Dog bone is in 100% shape. nothing wrong with it. Ill snap a pic when I get home this afternoon. Its looks like the stock one with red bushings in it. lol
Intercooler upgrades allow you to raise the timing a notch or two. (stock turbo with APR chip, intake and exhaust I was able to bump it 1.5deg and be pulling around 3-5 when I logged which is a good spot to be in). Unless your shortening up the charge run, throttle response doesnt really change. very little is gained by getting bigger charge pipes (actually bigger isnt better, smaller increases air speed vs volume. the small turbo wont huff the ammount of air a 30R will so you want velocity over volumn).
a nice water meth kit would be fun too. keep the stock smic and run meth. does the same thing, cools the intake manifold and the air, and also effectivly rasises the flash point of the fuel (like running 93oct vs 87oct). so you can raise timing and make more power. run 93 oct and you can tune it almost like your running race gas. BUT, its consumable power like NOS almost. need to keep the water/meth tank full. if it goes empty and your on the agressive tune, knock and ping is right around the corner. you dont need to run meth either, you can run other mixtures of shit you can get from Advance Auto of you wanted, do some research and see what I am talking about.