i guess my parents would rather pay $2800 than $1200+$200 ship+400 labor at a shop near us.. so whatever, if they wanna **** their money away so be it. i'm not going to try to talk them out of it.

its funny how some people would put $3000 into a car thats only worth $3000......

ditto :?
and still waiting the rebuild on the second one...slow @$$ mo.....anyway

I would go the Morad route, definitely cheaper and lower mileage would last longer (theoretically). Even if its not your money, if you plan on keeping that Impy for more than a few years I'd try to get the Morad engine. Otherwise, I think i read somewhere you were looking to replace it in a couple years or so? If thats correct then do whatever your parents are gonna buy for ya.

Swapping the engines yourself (plus atleast one other person) shouldn't be too bad. Not sure if you have a hoist or not, maybe borrow one. But I wouldn't buy one if you only gonna use it once. I did mine myself, dad was around when it came time to actually hoist it out, just to be sure everything cleared. I could have used him when i was removing the TC bolts (but ha had run out to Napa at the time). But as said before, leave the AC and PS pump in the engine bay would be easiest. I don't know about the radiator in your car but the fans would come out and the exhaust manifolds. Thats what I did with mine.

Anyhow, good luck in whichever route you take/go.

Yup, and in two different cars. I won't fight them though I'm sure they'll blame it on me if something else happens because I've had a tendency to have a heavy foot sometimes.

I think the next car I am going to get is probably going to be a Civic Si or a Camry Sport.. Those are both two very sharp looking cars, and the 3800 is just not as bulletproof as I thought it was.

Well, personally, if someone was going to pay for my car repairs to get me out of a bind, I would go for it. They obviously have there reasons for trusting this mechanic with rebuilding your engine.
It should be fine, I guess if youre worried, don't beat the tar out of it for a while.
A used engine can fail in the same way tomorrow...a repair as such should be fine.
These 3800s are tough as nails

Have you asked the guy that would do the rebuild if he would do the engine swap for you? Even if the swap comes to 2800, your parents are willing to pay for it, and I think an engine from Ed with low miles is a MUCH better deal than the rebuild of the high mileage engine.

Im sorry to hear. Good luck with that.

Your parents may believe that the more expensive way to go about it is the better way with assuredly higher quality parts. How expensive can you get your motor swap to be?