Where can I learn about exhaust dynamics?

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There is not too much litterature on Exhaust tuning, to my knowledge atleast, I would recommend David Vizards exhaust opinions, he has dyno tested lots of exhaust types and changes.

From what I remember he says 2.2cfm pr. HP.
So 550HP needs an 1210CFM system for an zero-loss type system.

If you go bigger, you dont lose or gain power, but you get less noise reduction.

If you gain power with more backpressure/an restrictive system you have choosen the wrong camshaft, to a degree, since plugging the exhaust acts as shortening the Exh. Duration.

4-2-1 headers are often good for regular V8s because of the odd firing order seen by the headers.

X or H pipe always reduces noise, and usually gains power, never looses, but sometimes no gain and length is non critical.

Muffler design has something to say f.ex Flowmaster vs Dynomax, since they act different to changing the secondary length.
You should search for David Vizard on the net or buy his "how to build HP" book, there he writes about headers and exhaust, (and the rest of an engine), he has been in magazines some times too. He has nice graphs to look at.. HeHe..

Harold Bettes book "Engine Airflow" has some math about header sizes. The book has a lot of math for everything Airflow related..

There are a couple others to, one by a man named Graham Bell, and another one atleast, but they are pretty old, I have not read them. Just seen them in my dads Bookshelf.. I like Vizards fairly easy to read and understand books.