the two pics are a ryobi. the first one is what the cylinder looked like before the mod, and the second one is of the mod that i did.
there is still quite a bit of cylinder left to support the ring (more than a homelite) so i am pretty confident that this will work.
as soon as i get all the parts rounded up and the weather gets nicer, i will test this engine and post the results.

av8tor:
i saw a website that had a few different ways to mod. the reed valve for more power (i wish i remembered the website) but i lack the tooling and materials to do so in the way that they suggested.
i think that if i rigged up some sort of check valve inside the "intake port" it would help by having a straight unrestricted path into the case instead of having to flow around the reed.
if anyone has any ideas on how to rig this up, please feel free to share them