motor and trans whether it be sr, rb, ka, this is a big no no, wiring specialties is a awesome company that make pre made harness for most of these applications this will save you with a shit load of time testing wires and voltage when u could be spending your money on more awesome stuff sure enough its a good sign if your looking at a car and it has one of these harness'
- Engine management.. your better off looking for a swapped car as close to stock as possible with a stock ecu.. once you start upgrading things like bigger turbo injectors etc it is wise to have some sort of standalone or piggyback system, this is cruical almost as much as the harness as terms of reliability and health of the motor good aftermarket ecu's vary for the price you can not beat Apex'i Power FC i ran it on my 450whp rb and my buddy who had the swap before i did had the same setup with this computer and it lasted 6 years strong including my time of driving it... a tune would be highly advised depending where ur at it could be anywhere from 500- 700- trust me worth every penny! but give it a look AEM has a EMS, Greddy has emange..HKS has f con.. i would personally go figure out a tuner you wanna go with and discuss plans with him when the time is right before you do any window shopping for aftermarket ecu'
i know im probably missing a few things but with what i said should be more then enough info to make your search alot easier!