I have a 2003 Silverado 5.3 with 65000 miles on it...

I was wondering what the chances were of dropping a valve during the Cam Installation..... Basing the chance on the Installer knows what he is doing?

 

Can anyone make an educated guess???

 

Its not a valve you should worry with dropping, its a lifter you have to worry about when installing the cam, we've never had any problems with them. If one does drop, you'll only have to pull the manifold which isnt a big deal. Dropping a valve will not happen if you do it correctly, and could only happen when installing the springs. If you use an air compressor with a line in the spark plug, and happen to push a valve down trying the compress the spring, it will instantly go back up from the air pressure on it. Compressing the springs while lining them up properly to put the locks on them can be agrivating, especially on the #7 and 8 cylinders. Have patients and it'll work out fine.

 

Yep, he pretty much summed it all up for you. See what method your installer uses for the install to keep the lifters in place. Rods for the lifters, pen mags, or guts (pull it and hope they don't fall)

 

Lets put it this way, when I turned my cam to hold the lifters up, they stayed up for over 24 hrs. I did have the new cam already installed, but when I put the pushrods back in the next day, I could push the lifters back down.

I only had 20,000 or so miles though.

 

Oh, and you wont drop a valve as long as you have a air compressor. If you did drop one, you might be able to get it back up with a small pen magnet.

 

One of mine droped in 5 minutes after turnning the cam. If I didn't have my rods through there, it would have went bye bye. As it was, I still had to pull it up with a pen mag to get the cam back in.

 

Chance is there. During my install I am going to double insurance myself. Will use compressed air and piston at top dead center with a tool in place to lock the motor, keeping the air pressure from possibly turning it over.

 

This is what I did on my install. Used the pen mags to hold lifters in place, it worked great. When it came time to replace valve springs I used compressed air and valve spring compressing tool from Crane. Here is the hot tip that I have used for many years. Once you get the cylinder aired up, and before you install the spring compressor, take a 1/2 drive socket that is the size of the valve spring retainer. In other words, one that will sit towards the outside edge of the retainer, with the 1/2 drive side up. Now take a hammer and give the socket a firm tap. This drives the retainer down enough to break the keepers loose so that when you use the spring compressor, it will not push the valve open. Sometimes the keepers can be firmly locked from valve spring pressure over time, this will make it alot easier to break them loose, and avoid frustration from a stuck keeper.

 

i have had the experience of not having to worry about it hell i had a gutted 6.0 block in the garage for months and wheni went to get them the lifters were still sitting in there like nothing had ever happened