Great! As I thought. So my original question stands: Would the KO3 GTI be able to handle 310-360bhp.
general opinion from the tuners is the regular GTi internals are good for 330-340ish
APR, VF etc etc all tune ther stage 3 type kits for the 200hp 2.0T FSI cars to around the 375BHP mark as this is seen to be a safe power level for the standard internals. By safe, they feel its super safe! Hence why they would tune the cars to that level.. They could get a lot more pretty easily, and the engine would take it. But not for long..
The reason as far as I can tell for the bent rods with K04 turbo's in the US have both been bad tuning, I have a PM from one of the guys saying that both failures were down to massive amounts of advanced ignition, huge heat, pinking etc etc..
Both of those cars were on 'custom' engine maps..
Honestly, K04 on a K03 engine is safe, and Im not just saying that because I have one for sale..
Jonny