lol this is great.
first off. Inline pro ran FMU, 450cc injectors, afc, missing link and 255lph pump on their cars for years. not timing devices at all and had cars in the mid 10 second range. I know there are a few integra 4 doors runnin low 11's on that set up daily driven.
as for the head gasket again I am laughing. yes it modifies the quench on the motor and can be bad but my car NEVER detonated on that set up ever and that is 17psi on stock ITR internals which are about where he is compression wise. My compression was 9.6:1 with that head gasket and the car ran high 12's with AC and PS on stock internals and street tires for over 2 years. on top of that when we pulled the motor apart the pistons and rods were all still perfect even at 92k miles.
point is that Hondata and neptune are better than a FMU and can be tuned better but uberdata is not. infact find a tuner willing to risk his rep by taking a chance with uberdata.
again it is totally possible to make 400-450whp on stock honda internals with that head gasket. I would not daily drive the car but it is possible and if you treat it right it will last for a reasonable amount of time.
here are some tips for tuning with the set up I said above
1. keep it under 14psi on pump gas
2. do not dial AFC back past 35-39% because it will begin to show major changes in ignition timing
3. Do not tune on some half ass AF gauge. get a real wideband. tune the motor for 11:1-11.5:1 af ratio because of the advanced timing from the AFC.
Like I said before save if you have the cash get hondata. that is the way to go and the drivablity of my car with hondata is amazing. no matter what get that head gasket. compression has very little to do with turbo spool and is more based on gearing because boost is just a byproduct of load and compression has nothing to do with load but gearing does.
disclaimer- if you blow up your motor it isn't my fault or the FMU's it is the fact you did a bad job of tuning and didn't take care of the car.
PS- if your bro had a "hooked up" galant vr4 you would think he would tell you what you need to know and not rely on honda-acura.net. tell him if he wants to go fast to order some parts from slowboy racing or garagedefeat.com