If I were you (which I'm not) this is what I would do. Pull the head off the 95. Oversized valves are easily found on Ebay. Have the head rebuilt with oversized valves. You could also get some of the components coated by Swain Techniques and grab some of the cams for hydraulic lifters (I forget who makes 'em maybe Comp?) and a set of adjustable cam gears (good for tuning in the cams and lightening the rotating mass).

So let's review.

1) pull cyl head

2) disassemble it and have it hot tanked and checked for warpage (may need to be slighty shaved down)

3) rebuild with either stock parts and seals or with oversized valves and hotter cams/ maybe get some stuff coated you could also have it mildly ported at this point and the valves unshrouded

4) Install head with cam gears

Then you will need complementing mods like intake and exhaust and lightened underdrive pulley to uncork your free-breathing head.

You can pretty much "rinse and repeat" with the rotating assembly from the bottom end of the parts car.

List of power adders in order of ease, cost, availability, and power.

When I say N/A (naturally aspirated) I am refering to real engine mods, not simple bolt-ons.

Ease;
1) Nitrous
2) S/C
3) Turbo
4) N/A

Cost;
1) Nitrous
2) S/C
3) Turbo
4) N/A

Availability;
1) Nitrous
2) N/A
3a) S/C
3b) Turbo

Power;
1) Turbo
2) Nitrous
3a) N/A
3b) S/C

Reliability;
1) N/A
2) if properly installed and maintained, all other power adders are the same

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Pro's of Nitrous;
cheap, easy install, lot's of power, no other mods required, as you mod the engine the nitrous becomes more effective

Con's of Nitrous;
if you are an idiot or screw something up then your engine goes bye-bye, have to refill the bottle, bad reputation

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Pro's of S/C;
good HP, minimal mods needed to support the install, can be easily tuned, part fitament and availability is better than that of the turbo option

Con's of S/C;
takes power to make power, lack of TQ, install is not for the average person so you'll have to find a shop

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Pro's of Turbo;
lots of HP, lots of TQ

Con's of Turbo;
major mods required to support extra power, second highest cost option, install can be tricky, need to relocate the battery, needs more tuning than a S/C

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Pro's of N/A;
you are building power the old fashioned way, least impact on engine life & reliability, can add nitrous later on

Con's of N/A;
cannot add a Turbo or S/C later on, expensive, parts are harder to come by, power is limited

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This is not the perfect list, just a general guideline. The weighing pro's versus cons should be done by each individual. Invest a little time in research and planning a project, and it will pay off.

I'll have to disagree with a couple of your points/concepts.

I think the better way to go about this is to figure out your end state/goal you wish to attain.

Will it be raced? Is fuel economy/daily drivability a concern? Do you need stock type durabilty/reliabilty?

When it comes to cost (depending on the answers to the above questions) you can spend equal amounts of money on any of the power adders. If you want to just add a quick 50 hp that you can turn on and off for weekend/racing use then by all means go with nitrous, and you'll more than likely still see 150K+ mile. If you want a bigger shot and you want the car to last more than say 50k mi post-modification; you might wanna consider beefing up the internals, or at least a tear down/inspect/rebuild.

For SC vs TC there really is no contest the turbo smacks down the SC every time with better reliability/power, yet many people think an SC is "cheaper". You can turbo/sc a stock engine just don't expect to run over 250fwhp and see 100K + miles. You'll need to beef up the bottom end to keep it reliable.

For bang for the buck power NA really does have nod. You can get a full-bore-fully-built-race cylinder head for less than $2000 including cams! dial it back a little bit we're takling less than $1500 for KILLER street cyl head. For NA power its all about the "special sauce" in the cyl head/intake mani combo. FYI you can totaly drop an SC on a full tilt NA motor it's just all about the tune.

OK done rambling

Originally posted by ohsigmachi:

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For bang for the buck power NA really does have nod. You can get a full-bore-fully-built-race cylinder head for less than $2000 including cams! dial it back a little bit we're takling less than $1500 for KILLER street cyl head. For NA power its all about the "special sauce" in the cyl head/intake mani combo. FYI you can totaly drop an SC on a full tilt NA motor it's just all about the tune.

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ah, the "other davis" plan