Mitsubishi mirage ! Nice car. I used to hunt for it and plan to move in an FTO engine to one, but too hard to source the car n stuff. Since u got the car, can try to source for FTO engine, should be good for your hp and mods. Errr I don't think going above 2.0 is good, esp in Malaysia, higher road tax, and SOHC ? Try the FTO path mivec version if possible easily 200+ bhp if mod well and mirage is lighter than fto i think. And do note, getting the 4G92 Mivec terbalik is not cheap as high as 8k to 9k easily, price is similiar to the CM5A 4G93T. I am not a mivec guy but during my sourcing well I still do shop at halfcutshops, mivec md if not mistaken is not cheap and rare. Definitely go the FTO path if you can find a good condition one 2.0 V6 24 valve DOHC and if possible GPX version 197hp or mebe more if mod and tune well. Sounds definitely awesome, and is still tempting me to get a good conditioned used FTO but due to parts and condition of the car, quite hard to find a good one.
Well bout high rev, unless you mod heavily usually stock bout 6k is what you will be doing to be safe and my own experience wif mivec is same as vtec, vvti and turbo, never miss your oil change.
But N/A with these variable valve timing is much easier to maintain and was originally my plan b4 i went for turbo. Well the ideal daily driver is an N/A with these tec and a turbo for the weekend fun ride. For mods, quite straight forward, and since you gonna transplant, air filter, exhaust, grounding, then if got extra budget can go on those fancy management for your ecu and controller then do tuning and so on. But around 220 - 240 hp is more than enough also depends alot on your rim / tyre size. 15" for fast quick burst but so so on cornering, 16" or 17" depends on your wallet for tyres. Bigger for better stability and cornering, but need to check your car clearance.
The mirage is a 3 Door hatchback rite ? Mitsubishi colt (euro) ? Or something like putra aka the 2 door lancer ?
N btw if you wanna go 4G92 and hybrid it, I think well it will be very hard to source the 1.8 n/a block, unless you use the 4G93T but useless coz it's low comp which defeats the main purpose for N/A which is high comp. But internals might b stonger and this terbalik path I only seen 4G93T with mivec which few bro in gsr terbalik forum manage to do but seriously, your case, FTO should be the easiest and best route. Unless you want to stick with 1.6 but you did mention 2.4 so should consider 2.0 V6 24V MIVEC.