Look, if it is a good car, and you like it, fix it! here's how, rebuilding these engines are a common occurence, however, because they are a sleeved aluminum block, often the scoring in the cylinder wall makes the block unserviceable, however luckily, Honda built about a gazillion of these cars and the later models engine/trannys will virtually bolt in. Most of these came with the non-v-tec I4,1.6 motor. Many people would take this opportunity to upgrade to the later model v-tec engine/transaxle 1.6 or 1.8. You almost double your horsepower and torque-it becomes a very impressive little screamer, with excellent mileage. The web is full of how to articles, and it is not rocket science. Just make sure you get the wiring harness and computer from the donor car. However, there are a wealth of engines that can be had fairly economically that will bolt in to the existing transaxle, go to ebay, shop it, and fix it, this requires no special tools, if you are an average home mechanic, and have a couple of weekends to devote to it, just take your time, take a lot of pictures, and don't take anything apart until you have the replacement part. Good luck!
