I am not a modder but to me if the engine is designed to get u from point A to point B then its a waste of money to mod it to the max. Yes with money u can get the power but u will loose daily drive function and most of all reliability. Then when the engine cant take it anymore u will loose tons of money.
Best way is to get a better base engine to begin with.
It's not a matter of whether "it's a waste of money" or not. It's a matter of whether
you want to or not. I know folks who have spent shit tons of money on Kancils just because they love the car. Full L2/L5 conversions, suspension, turbo uprated, internals uprated, etc. The money spent is easily 3-4 times the value of the car. The question is how much do you want this 4G18? Do you plan to keep it for another 20 years on top of your existing 15? If yes then sure go mod it don't worry about "waste of money". If you're uncertain then keep it stock.
Also, let me give you a scenario :
- You buy a 4G93T (pretty rare and pretty expensive these days) - about 5-7k (conservatively) with gearbox and wiring
- You spend about 4k refurbishing everything, replace all the gaskets, seals, clutch, clutch plate, oils, etc
- You spend about 4-6k on forged internals and supporting mods (AFPR, injectors, intake, exhaust, etc)
- You spend 1-2k on the transplant workmanship assuming wiring is in perfect condition
- Then maybe you spend about 5-6k on a standalone ECU plus 1k tuning
- Then spend about 4k for suspension and brakes upgrade.
- then about 2k for tyres and rims since you can't clear the big caliper with stock rims.
That's roughly almost 25k++ to get roughly perhaps 280whp to 300whp (very generous assumption, usually lower than that)
Is that what you want for a FWD car? You haven't even included paint and perhaps an interior refresh or semi-bucket seats etc. etc.
If this is what you don't mind spending then sure - I say go for it because the experience of driving a modified car is unique to each car and car owner. But with all this money spent be prepared to spend a lot on petrol especially with the cost of petrol increasing everyday. Oh make sure the tune is setup to run RON95 cuz 97/100 is getting expensive.
Orrr... sell the car + top up the 25k++ and buy a more modern car that has more power, drives better or has better fuel economy