E320 Can the air flow of the cylinder head be improved?

[andyrob]

Whilst I'm changing the head gasket on my E320 and reconditioning/skimming(only if found to be necessary?) the head, does anyone have any practical knowledge of the merits of porting the head or otherwise tuning it?
Does this head lend itself to improvement in gas flows, or did Mercedes get it spot on?
(Haven't removed it yet so I haven't actually inspected the shape yet).
I'm told that the twin-turbo version had the compression ratio lowered, but the head remained standard, anybody know if this is correct?

 

[landover]

Yes it will improve perfomance if you polish the ports out Get the head bluprinted and fit new headers on the manifold

 

[andyrob]

Errr,
"polishing the ports out" - just making the sidewalls shiny is unlikely to do anything to improve the airflow, indeed on some designs of head, polishing the ports will impair the air flow characteristics. (Fluid dynamics)

Manufacturers make parts within tolerances, the act of "Blueprinting" refers to the practice of selecting each part of the engine, especially bushes, bearings and reciprocating parts liable to frictional resistance, such that each item is at the most advantageous extreme of these tolerances.
Apart from the valves and equalising the combustion chamber volumes, there isn't anything to blueprint in a cylinder head and I'm reconditioning the head anyway.

I thought "headers" was just the american name for manifolds?

Has anyone modified a 6-cylinder 3.2ltr. engine?
Is there any advantage in modifying the shape of the inlet/exhaust ports or the combustion chamber?