Has anyone really gotten into their engines and played around?  I'm wondering the cost and logistics of things like:

Shaving cylinder head to increase compression
Forged rod, piston
port, polish, valve job

Really just want to know if anyone has shaved the head and if their are any clearance problems involved, but i hadn't seen the topic covered (maybe just didn't look hard enough ), so i thought i'd open up the discussion.

Hello Twistytwist,
before the savage I had a Ducati 450 Scrambler, a big single by 1960's standards, which was a truly "tunable" bike, as it shared the same engine block as the track version, known as "Desmo".
You will certainly gain by porting the head, however a true head job involved working on ports, valves, compression and camshaft timing.
Done that you look at the carburettor and air filter on the intake side, and the exhaust, both in terms of 'tuned length of manifold' and backpressure generated by the silencer.
On engines where aftermarket parts do exist, it is often a matter of playing 'Meccano', replacing old parts with new ones. On engines where this option is not viable, then you should either refer to a reputable specialist or think twice before you do anything which is not reversable.
Possibly a good option coukd be that of playing around with a DR engine from a Suzuki enduro (650, 750, 800!), and fit that into the chassis for 'fun' days, leaving your LS engine standard .
I am looking at precisely this route.
Maurizio

Shaving the head to increase compression will cause timing problems with the cam. You are shortening the distance that the timing chain has to travel but not changing the pitch of the chain. It might be simpler to pull the head and have the combustion chamber decreased with aluminium weld. It's more than I want to do but might be another route to investigate. Just a thought on it all.

I'm game.

You have caught my attention on the different piston, I'll raid my piggybank for one.