im putting the new vavlesprings on the ls1 and im having some trouble. when i put the air hold in, all is fine but as soon as i start to compress the springs, its as if something gives way and all the air pressure starts exiting through the intake port from the heads and the exhaust ports and the valves stay up. the engine does not have the intake on it nor headers and i can feel all the air escaping from there. Any ideas of what is going on?

 

you are taking them off only one at a time, aren't you?

 

im using the crane cam tool. its takes off 2 at once.

 

lightly tap the top of the retainer... it could be seated/wedged against the keepers, so when you press the retainers its stuck enough to push the valves....

how much pressure are you putting in the cylinder??

 

did you get it worked out??

 

sorry havent had a chance to get on the net. I havent touched the engine since early saturday. Ima try that today. i had it everywhere from 10psi to 60psi

 

if your having trouble, put the piston at TDC. like that the valves will hit the piston and not fall down.

 

I used the TDC method. Much less trouble...

 

The more pressure you put in there, the greater the force on the valve holding it up. I did the TDC method once too and it was pretty easy.