Thinking about a few budget-priced mods

I have an 87 Cherokee Laredo that's will be fixed up and road worthy in a month (I've been restoring it for the past 8 months) and I was wondering what would be the best low priced mods I could do. I was thinking about a Homebrew FIPK (like the one Dino Savva made) or a new higher flowing exhaust. I was just wondering if any one else had a few ideas. It'll be a while before I get to doing this though, cause I still have to finish the body work and get her painted. I just thought I'd come up with a game plan, so when I'm ready to start doing stuff, I have a list of priorities and I know what I'm in for.

Thanks for your help.

Replace the main cat with a $40 Carsound high-flow cat from e-bay, and get rid of the old crimped stock downpipe from manifold to cat. Go to your nearest muffler shop and ask them to make you a new one without the crimps.
I'm glad you like my homebrew FIPK idea. You can further improve the intake by boring out your Renix TB to 58mm. You'll need to fab up a 58mm throttle plate or get someone else with the right tools to do it for you.

Thanks again, I've emailed you a few times about performance mods and the oil blowby problems I'm having with my early 4.0. My restoration is coming along good, and by about June I'll be ready to start focusing on the engine. My crimped exhast pipe is ready to fall off, so I'm going to have it repalced with a less restrictive one. I think, because of the age of my car, that a catalytic converter isn't required here. What would be the pros and cons, other than increased emissions, of cutting off the cat?

If you don't need a cat for emissions purposes, get rid of it and replace it with a length of straight pipe. You'll gain a little in performance. The only penalties are more noise and higher NOx emissions.