To expand on the hemi point: When I say “over-scavenging”, I mean fresh mixture leaving through the exhaust during overlap, which is after the job of clearing residual exhaust gas has been done. Scavenging itself is desirable. The question for anyone that plays with engines, is how much of the incoming charge stays in the cylinder when the exhaust valve closes.
A wide-angle, two-valve hemi makes that tradeoff sensitive. With both valves open near TDC, the intake and exhaust can have a direct path across the chamber. The piston dome, valve placement, port direction and the pressure wave arriving at the exhaust all affect the actual path. If the exhaust is pulling strongly at that moment, improving its low-lift flow or holding the exhaust valve open longer may remove more residual gas—but it may also pull some of the fresh charge straight through. This is a pretty common phenomenon with hemi's and it shows right up in the BSFC curve or with some crazy EGT numbers. That is why a smaller or slightly sunk exhaust valve, or less exhaust timing near the seat, can sometimes help an engine even when the exhaust flowbench number goes down. It is a combination, not a rule for every hemi, but happens more often than not.
While I did poo-poo the flowbench, it is still valuable. It tells us about the port and valve’s flow capacity at a given lift and pressure difference, and it can expose a bad turn or separation. What it does not reproduce is the running engine’s changing valve lift, moving piston, hot blowdown flow, returning exhaust waves, or simultaneous flow through both valves. Flowing at 40 inches of water may make some port behavior easier to see, but it does not turn a steady test into an overlap test.
So my advice, is that I would be cautious about calling either the biggest exhaust flow number or the strongest anti-reversion step a win by itself. The result to watch is trapped charge and torque across the operating range, with the intake, cam timing and complete exhaust system in place - which on a bike, it's easy to feel in the butt dyno.