Our Nickies would most definately make it "ultra-reliable"-- no doubt there. We have some smaller bore type 4 Nickies left over from our last run that i'd be happy to wheel and deal on :-) We could set you up with some 96's and you could save some money by using Keith Black 96's...just a thought.
I'm in the process of building up my 2320 and i've gone all out and had the heads coated with a thermal dispersant and I have had the exhaust ports ceramic coated as well, as was suggested in another post. The dry film lubricant idea is an excellent one as well for the gears and even the bearings. You could go so far as coat the rods and crank with oil shedding coatings. I've looked into Calico Coatings myself; their site can be found at
http://www.calicocoatings.com/ . You could most definately opt for the cryo'ing. Coating the piston tops is a mixed bag-- you'll increase the thermal efficiency but decrease the volumetric efficiency, sacrificing about 1 horsepower for a little better fuel economy. I'd personally spend the money on coating the piston skirts to reduce friction, but that might be overkill with nikasil.
One thing to ask the rulebook- do you have to use the stock intake runners and plenum, or can you swap in a different one. Our estimates show our intake should be a bolt-on 11HP with the stock d-jet on a 2.0L. Worth a try :-)
Take care,
Charles Navarro
LN Engineering
http://www.LNengineering.com