PEOPLE WITH HONDA KNOWLEDGE PLEASE READ THIS AND GIVE ME AN OPINION!

K im 15 and i dont know a lot about cars but my girlfriend got an 89 civic as her first and it will paid off in a month and she will be upgradeing and im buying the car from her. She is young so the car has been well maintained by her and she bought it from an older woman that was the one time owner so its in great condition for being nearly 20. I have driven it and im not sure that i like the lack of power. Of course its bone stock, which brings me to my question. Should i change the engine out to something bigger for more power or just work with what it has? Im not sure what is in it now but hey its an 89 civic so its not that great. And if you think i should change it, what would you suggest putting in it? If you read this and give me a good reply it would be awesome, thanks.  

The engine in your girl friends car now is a SOHC motor that breathes about as well as a chain smoker with emphysema.  It needs to go asap if you want to add some power.  However, you are only 15 years old so it might be a smarter idea to get some seat time at the track with a low powered engine before you start pulling some power out of another motor that way you learn the basics of car control in a safer manner.  Remember, its 20% car, 80% driver.  

If you eventually do an engine swap these are the motors I would recommend that would fit with minimal fabrication(if any besides new mounts) at their pros/cons:

B16/18/20-strong, and a perfect fit into your chasis, but too high compression for boosting stock internals.

LS Vtec- not much power, but low enough compression to boost on stock internals.

K20Z1- Lots of ECU tuning ability and parts, but the transmission has no limited slip differential.
K20Z3- strong, revs to 8,000rpms, lots of after market, limited slip differential transmission, but plagued with a mass airflow sensor, drive by wire throttle, and no ECU work can be done besides a re-flash due to companies lagging.

As much as I love the K motors (refer to my name) I would have to say your best bet would be a B16 motor.  It will drop right into the chasis with some new motor mounts, which I believe you can buy specific for the swap.  It will also be much cheaper than the K series motors.  You will also have more options.  If you decide to go with boost there are infinite amounts of turbo/supercharger kits available for the B16.  If you stay with an all motor set up the block can be built with a pretty broad selection of stroker kits (forged pistons, piston rings, connecting rods, crankshaft).  You won't feel any remorse with the swap if you end up doing it.

If you have any other questions just throw me a PM.