The Alum. DS isnt worth any HP,,most people get it after they get gears.The steeper the gear,the more drivetrain vibration you will get at higher speeds under heavy acceleration.It just smooths things out/Balance
I would not waste money porting a junky head as the gt40. At almost $1000 thats not money well spent for only 40hp. Trick flow and AFR sell heads that can add 60hp+ or more for a little over a grand.
He has gt40 heads stock, to get them ported would be in the 600$ range shipped, thats 400$ shy of the 1,000$ now minus the 125-150$ for the Tmoss and your still under the 1,000$ by a good amount (enough to get something like a few bolt on's, and if his budget is 1,500$ then he can still get some gears installed after that even).
Like Tmoss said the biggest thing is going to be the cam for the ecu tune, You could get by with the stock cam for awhile as you already have 1.7rr. But if your realy wanting a cam look into some of the sn95 friendly cams.
Hey guys thanks for all the info, I'm waiting until Jan to get everything done. Got a little bit a traveling to do before I can have my car sitting up for a week or so. Thanks for all the advice. I'm going to go with the T-Moss lower and my ported GT-40s with a new cam. I'll check in periodically and keep you guys posted on the project. Duty calls