I'm going to drop the 1.8 out of my car when I paint and thought that I might take the opportunity to "slick" it up some before I put it back in. I will be using the car for my daily driver and plan to run dual carbs (has a single now). I had read that when switching to carbs, you need a cam to match and I doubt that is what the PO did when he placed the single carb on the car during an overhaul. I don't want to drop a ton of money into this engine but was curious what could be done for a reasonable amount of $.

exchange it for a 2.0L

seriously, 96mm pistons....?

96 mm KB's and a 2mm overbore on your stock steel barrels, rebuild the heads and open up the valves, slap in a NEW Web Cam and that'll get you 1911cc. That's what I'm doing right now. I've got L-FI though. You have to get a cam suited for carbs though. Any bigger than that and you need 2.0 parts.
Oh yeah, and back date the exhaust to let it breath better.

take billy squier's advice... "stroke it"

a 2.0L crank and 96mm pistons will make a nice 2056cc engine...

btw, you need a 3mm bore out on your cylinders, not 2mm.. the 1.8 is 93mm not 94mm

also a huge improvement will be to go dual carbs... a singe weber progressive(what most single-carb setups use) isn't enough... 2 weber 40's are a great addition and are big enough for you to increase the engine again later.