Hey, im not too familiar with the 88' Stanza but i own and drive a 92' Stanza XE. The powerplant is a KA24E motor like what youre looking for. I can honestly say its a nice strong motor to go with, but they are notorious for burning oil. As far as mods go, there arent too many out there and almost impossible to find. I know a few websites that sell camshaft upgrades but thats about it. The single cam motor wasnt built to be a performance motor. What ive got on my KA24E is: air intake, exhaust, clutch, flywheel, and LSD 5 speed transmission. If i had to guess im probably only pushing about 150ish horsepower to the wheels. I have over 261,000miles on it and its still kicking