[Christ]

So... I just found a (apparently) pristine example of a 1997 Escort wagon... with a blown engine. It's only $200, clear title ready to be signed.

Guys, I can take this one two diff ways - The wife has always wanted a project car to work on, for the whole time we've been together... and escorts are a great first car to start working on.

So that leaves the option to let her choose an engine/tranny package, and just stand idle and verbally direct her on what to do, only physically jumping in when necessary.
She would have the choice of which motor to use and everything.

OR.

Since Ford also recycled nearly everything at least once, I find that the same MTX# tranny you guys are using, has been used throughout history on most of the small fords... this means that I could technically just bolt in anything from a 3.0/3.2 V6 all the way down to a Festiva motor. Ah, the joys of cars!

So, what do you two think? I was mainly thinking a first swap of either the 3.2 w/ 3.0 cams, or the 2.0 Focus Zetec block (it's cheaper) w/ ZX2 cams.

Either way, it'll still get halfway decent mileage, and it'll be something that's slightly higher on the fun factor than her "mundane" GP.