pgfpro, I took the time to read through your Eclipse thread awhile back. I was very impressed. I had thoughts of things I might have done differently, but you made it work for you. Job well done!
I don't buy into the "reducing pumping losses" theory I keep hearing here. I have a Jeep with a 5-speed manual trans. If I'm going down a hill, I can turn the key off to kill the engine. With it in gear, I stomp the throttle, then let off, then repeat (cable throttle, not DBW). For the life of me, I can't feel any difference! My take on it is that you may reduce pumping losses on the intake stroke shooting for WOT (or as close as you can come to it), but you pay it back on the compression stroke, as there is more mass to compress. My finding is that it becomes a wash. With that in mind, I like to target AFRs in the 18:1 range for normal operation. It's lean enough to make sure every hydrogen and carbon atom from the HC fuel molecules mates up with an oxygen, but not so lean as to reek havoc on the combustion process. I am fully aware of a few examples of ~30:1 AFRs successfully implemented by folks like Bob Krupa (Firestorm Spark Plugs); so if everything else is right, it can work.
Thank you for the kudos. It might be interesting to chat sometime. You seem to "get it" way more than most. If you watched the Head Porting videos I posted above, you will understand how I tried to follow the bouncing ball from air cleaner to throttle body to intake port to combustion chamber... I did a custom piston set for one of the Chrysler 2.2 engines designed to use higher-than-reasonable compression for off-throttle power, yet tolerate reasonable boost on pump gas. It was for a rallye car. Here's a picture of the piston.
