porting intake questions

Speaking as an engineer and not a racer, I think plum_crazy_dart is correct if the ports on the intake and heads match exactly. If they don't exactly match or align, then rounding the edges of the intake may smooth the transition if the head's surface is further away from the centerline. There is probably always a little mis-match since things like head gasket thickness affect how the ports align (V-8, not L-6). Even the best theories fall apart on the dyno. I doubt anyone has made a detailed study. I bet that 10x more money and 1000x more effort has gone into testing by racers compared to automotive engineers who must work under the sharp pencils of accountants. However, racers results are scattered, so much is speculation, claims and counter-claims. Even dyno results are hard to correlate since not usually apples-apples comparisons.