Right, to clear it all up I'll list the main points/problems
Inlet valves and heads - fairly good sized valves 44mm in/38mm ex.
Ports are 40mm diameter. As a 2 valve per cylinder engine goes, this is about the same spec as a big valve headed Pinto cylinder chamber.
The biggest valves that can be fitted to this head are 46mm inlet and 39.8mm exhaust, so a slight gain. Ports cannot be opened up widely as there are some water channels running very close to the inlets.
Cams are very mild, only 6.5mm lift with very low duration and overlap. Uprated cams will give a 25% increase in lift and duration so the valves are held open longer and higher.
Throttle body is 55mm, inlet manifold has no restrictions. 55mm throttle body is good for about 22psi of flow through this capacity engine, even if better breathing with cams. Beyond this it begins to create a pressure drop on boost (note all the piping from turbo to inlet should not drop below 55mm to retain this capacity)
Pistons - No problems here, the stroke has been shortedned on the 2,5 engine, but the piston crowns have been increased to compensate. ..but, if you were going to build a super dooper engine, you will probably invest in a forged set of pistons, simply for the sake of it.
Liners - Never any reported problems with cracking. All liners on this engine do not overlap/touch each other, and are thicker on the 2,5 engine, than on the 3.0 A610 engine.
Conrods - Forged as standard.
Turbo - standard or hybrid, feature a turbine housing with a 2.25" max outlet. This will limit power in relation to a Cosworth/Lotus style housing which has a 2.75" outlet and can mount up to a 2.75-3" downpipe.
Turbine housing size is in relation to output power (once manifold problems have been sorted) 0.36 (standard) will flow up to 240bhp, 0.48 housing will flow up to 270, 0.63 will flow up to 370. The larger the housings the more lag. Cosworth type 0.48 will flow up to 290, and 0.63 will flow up to 400 (with matched exhaust) All hybrids will need to have larger compressor wheels to increase flow.
Manifolds - Crap. 3x1.25" primaries leading straight into a 1.65" header to each side of the turbo. Its restrictive in diameter, and in length. Requires free flowing headers, larger bore, finalising in at least 2" diameter, or twin turbos.
Exhaust - Requires 2.5" downpipe at least and free flowing exhaust.
Ecu and injectors - Can only cope with around 250-260bhp of fuel flow. Can only cope with around 16-17psi of boost handling on the map system.
Oil cooler - Would require seperate radiator for high power applications.
Intercooling - Big intercooler/water injection or chargecooling.
If the standard ecu on the GTA was remappable and the injectors were larger there wouldnt be a real problem.
On any other engine, you would concentrate on cooling the boost, running about 20psi, and remapping the standard management.
If the GTA came with a ecu that could be remapped, it would be fairly cheap and easy to do, but because of the limit around 16-17psi, we will never get that extra bulk of power, without changing the ecu completely.
On the R21's they have this more modern type of ecu. They come with 175bhp as standard, but can be wound up to 20-25psi (no cutout limits) and some people are reaping around 230-250 on relatively standard engines. One guy has 284bhp at 22psi on a standard engine bar a larger turbo and remapped standard ecu.
So, even though cams, valves, manifolds will reap more 'natural' power on the GTA, simply concentrating on cooling and mapping with more boost can overcome these deficiencies and get fairly close to the 300bhp level.
Essay over