Ive had my ecotec swap done for a year now. I put on a good bit of miles in the woods and hill climbing and I will never go back to air cooled.
The ecotec 2.2 is called and "L61", the 2.0 supercharged is the "LSJ", and the newer turbo 2.0 turbo is the "LNF". Then theres also a few varients of the ecotec engine with flex fuels, 1.4l, 2.4l, ect. Heres a good link to the wiki info on the ecotec engine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_Family_II_engine#LNF
The first thing is the engine. The one in my buggy I found out of a 2003 chevy cavalier with 90,000 miles with the wiring harness and ecu for $200 and also picked up a second engine for $125. Just keep an eye on craigslist and you can find deals but normally an L61 ecotec will go for around $500. You want to try n find a 2003-2005 cavalier engine b/c the 2002's had a timing chain problem. But if you do find a 2002 its not a big deal I would just put in a new timing chain and be done with it.
The wiring harness you have a few options. "Turnkey" $1200, "CBM (Custom Built Motors)" $1000, and "ELECTRIC WIND,LLC" $1000 all sell harness and ecu's for the ecotec. These ecu's are are delphi mefi 4 which are small and tunable. Also by buying the ecu from these guys if you want to install cams or turbo you can just send the ecu back and they can reflash it with there tune then plug it back in and go. These come with fan relays and have a few wires all labeled to where to plug in and fire up the engine. Also they have there own tune they use which gives you around 175 hp. I have 2 buddys who went with turnkeys setup and they work fine. I used the stock harness and ecu from the 2003 Cavalier. I sent them to Enginewiring.com where they made the harness a very simple labled wire hook up just like turnkeys with fan relays and also flashed the ecu so it would work in my buggy. I also had them set my fan temp to 185 deg. and the rev limiter to 7000 rpm. It cost me $495 for everything done and shipped back to my door a couple weeks later. Now I only have the stock hp since Im still running the stock tune. But its really not that noticable of a difference.
The adapter plate I bought from Kennedy Engineered Products. I got the adapter plate to fit the 6 rib and it comes with the flywheel and I also got the stage 2 clutch which is the 6 puck. The pressure plate is very strong and without hydraulic clutch you might have problems. The hole kit came with all the hardware for an easy install.
The exhaust I made myself. I took the stock header manifold and fabed up the rest from there. Got a small racing exhaust off ebay and some j bends from summit. All in all prob cost me $150. CBM sells a custom header ready to go for $479. They also have a bunch of other stuff for the ecotec too.
I bought and aluminum single core radiator of a buddy for $100 that was short height wise and long. Fits great in my buggy with a low profile. My buddy used used a jeep cherokee v8 radiator that was like $80 on ebay with a lifetime warrenty. That radiators also short and long and the inlet and outlets work perfect with the ecotec. He also had some 1-1/4 exhaust tubing bent to make the water lines look very clean.
I bought a walbro 255 fuel pump from summit for $100 which worked great till I ran out of fuel and burned up the pump. Then I went with a turbo subaru pump from autozone for $50 with lifetime warrenty. So now if the pump goes I can easly replace it at any parts store. There are many options with fuel pumps. Ive scene guys using ford trucks pumps, bmw, ect. As long as its producing atleast 45 psi your good. I personally dont have a fuel pressure regulator on and it works fine since theres a regulator on my stock fuel rail but some years have different fuel rails and may require a regulator.
I run plain summit oil, water temp, volt gauges just to make sure everythings running fine. The last thing you want is your engine to overheat with out you knowing and ending up with scolding hot water all over you. I belive I paid $100 for them and they are holding up great.
My engine mounts I made right off the oil pan to my rear cage. Thats the only engine mount I use and it works great with no problems. But I have my trans mounted top and bottom of bellhousing and the front firmly bolted.
Now that you have a huge jump in Torgue (Ive always heard the old guys saying "Horse power sells cars but Torque wins races") you going to start finding new weak points in your buggy. My buddy tryied a 3 rib with the ecotec which only lasted for a VERY short time. Now he has a standard 6 rib with stock engine with no problems. Now anything over stock will probably require building a trans. My buddys got a turbo ecotec and he blew a completly built 6 rib since hes pushing around 260 ft LBS of torque. Im running a vanagon water cooled side shift 6 rib with no problems. The gearing is off but the 5 rib gearing from my buddys buggy seems perfect with stock ecotec engine. Type 2 cv's seem to hold up as long as you have your cv angles low and setup correctly.
All in all I did the swap for dirt cheap and it runs GREAT!
If you still want more info or have anything to add feel free to send me a message.
