Don't get me wrong, I used to spend my weekends grease-covered, swapping out motors after rebuilding them and adding extra go-fast parts in other cars I used to have, so I'm well aware of what qualifies as a PITA...regardless of whether I did it myself or not.
A friend of mine just recently bought a VX since he liked mine so much. His had a blown motor, but other than that its in good shape. He paid 1800 bucks for it! He bought a 3.5 liter he paid 500 bucks for from a 98 trooper and put that in and it runs like a champ. He got a steal! What a great deal. Maybe you could have gone that route and replaced the motor. The only thing he had to do was put the VX intake manifold on it, but everything else is the same. Thats too bad you got rid of your VX, it looks sharp!
Don't make me look back guys. I'm not looking back. I can't. I loved my VX. I would stand in my driveway and just look at it. It was beautiful. It had a bulldog stance like none other. I had 17,000.00 into it in 14 months and when I faced putting another 5,000.00 into it I just couldn't do it. It was/ is time to focus on fixing something else....like the house and my wife wanted me to have something that with 4 doors. She called it the Vehicurse.