I'm not saying to go with the turbo route. I'm saying, bottom of the barrel, any newbie to a turbo swap will be paying $1500 minimum for a DIY system. If it were me, I'd find an engine (sb or bb), have a machine shop go through it, do some small upgrades here and there as needed, and throw it in the car. That way, I know exactly what's going into the car and it should be reliable (depending on who builds it). I would only do a turbo swap if it was a side project after I had a running car to go off of.
I agree, a turbo swap should not be undertaken by a novice. However the OP asked what I would do, not what he should do, which is why I suggested the idea of the centrifugal supercharger which can be done with a very minimum of fabrication skill. You could do it without even owning a welder. I've had more fun playing with stuff like this than my whole scratch build 440 project.
