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Lets say that you were to take a valve with a 9 mm stem and reduce that to 8mm, thereby being able to reduce the spring, the retainer, the strength (mass) of the camshaft, the camshaft supports, the drive chain, sprockets, and guides, how much would that constitute? Less than pistons, but significant nonetheless. If we want to talk about the parasitic drain of pistons on the cylinders, what would the gain be to reduce engine displacement and increase volumetric efficiency? smaller pistons, connecting rods, main bearings, crankcase, etc etc. I think that there is significant gains to be had with just sizing engines appropriately to vehicle size with increased volumetric efficiency and decreased engine size. This is not the end of the formula to more efficient vehicles, but its part of it.
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