I am glad to let out some of the wierd and wonderful things about engines that I have gathered in over 45 years of building them.
Some of the tricks no longer apply to modern engines, but some do.
I learned by watching and asking stupid questions, probably annoying the heck out of the mechanic doing the job!
I started with Flathead Ford V8's, and found out how to set one up and make it put out lots of power.
The thing is, most of the old tricks still work, and in getting the engine to run more efficiently, you get more HP per gallon.
So the old wives tale is mostly true, the best engine for power and economy is a highly tuned clean running one.
The only reason that we have all these computer controls on our engines today is because we got lazy!!
If we kept our machines in the highest state of tune every Saturday morning, we could throw most of the ECU stuff in the garbage.
My $.02....LOL
Have fun
Bob

would a small port size coupled with a larger diameter primary tube accomplish the same thing? I realize its probably not as efficient but would still serve to break up the backpressure wave.

JP:

Not really; all that does is kill the velocity and we see that on the dyno as a major loss of low & mid-range torque.