Hey guys, first of "hi". Im Michael. New here... Anyway, I have some questions for yall and hope yall can and dont mind lending me a hand. I have a 97 Impreza 2.2 that I am wanting to rebuild. Right now Im going to focus on the motor because the powerplant is the most important part of a car to me. Now Im not wanting to make huge horsepower, but I want reliability most. My engine right now sits at about 128k on mileage and its tunning good, but it has a ticking sound coming from the left bank. I dont know if its a spun bearing or a messed up valve/lifter. I think its probably the latter of the two because it seems focused under the valve cover on that side.

What Im thinking of doing however, is buying a used motor tearing it down and rebuilding from scratch. I would be reusing parts that appeared to be in good order and replacing what was bad. Then sometime toward the end of the year I would swap out the motor in it now for the motor I built.

What I was thinking of doing was to replace the connecting rods and pistons as well as the main bearings and piston rings. Then doing a mild port/polish on the heads put in new cams, valves, lifters, and springs. I want to keep the stock ECU and harness cause I dont want to get into modifying that too much right now. But I want a good streetable foundation that I can add to later on if I get the fancy to do so. Right now I dont want to go with a turbo because I dont want to plumb and intercooler and all of that.

Im wanting to keep the build of the motor to under $2000, because as I have said, reliability is more important then power to me. So is there any tips and pointers that y'all could give me to help me along in this process?

(By the way, Im in America if that makes any difference)