what should i do
 

i wanted to get some opinions of what to do with my 1990 gt hatchback. when i got it i gave it a red paint job and got a mach 1 hood with the ram air kit. then i got 1 5/8 bbk shorty headers with the off road h-pipe, and got 2 1/2 in. pipes with flowmasters. know that im getting some money from the IRS i wanted to do some work to the engine but wanted some advice on what i should spend the $1500 i'm getting. My buddies are trying to convince me to buy a 347 or 306 stroker kit but it's my daily driver and i wanted to see what else i could do.

sc-trim or paxton novi 1000, heads like tfs or afr165's, and you might be able to find a good cam and intake to go with the heads. either way you'll have a huge improvement in power.

H/C/I !!!

The best bang for the buck as far as heads go are the Twisted Wedge. AFR's are better but start at like $1300 for 165's.
You can get a set of TW from summit for $999 I believe. Then for like $600 more you can get a nice cam/intake combo to compliment the heads. I know it's already over budget but trust me, do them all at once! You wont notice a huge increase if you just do the one or the other cause they all work hand in hand together, but as a package it can be a nasty combo. Good luck!

I would agree with doing a H/C/I combo. Doing this you will notice a huge difference. And if its your daily driver just go over the stuff your looking at and make sure its not so agressive that it will kill any streetability. And as far as heads go, there are alot of nice heads out there. I ran a set of edelbrock performer 5.0s that were ported and they did great.

I agree with the heads/intake/cam suggestions. The only reason I would consider a 347 is if your engine has a ton of miles on it and it's burning oil like crazy. If the bottom end is solid, then go with the H/C/I.

As far as heads and intakes go... a lot of guys (like myself) are constantly upgrading, so there are some very high quality used parts on the market. You can save a ton of money if you're not opposed to buying used parts. In the past I've sold a pair of aluminum heads that were in perfect condition for half of what they sell for new. There's very little that can go wrong with an intake manifold. You can easily inspect it for flaws. With that in mind.... your $1500 can go a long way. I'd say $700 for some really nice aluminum heads (TW or Edelbrocks) and $250-300 for an intake. That leaves you at least $500 for a new cam and even possibly an 8.8 gear set. Your car will scream! Just my $0.02