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[BradyEng at aol.com]

Brad,

You probably won't like what happens to the throttle response when you move
the TBI unit to the end of a longer tuned manifold.  A dyno may or may not
tell you that you're making more torque, but the seat of your pants will
probably be disappointed.  You also may wind up with mixture distribution
problems and horrible emissions because you're using a manifold that was not
designed for wet flow.

If you run good gas (92 octane pump) and keep the boost within reason(4-6psi)
you shouldn't have problems with a published 9.5:1 compression.  This also
assumes you can optimize fuel deliviery(mixture and distribution) and spark
timing.  You would probably like the characteristics of this motor more than
a lower compression higher boost setup.   

Some ways of lowering compression without new pistons would include a cam
with more duration (10 more degrees of duration costs about 0 .5 points of
compression), thicker head gasket (there is usually not much here), and/or
porting the combustion chamber to unshroud the valves.  Are there other heads
available for this engine with larger combustion chambers?.

The best advice I can give you though is to sell the car you have and buy the
turbo version.  Why try to make something almost as good as a factory turbo,
when you can focus on improving the turbo version?  In general, turbo cars
come with premium suspensions, brakes, upgraded cooling systems, upgraded
engine components, transmissions etc.  The cost savings of starting with the
cheaper car are an illusion, even if you don't value your time.  I'm not sure
what the emissions laws are in your end of the country, but if they have an
inspection program the modifications you're considering will smoke the resale
value of the car.

If you don't have much money to spend, and want to really fly, buy a
motorcycle.

Good Luck, and have fun with it whichever way you go.

SBrady