I think if you have to start changing the engine bottom end it gets expensive. It's not
too hard to swap a camshaft (was $180 mentioned for the cam?) and arrange some plumbing.
On another topic, I suggested earlier a look at an introductory text on thermodynamics might be useful, forgetting there's a trend towards easily accessible online course material. There is of course more than one but this looks OK to me:
Thermodynamics Graphical Homepage - Urieli - updated 9/10/2013)