my cousin has a 97' EX auto trans. and he fried it, so he is doing an engine swap and manual conversion. Some huy told him if hes gonna do a swap then absolutely stay away from V-TEC. considering thats hondas whoop *** engine that doesnt make any sense. but anyway hes has about 3500 to spend on it, what engine would be a good swap? the guy was talking about a prelude engine HJ22 or something i cant remember. tell me what you guys think

 

if he's going to leave it stock, and wants the swap to be fairly straightforward, B16A2 (cheaper) or B18C1 (better)