Sorry about harping on the tune up and other general maintenance - nobody at this side of the screen knows, and I've seen so many folks ignore that and want to toss CAIs (hint: The ORIGINAL intake is a cold air intake, most CAIs are hot air intakes, sucking hot air from the engine bay instead of the cooler air under the front fender) , bigger MAFs, and bigger injectors - without making sure the spark plugs work first!
You can add changing pulleys to underdrive the accessories.
Also, check the "For Sale" area for when a Ken Wagner (? sorry if I got the name wrong!) dual intercooler comes around.
Get a really good tune on that box. Lonnie at Blue Oval Chips (forum name lonnie .. ) is supposed to be the hot stuff on tunes, but there's others out there also. Just be aware that the tune isn't cheap - until you compare it to, say, the price of a transmission rebuild. Then it's dirt cheap.
Beef up the cooling - make sure that the air flows properly. Take a water hose and flush the radiator and A/C condensor fins out from the engine bay side.
Automatic or 5 speed?
If automatic, 3.73 to 4.10 won't be a bad choice. If standard, I'd stick with 3.27 (due to the stiffer first gear in the 5 speed).
The late model blower will pretty much blow the cheap upgrades at that point. Most anything else, and you're getting ready to lay some bucks down (replace tranny and converter for the automatic with, say, a DirtyD0g or SilverFox 4R70W with, say, the Baumanator to drive it - and a 3800 to 5000 stall torque converter.)
Someone who's actually run new exhaust on a SC can chime in here, but I'd also look at the Mandrel Exhaust Systems (
www.mandrelexhaustsystems ) offering for the rear true-duals exhaust and use a X-style muffler in the front, with custom exhaust to the X-muffler.
RwP