So I got the piston from Pirate cycles (fast as usual, love the little packs of candy!) to get my engine taken apart and find out maybe my eye isnt as good as I thought! The pistons are the same! Owell so the new piston went in anyway but I did find the deck hiegth was way to much! I know you might not think this a good idea but there was so much material to take off the cylinder top that sanding it on glass would take forever and a day so I pluged in the belt sander. The belt sander worked very well! Kinda scary but it worked great! Then did the final lap sanding on glass to make sure the surface is flat. I dont have a good way to measure the deck hiegth but I know it was twice what it should be according to Jims posts. I think I have it down in the .03 range now- was afraid to take off to much material and I had to make my own base gasket which is just a touch thiner than the stock gasket. So anyhow got it all put back together (and got some real head nuts- ditch the acorn nuts!) and man I tell you!!!!! Now I have the performance gain I was looking for! Not to much more difficult to kick over but I can definatly tell the compression increase, glad I have the HD shift kit! Once running and warmed up I went over to the AT&T facilties parking lot for a test and when I gassed it over a speed bump the front tire came up into a wheelie!!! I was smiling! The bottom end torque is much improved and with the shift kit you get that power in every gear. So now I am happy with the performance of my engine. The shift kit, pipe, intake, carb and head are all doin what they are supposed to -- make me smile and get bugs in my teeth!