Okay before you tell me to use "search" or Neons.org, let me tell you I spent the good chunk of my day at work, and haven't found an answer I'm satisfied with. So I'm hoping some of the 420A experts can speak up here with comments. I dont want to hear that your "brothers friends transvestite room-mate" had a 2.0 and it sucked. I want real world experience, or at least info from a reliable source.
Once my SC is road worthy and to the point I can enjoy it finally, I have another "certain project" in the works. It will see double duty not only as a drag car, but also as a land speed car. With being in close proximity to both Bonneville and El Mirage, I'd be a fool to not take advantage of it. If you're not familar with land speed rules, your class is dependant on your style of car, and also engine size. The split between class G and F is 2.0L. Since a 2.4 is most likely going to do drag duty, I am seriously considering a 2.0 as the land speed motor, since it will put me at the high end of the G (1.6-2.0L) instead of at the bottom of F (2.01-3.0). The issue is whether or not the 2.0 block will hold up. Half the info I find says its plenty strong enough, the other half say its garbage. It seems to me its a very similar block besides the deck height. Keep in mind that this motor will see different stresses then a drag motor, it wont see the sudden stress of a launch or hard gear changes, but it will be wound out to its max rpm several times over a few miles.