The world is your clamshell Leigh, but how big or deep are the pockets?
A good manifold is great, and of course we're always ready for that no problem, but i'd work on getting a bit more in before worrying about getting it out.
I'm set up for carb conversion initially, (and Kev is considering the route too), which will give better tune control to me personally rather than the crude stock motronic system. It lacks any real processing power and speed, and a quality chip or reflash is very hard to find these days. Most chips, including the commonly known "squadra", have been found to be little more than a higher rev limit rather than the stock hard cut where the map simply ceased to be written!
Whilst ever you retain the stock Air Flow Meter and system, fuelling adjustments really are minimal, and not likely to create any meaningful difference other than running correctly in my opinion.
Bryan / BLS continued to use carbs for quite some time, and making max power was never the issue with them, they made very good power and torque, but revving as high as their engine now does with wild cams to make its outright power meant that carbs will compromise the drivability at lower revs, so the move to fully programmable injection was to iron out the compromises and to fuel better over a larger rev range, Mainly!
Vernier pulleys are available to buy, but i don't see much point of them until your also using some hot cams to dial them in with maximum gain. With stock cams, again the improvements will be very hard to justify against the expense, plus they're quite a faff to set up on a 16v! You could always modify your stock pulleys to be adjustable, which is what i'd likely do to start with.
I've got a pattern for lightening the 16v flywheels, and can machine them up no problem, or if you move to carbs i can also machine a none efi flywheel up to much lighter weight as they don't require the trigger wheel attached as the efi cars do, and the difference between them is really quite large!
The bottom end of 16v engines are quite improved over earlier engines, and should stand considerable tuning before protesting. The cranks and blocks are better, the oil pumps are better, and of course they are also the youngest, so actual fatigue is less of a consideration.
The heads are probably the hardest to improve on, although are potentially an area of notable gain, but with minimal scope for larger valves and porting etc without BIG expense and very specialist expertise, so i'd consider that last personally.
If it were me, today, i'd go carb conversion (40mm+), programmable ignition (Omex or Nodiz), lightened flywheel, and exhaust, and consider that a good "Tune" package. See how you feel about it, and see what you want to spend after that, if anything?
All that said, i'm still seriously considering selling all my current stock of parts needed to achieve the above, in order to fund a turbo conversion, BUT the real world considerations are how far can i go within a reasonable safety margin for the drivetrain, which as you already mentioned yourself, the gearbox is something of an achilles heel!
Myself, Bryan, and Tom were discussing the potential differences of this type of tuning before, and it begs the question, "would you rather have 150/160 bhp you can spank, or 180+bhp but have to nurse the drivetrain?"
Its a risk, but then again, a lightened 33 with 150+bhp is a real world possiblity and would be a hoot to drive!
John boy just politely pointed out the problem with my cams and your car. They are for an 8v. Hey ho !
