Well, in a no-holds-barred amp with a power supply designed for it, going from 8 onms load to a 4 ohm load your wattage should double. This amp consistently clips at 505 into 8, but can only get 378 into 4. Something isn't right here. Joee touched on it about the front end voltage dropping with the rail voltage, as the stock board has a zener regulated low voltage supply. so it drops as the rails drop. Not so on his board. From what little I know about te protection circuit, it was designed to limit damage to the output stage should excessive current be drawn. This limit was also tailored after the output of the day which was the XPL-909....not very robust by today;s 21196's...
So it's entirely possible there is something wrong with the protection circuit.... Joe could tell us, but I'm trying to reason through it, hence the ampere figures.