He's probably using a modified OBD0 engine harness. All you would have to do is swap a OBD1 harness on there.
Just ask about the engine. "High compression pistons" is not good enough; he should be able to tell you specifically what's in there. Ask about who did the head work, etc. Receipts would be nice. Also, if the motor is indeed tuned than the ECU would be chipped; just open the ECU and look in there(with the connectors pointed left, there's an area on the bottom right where the chipping stuff goes).
A bore-scope would help you verify the pistons though. You can try to look inside through the spark-plug hole see if the piston has a dome(very hard though). Since the motor runs, also try to get a compression test.
The transmission you probably won't be able to use anyway, but the AWD transmission has an output for the drive shaft that goes to the rear.