I had a good experience with the JE pistons, Eagle rods, and Clevite bearings. If I had to do it again, I would consider a piston that didn't require so much clearance. I would absolutely stick with name brand internals and bearings. There is way too much work involved here to risk with knock-off parts. I also recommend that you build the engine with stock or lower compression for the future addition of a turbo kit. If it is power your friend is after, NA is a long and painful road. Turbo will get good results quickly and you can keep it simple, if you have self discipline. Most of us get addicted to the quest for more power and go off the deep end, but that isn't required.
On the subject of head bolts, it is the alloy and minimum cross-sectional area that mostly determines strength. Since our head can be bolted to a 2.4l block, you'll probably find the cross-sectional area to be the same. Since they are both NA engines from the same manufacturer, you'll probably find that the alloy is similar. If I were a betting man, I'd say the strength was similar enough to not be worth the swap.
Lightened pulleys are a good concept. The improvement in acceleration of the rotating assembly is pretty minor for the money you pay. I'd put it on a secondary list. If you buy a crank pulley, make sure it has a steel sleeve that fits over the crank snout. It will have to be heated for installation, but is durable enough for repeated removal/installation. The cheap ones are solid aluminum and either won't fit tightly enough (use crank bolt head to hold in place) or won't survive repeated removal/install.
Lightened flywheels do make a difference you can feel. The engine will rev up faster. The problem is that it will rev down faster as well. The stock ECU can have trouble with stalling and maintaining a stable idle after dropping the clutch while engine braking to a stop. Getting an aluminum flywheel was one of the best and worst things I ever did.
