Valve cleaning - how to tell if valve completely closed?

I'm doing this solo (unless anyone in the Durham NC area wants to hang out...), and without being able to watch the valves go up and down while someone else turns the crank it's really hard to tell if the valve is completely closed. Any pointers?

 

You could always put the car in neutral and put a giant breaker bar on the crank and turn it manually

You could also Jump the starter from the engine bay with a screwdriver

 

Thank you, but I know how to MOVE the valves by turning the crank, my question is how do I know that the valve is completely closed? It's kinda hard to see down there and judge if the valve is all the way closed (versus mostly closed). If I had someone to turn the crank while I watched the valves move up and down I would be able to tell when it stops moving up and starts moving down.

 

you can put a long screwdriver, or extension in the spark plug hole and watch it reach its peak at TDC, this will ensure the valves are fully shut. All I did when I did it solo was move the crank 1/4 turn at a time and watched them close they stay closed for a few degrees. Start by just looking chances are two are closed to begin with.

 

That's a good idea. Might be a dumb question but does one 360 degree rotation of the crank equate to a full valve cycle? In other words if the valve is fully closed when the crank is at 12 o'clcock (or whatever arbitrary position), if I rotate it 360 degrees will that valve be fully closed again?

 

Cams rotate at half speed so two full rotations of the crank resets the cams

 

That's what I needed, thank you!

 

Followup on my previous post...so if one of the valves isn't completely closed and some of that B-12 chemtool cleaner leaks down in there, how bad is that? I'm using just a tablespoon or so at first, waiting a few minutes and see if it's still holding the liquid. But if I spill that much down into the cylinder will it do any damage?

 

You should be planning on doing an oil change when your done anyway

 

Not sure I follow, what does doing an oil change have to do with getting B-12 in the cylinder if some leaks past the valves?

 

It contaminates the oil, do an oil change and send it. But you're doing an oil change after valve cleaning anyway...right?

 

Yep that's the plan, not gonna do all this and not change the oil too (also cleaned EGR, manifold, MAP and MAF, throttle body, and replaced PCV valve). Guess I'm just paranoid about getting anything in the combustion chamber.

 

Been there! Totally get it

 

BTW, pointer for anyone following the Corksport valve cleaning guide in the future using that Harbor Freight gun. Even with the "Fine" grain walnut, it was clogging up the hopper and shutoff valve and it would spray a few walnut grains for a second and then clog up. I drilled out both the hopper and valve to maybe 1/32" larger diameter and works like a charm now.