90 DA RS. Its been a while since I checked my fluids or even popped my hood. Last was a oil change roughly 3k miles ago. I checked this morning to find oil leaking from headgasket area and some below the cam angle sensor. So this made me check the coolant and oil, and oil was watery and coolant was dirty.

My question is, should I spend time fixing this motor or just get a new(rebuilt/swap) one? Water and oil already mixed so Im afraid the motor will be all bad now. money is a issue for now since I will have to do it at a shop, Im not good at valves, just got settled in to a house and also time is a factor since i use it to go work and stuff.

I know I'll have to buy/change headgasket, cam sensor seal, possible valve cover set(seals), valve adjustment, and motor flush/radiatior flush.

What would be the best/costless thing to do? swap? speed is a issue for me as well.

 

buy a swap. the b20 is a popular DA swap since it's cheap and DA owners as a bunch are broke.

 

you can pick up a b18a for super cheap. Depends on wat kinda shape the motors in. If its got a ton of miles on it i mite suggest replacing it. If it has low milage (for its age) and has been reliable id just change the head gasket. Problem with picking up another stock motor ismost of them have higher milage on them and ur proly gunna wannna replace the timing belt water pump and headgasket while you have the motor out the car. Unless the motors a piece of crap idjust do the headgasket

 

x2 i think this would be best.

 

just grab a new head gasket. have your head milled while you're at it. get a nice fresh and straight deck on it. it should be no more than like 50 bucks or so at a machine shop. while you're at it check other little things like the timing belt and the oil/ water pumps. put it back together and as long as you're hitting decent compression you should be fine.