New to YW old Yaris

[oldguy07himile]

Hey folks,

First, this place is phenomenal, very much appreciate all the work already done. I have an 07 Yaris with 168k miles and climbing. Ive put 158k of those miles on. If im honest, the yaris has always been a bit of an appliance i.e. i took it for granted. Grew up thinking there was no replacement for displacement, so i never looked at this car as a legit enthusiast ride. Until recently that is. After seeing what Armstrong Racing has done and Tmontegue have put together coupled with a hard look at what i like about driving, i see the yaris as a platform to:

A) Reliably drive hard
B) Make corners great again
C) Build with my kids in a way that wont break the bank

That's the goal anyway. So here are my questions after spending entirely too much time on this site.

1) Coilovers
I've seen mixed reviews, worth it? Or simply upgrade to better shocks and springs? Can you install by your self? Or do you need another set of hands?

2) Mods to the 1.5
Is it worth spending the money on N/A upgrades to the 1.5 or simply save up and dump the 1.8 2ZRFE in?

3) The 2ZRFE
The threads on this motor are super informative and detailed. Thank you. I grew up working on cars, older cars, cars that's ECU was disguised as a distributor cap. Is it really a plug and play swap or is there some kind of gremlin that is simply so obvious i'm not seeing it? Short aside, ill be doing that in the yaris one way or the other, i just need to buy a back up DD to cover for it when i inevitably screw it up.


Thank you all in advance, you have absolutely already helped more than you know.

Never been a fan of non go fast mods but in an effort to get things going ive done the following this week:
JVC double din head unit
new front speakers
Bad ass new shift knob