Flow numbers and max HP potential

rumblefish360 said
What don’t you by calculators. There are few things to bench race about when it comes to cylinder heads making power. But to break it down to simple, the KISS method would be, cfm X 2 = possible power output and only for a hot street engine. It is reasonable accurate for the basic bench race discussion of what a hot street car or mild track car can pull off.

It is not unreasonable to say a honest 300 cfm head can make 600hp and do it without going overboard on a few things that make for race type only material and fuel. You can build a 600 hp pump gas engine. I just wouldn’t try it with a small engine, like a 340 and expect it to be a grandma smooth idle smooth running delight to drive.

Not sure what the first sentence was supposed to mean.

I believe the calculators, I'm just really surprised. I'm not an engine builder and know enough to be dangerous. I'm learning more and more all the time though and the video on choosing a cam was very eye opening. Everything was pretty basic but I'd never had it explained before as it was. So knowing this stuff is to important when it comes to making informed decisions on parts etc.

What I think it's telling me is this.

Heads left alone, will allow for some really nice numbers given the right combination. Doing other things like porting, not only increases the potential, but also lowers the "price" of entry in terms how how easy/hard it is to make power. I better breathing set of heads will allow for more power with less "magic". I'm probably messing that up and sounding like an idiot, but that's what I'm getting.

I'd love to see some pointers to papers/articles that discuss the effects of different aspects such as compression, rod/bore ratios etc on total available power etc.