timing and boost go hand in hand, but some people like the feeling of different setups. i am a fan of high boost and i always will be. timing is the cheap and easy way to make more power. that being said, i think you should drop to the 3.5 and tune the crap out of your car and im sure youll fall in love all over again. until the next time you think you want to drop a pulley and you have that **** eating grin on your face again. i wouldnt run much more than 18* of timing WOT for a car on the street because with that much timing youll be very lucky to survive a decent knock event, but the same would go for boost as well. you have to tune conservatively for a car you want to run for a long time. just run it a little fat (rich) with a decent amount of timing and then put whatever pulley you can run on the car without it knocking.
that is my two cents.
