There was a step by step guide on here somewhere. Of course I just tried to use the "search" function to find it. I put in C5 valve spring replacement and it directed me to C3 cam swap lol.

If anyone has it, please post. It was very informative.

Tom

 

A little lowdown on how I did it.
Disconnect the battery
Remove valve covers and rockers, kept rockers in order to go in same location.
Removed plug wire and plug in cylinder 2, my starting point.
Inserted a 1/4" dowel rod into cylinder to feel for piston, turned crank shaft clockwise at balancer with a 15/16" offset box wrench and fell for piston to be at top center. Be careful not to insert dowel to far, just want to feel for piston and be able to remove dowel, you don't want to snap dowel in cylinder.
Then backed the crankshaft off a few 1/8 turns, to get off top center and inserted a 3/16 nylon string into cylinder. String was about 4 feet long with ends melted so there was no fray. Most of the string went into the cylinder, left 6 inches sticking out.
Turned the crankshaft clockwise again until it stopped and the string could not be pulled out, meaning all wedged. Hold onto string, don't want it to be pulled into cylinder.
Tapped the top valve retainer side with a hammer and a screw driver inverted, plastic handle at the top/side of the retainer to free the locks.Both valves.
Installed the valve compressor tool and compress the springs, while compressing, the locks and retainer should separate, if not, remove compressor and retap retainer to free locks.
Compress,remove locks with magnet, decompress, remove retainer,springs, seats, seals. Valves should not move to much at all up and down, but be able to spin. You just want to hold them up, no reason to jamb them up there really tight while turning the crank, just snug.

Install new seals, seats, springs, retainers, compress, install locks, decompress. I used engine assembly lube on the bottom and top of springs, seat and retainers also on locks, kind of holds them, and on the friction part of rockers to.
Backoff crankshaft , pull out string, install plug and onto the next.
Ended up at cylinder 1, when done with springs, used the dowel rod to find TDC of compression stroke to start tightening of the rockers in correct order. Tip: while turning the crankshaft with the wrench watch the intake pushrod of cylinder 1 to rise then drop. When it starts to drop is when you must feel for the piston at 1 to get at TDC. Once at TDC, mark the balancer with chalk and rotate crankshaft 360 degrees(once around) to tighten the other rockers of the sequence.
Tightening order of rockers: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...tructions.html

Hope this helps and makes sense.

 

Not so sure that is true. Vettenuts said above in Post #11 that he had a valve fall all the way down into the cylinder when he lost air pressure with the spring removed.

 

Actually, you want to stuff about ~3 feet of soft nylon rope into the spark plug hole when the piston is about 1/2 on the up-stroke. After the rope is installed, then rotate the engine to bring the piston up farther until it stops. That is when the rope is positioned between the piston and valves which holds the valves closed.

To add to Post #22 above, if you are going to do the TDC or rope trick method, you need to pull all the spark plugs and keep them all out until you are done. It makes turning over the engine much easier. You will also need a 45 deg offset head box end wrench (need a 15/16", had to buy the 5-piece set for $18 from Autozone) to be able to get on the crank bolt and turn over the engine.

 

That's because the valve starts its travel up inside the combustion chamber and enters the cylinder at a 15 degree angle.

No harm in being cautious with the rope and/or air in the cylinder, but when you need to change springs at the strip in between rounds, or at the race track after qualifying, there is no time for all that. The TDC method is fast and efficient and used by most professional racers.

I used air in a cylinder once, about 30 years ago. Only heard of the rope trick, never actually used it, didn't see the need.

 

I was making a comment about post #18 saying the valve wouldn't fall all the way down into the cylinder if the piston was at BDC (bottom dead center) ... not TDC. Who's willing to try this theory out?

 

At BDC the piston would be approximately 3.62 inches (stroke) below the cylinder head gasket surface. The int. valve needs to be 2.375 - 2.5 inches below the deck before it is no longer supported by the guide and falls into the bore. The exhaust is a no brainer, it will definitely fall in, the intake has a pretty good probability of falling in before it contacts the O.D. of the bore. Didn't have an old block laying around to do the mock up.

I had an old clear acrylic flow fixture laying around that had a 3.900 bore.

Hopefully these pics help........

 

The DIY instructions on LS1Howto is for a heads and cam install. It isn't totally clear on what gets removed for the purpose of which part of the swap. I am doing cam only. Does the alternator, and power steering pump assembly need to be removed for the cam swap? I can not see how to get to the two power steering hose flared nuts on the steering gear box near/beneath the P/S pump. Can anyone give guidance. Thank you

 

ttt