[johnta1]

There have been nascar engineers that have been let go for a head redesign that was based on "physics" was supposed to be 12.5 cfm more per cylinder. The porter did as told, after many many hrs of work, the motor made 40 less h.p.

That sounds like the problem to me?
He didn't base it on 'physics', he based it on his opinion of what the physics should be.

There is more to porting than just getting 12.5 cfm more flow.
As Don said, there is a lot of other things that need to be determined.
FPS flow, SSR profile, etc.

Was the head that flowed more also textured?



Some of the problems with this thinking, is that 'because one does things for a reason' usually means they don't have a clue what is actually happening. This guy did it, and the previous guy before him did it, etc.

One would have to figure out why something didn't work or why something does work.
And be able to recognize what they are observing.
(which usually is lots of trial and errors)