I torqued the head without lining up the cam gears, did I mess up?

[UrN2nd]

Ok I'm in the middle of my junkyard gst build, I got the whole bottom end done, rering and remained, new balance shaft bearings. I got the head done yesterday. 3G revised lifters, new stem seals, recut valves. So now time to mate the two. I set the bottom end to TDC, the sat the head on, being a dumbass and way to eager to torque the studs, I torqued the head down without lining up the cam gears. The right cam mark was at 3 o'clock and the left was at 1 o'clock. It very carefully rotated the crank so I could turn the cams. But my question is this. The the cams are at a resting position, without a set of valves fully open, can they contact the pistons? Or do the cam lobes have to be pretty far engaged to open the valve enough to touch the piston. I'm worried that one of the set of valves could have been engaged enough to touch and when I torqued the head down I could have bent a few.

 

[WES_393]

You should be fine. When the cams are at rest the valves are shut, or at least close to it.

 

[NHerron]

Next time set all the pistons to the halfway point, slap the head on, set the cam gears, then turn the crank for #1 TDC. Just a tad easier to set the cams when you're not needing to hold the head from moving around and also when torquing the cam gear bolts.

 

[UrN2nd]

Shwooo thanks guys I was worried. Like I said I watched the valves and springs to see if any stuck and all seemed well. Good deal.