I made a tool and I am using it with leaving the cams and timing belt on the car, I have the whole front bank done, well, all but one, I did 11 by myself and a buddy was supposed to come over and help me, he came over on the last one and dropped a keeper down the oil drain tube in the front head... I am not gonna sweat it, I already made a thread about it and got a few responses, (
http://www.3si.org/forum/showthread....17#post4238917 ) but I ordered new keepers they should be here tomorrow (monday) and I will be able to get the front bank back together. Basically I took an 11/16 box end wrench, cut off the box end, and re-welded it at a 90 degree angle to the wrench shaft. Then I cut about 1/3 of the box off of the box end of it at an angle so I would have access to the keepers when I compressed. Then I welded a small socket to the top of it so it would have a solid piece to grab on basically when using that compressoion tool. I then took a piece of square tubing to use as the handle and drilled a few holes, and added that hook thing, and am currently using the oil feed thing for the lifters as the originator of this thread has described. However, I did 2 things that most people will cringe while listening to me.... First, I put the engine at TDC and pressurized the cylinders, I had to make sure that the engine was at perfect TDC or it would rotate, and I only filled to 40psi... that's just to aid me a little bit, I was so afraid I was gonna drop a valve, I couldnt do it if the engine was at BDC. After I got the keepers off, I rotated the engine so that the valve was all the way down inside the valve guide almost to where it would fall, then changed the seal, then I did the other thing people will cringe about, I rotated the engine *backwards* just a tiny bit to get the valve to pop back up so I could grab it. The original tool I made ( the cut up wrench) I had to shorten a lot to get it to work, then in some spots it was not long enough, so I added a deep well socket that fit over the socket I had welded on there and it was long enough then. That basically allowed me to remove it when I needed it and it was solid enough that it didnt swivel when I used it. I havent gotten to the rear bank yet so I dont know how that is gonna go for me, but i'll let everyone know, so far all I have taken off of the car is the front valve cover, front upper timing cover and the drivers side wheel (and of course the rockers one at a time.)
*edit on how I pressd the seals down: I pressed down on the valve stem seals with my fingers on the first 3 and put them back together before I realized on the 4th one that didnt work. So I will have to take those 3 valves back apart and push the vss down harder, after the 4th one popped back up, I realized I needed something different to use, so I got an 11mm socket, put that on top of the seal and used the handle of a pair of pliers (which was rubber coated, dont freak out) to pry downward against the camshaft lobe to set the seals in, and it works great