[mrnickleye]

Have the machine shop do a '3 cut' on the valves when they do the valve job. This will give it better air flow into/out of the cylinders.

Actually porting (matching the head to the manifold mating surfaces), and polishing (grinding the inside to a smooth finish) the intake will allow quicker, smoother airflow into cylinders. Drag racers have been doing this for ever, with excellent results.

Also...I was waiting for someone to ask about eliminating the hot coolant being passed through the throttlebody. I was thinking about this too. The MAIN reason it is there...to warm up the air sooner for emmisions control, and better engine running during cold operation.
All engines have some form of this. Old V8s ran exhaust through the intake manifold under the carburetor. The main reason was that the fuel AND air ran through the manifold, so it needed to be warmed up to mix it together.

Ported fuel injection (supra) only runs air through the manifold, so I was thinking about by-passing the coolant at TB, too. But it is very cold all winter here, so I'll wait till summer to try it.

Also, coolant runs through the ISC valve (idle speed control), too.

My thought also is that I would do as mentioned above on connections, because if you cap off the hose connections at the block (to eliminate the hoses), you might cause a problem with coolant flow. In other words, the 'flow' may be needed to help other places in the engine stay cool.