Swap XFi engine for current I4?

[wyatt]

I have been doing my own work on my car whenever possible. I have a 1994 Suzuki Swift with a 1.3L engine and a 5MT. I recently found a person within a couple hours of my house that has a 1994 Geo Metro XFi that he is parting out. It has 194,000 miles, which seems like a lot to me, and has me asking myself (now you) some questions...

• How long do XFi engines tend to run? They said it is running perfectly, but it does have almost 200,000 on the engine.
• What kind of FE boost would I see? 10%? 15%? Less/more? With the current I4 1.3L engine I routinely get 50mpg+ to work and back with nice weather. Would a swap to a I3 1.0L engine make that much of a difference?
• What is the horsepower rating on the XFi? I am currently "boasting" 70HP and 70pounds of torque, I am sure the new engine would feel less peppy, especially on the hills...
• I have around 172,000 on my engine, so I would probably keep running it until something happened, then make the change. Would it be a big job to swap then engines? I imagine they share most of the same mounting points, but my current engine has an extra cylinder, so would I need to acquire/fab mounting brackets?
• How much does an XFi engine weigh? I would be transporting it in my car... which wouldn't be a problem if I didn't have to unload it alone.
• I can also buy the transmission, worth the buy? My Swift already has the tallest gears... it would just be a spare I guess, unless I could mess with the gearing in my current transmission...

Thanks in advance!

[MadisonMPG]

Who is the guy? Cause I could use a transmission...

Keep your 4 banger, unless you just want absolute MPGs... The added power is nice. You can load the engine by yourself, not problem. Tranny+engine is like 135lbs.

[wyatt]

He's over by Gadsden. FYI, he is selling Engine + Transmission + ECU, I haven't asked him about just Engine + ECU, or just transmission.
I think part of the problem is that since I started doing my own work, I notice more "sounds". The first one I noticed turned out to be the alternator, which I replaced... I guess the "back up engine" would just be nice in case anything happened.
I had planned on keeping the I4 until something happens (It could be another 100k miles), I would just feel better if I had a solid replacement engine waiting. My wife and I have been looking at minivans, because she doesn't know how long my Suzuki will last. If Suzi dies, I would get the Prius, and she would get a minivan. I figure having a replacement engine could head off the need for a minivan before we NEED one (big capitol cost + recurring cost (it uses more gas)). It's not just about the HUGE mpg potential, but about delaying the purchase of another vehicle.

[MadisonMPG]

You can rebuild the I4 pretty easily...

[me and my metro]

You would want the whole car for a swap. The clutch cable, speedo cable, axles, shift support, trans mount location are all different. I would drive the Swift and try to locate a spare 1.3 if I were you. imho I have done this swap in a 95.
Andy

[wyatt]

I had come to the conclusion that I may not want to store an engine for as long as it would be before needing it, and not knowing what my living situation will be when our house sells, I didn't want to pay for storage on it either. I am glad to hear that my decision was a good one based on the number of parts that would be needed... I could get the whole car, but I don't know how storing a whole car would be better than storing an engine... Thanks for the input!
Wyatt