No offense dude.
The words Cheap and Go Fast don't go together in a sentence.
I feel your pain though brother. Its hard to persuade my wife to let me spend money on a fourteen year old car.
The four banger springs, sway bar removal (I couldn't tell when I took mine out), Battery in back etc. Are all good Ideas and will help, but it won't help that tranny problem If you do get more bite in the back it will just make the transmission slip worse or fail. Sad but true.
UMC302 had an AOD for a bill, That might get you through for a while.
Lynntech makes a good manual valvebody to stop the short shift and with a flip of a switch you can have overdrive.
