That should be the 214hp 3.5, and the weight is like a lightly loaded lwb gen1. Maybe less than that. Should scoot pretty good. If it's tired, is it misfiring at higher rpms? The coil packs on these get tired fairly early, or have a fairly high failure rate. A tuned butt can feel it along with a hand on the shifter to get the engine vibration beat. Old injectors need cleaning, too. A can of Seafoam in the tank, burn that out, then repeat.

The later model engine is a complicated swap. Fix yours. Rent a cheapie car for any down days. By the week is pretty cheap. You can do a lot of fixin' in a week with two weekends in there.