This is a good discussion.

I'm not discounting your statistics, however there are some very important items that you must be made aware of... First of all, it sounds like you used a wheel dyno to do your comparison testing, am I correct? These systems are inherantly flawed. They produce consistent results, but like many other pieces of equipment, are only good to an accuracy of +/- 10 to 15%. That's fine, let's asume the dyno you used was dead nuts accurate. The way these dynomometers measure power is to see how fast you can accelerate a very large heavy drum. This is a transient measurement. This uses an acceleration quanitity to calculate power out put, rather than measuring torque and computing power. This method of measuring acceleration will result in an observed power output increase when there really isn't one.

T=I*a T is torque, I is mass moment of inertia of your entire system, a is acceleration. For a wheel dynomometer to work you must assume that the I for the drum your spinning up is MUCH greater than the I for the system your measuring. Yes, I know that you do a coast down test, but that has it's problems too. Knowing T and the engine speed, power can be calculated. A much more accurate dyno that would result in NOT measuring power increase based on changing mass moment of inertia of your system (lightened flywheel, removing belts and pulley, etc) would be one that samples the power at a steady state speed. This means you would hold the throttle wide open and measure the torque by adjusting the the amount of reverse torque needed to hold the engine at a given speed.

Now... that I've said all this, I am NOT dismissing the fact that lighter wheels, flywheel, and fewer accessories will allow your vehicle to accelerate more quickly... you WILL, but you don't have any more power.

My whole point all along is that the when comparing the performance increase with the discomfort level associated with not even having the option to select using air conditioning... it's not worth it in my mind. <---That's entirely an opinion. Especially when I can maintain the option of still being able to defog my windows, which sounds like it would be an issue in your area, or keep the A/C off and know that I'm robbing only a very small fraction of the available power to turn what is essentially an idler pulley.

BTW, I'm not some displacement loving freak, I own a 1995 Integra GS-R with a JRSC mated to it... And I can proudly say that since the vehicle has been in my possession, NO ONE but me has touched it. Every install, every repair, all done in a tiny two car garage