[btwilson86]

I say you should keep the one you have and do the swap... It's getting harder and harder to find a MKIII in good shape, and you are very likely to get a lemon if you get another one. With yours you already know of the problems it has. As for the motor and tranny swap... It would probably be ideal to both at the same time. Makes it easier for installation of parts with both the engine and tranny out of the way, and then installing the two units is easier if they are both connected to each other.

Where are you gonna get the motor from? If it's JDM, be ready to swap over the emissions components. Also, you should tear it apart and rebuild it. It may only have 40k on it, but you don't know how it was ran. It's always a gamble with your motor if you put one in without a rebuild.

And alot of the parts for the Auto to 5spd swap are relatively cheap new, so try to go new for as much as you can. If not a good place to find certain things (like the pedals, etc) would be a pick-a-part or other auto salvage yard that might be in your area.

Let us know how it goes