L7 Box Design

I'm in the process of building my L7 box and I have a question regarding the location of the port. I'm using the 4.5cf design found on kicker's website, which has the port comming out of the side of the box right behind the sub. What I want to do is design the box where both the sub and port opening are on the same plan.....i.e this is the design I want. Now I've looked at the spec for the 4.5cf enclosure and I noticed that the lenght of the port is on 14.75inches while the enclosures depth is around 19inches. Could I just turn the port around on the kicker design to come out on the front side of the box instead of the side without having to do drastice changes to the design? I've notice that if I do this there will on be around 4.25inches separating the back of the port from the backwall of the enclosure. Will having on 4.25inches of space cause a problem?

Yes to the first question and no to the second...which means proceed as you are planning.Build the box so that it performs well in the worst case scenario and, in return, it will reward you at all times.

Man thank you guys both. Now I can go to home depot and buy my wood to get started