A good porter should be able to keep fuel economy reasonable. Race saws are one thing, but chasing a gas can when you’re trying to get work done is another. Typically strato saws seem to have better economy after porting. Concievably even better than stock in some models.
Modded saws with very large muffler exits, exhaust and intake port duration areas eat more fuel. Some guys will open the exhaust to the max and control performance on the intake side. Raw power can mean raw fuel out the end. Balancing the whole equation is harder and may make sacrifices to pure pulling power.
Personally, if my saw pulls 2 seconds faster in a 28” cut matters less than whether I’m choking to death on exhaust or waiting for a fill-up when I could be taking off my spikes.
That doesn’t mean I run stock saws. Just keep the port width in the 60% range vs 70%, run screens on mufflers, stay below 110% exhaust port area on the muffler outlet, and tune the carb well. If you port your own saws, you can build them to your needs.
