Heres a Friday morning question for you Chip.
How much power and torque do you reckon you could create from a bone stock F4R that had a completely dynamic valvetarin setup. A camshaft that can change its lift, duration and any other possible variable on the fly at any given RPM. (i guess like pneumatic/hydraulic systems on an F1 engine). Its something that always interested me.
Very acedemic question giving that it would cost millions to develop etc.
And the "bone stock" is even more acedemic as the head would have to be completely different, recast to allow the new components to be squeezed in etc so you would end up with different CR as well if you wanted by definition.
The limit is pretty much 100lbft per litre generally speaking for any N/A engine though when going into those sort of levels of development, and power is then a function of revs, so if you wanted to use standard rods and bolts you'd still be stuck at sub 8krpm really, and the standard pistons wouldnt allow you to even hit that 100lbft per litre target, so I reckon even 250bhp would be about it even with the worlds best inlet setup and exhaust and all the changes you mention.
I was involved in a project that gave me access to chat to some of the Toyota F1 people to talk to and they were saying that they could see over 20Krpm reliably from their engine but the rules didnt let them. At those sort of rpm, you can near to 350bhp per litre N/A, but obviously thats not on any of the standard F4R bits, but thats pretty much the limit of technology at the moment.
TBH if you want big power from a standard F4R bottom end the most sensible way of doing it is forced induction really, especially when the 197 head fits straight on and makes 260bhp/250lbft a piece of cake judging by the results we got from Jack at MWM's turbo car that I helped map.