[68GMCCustom]

I used the 16 pen/magnets trick. After setting motor to line up crank/cam marks (makes installing new set easier) and removing timing set, rocker arms, and p-rods (I upgraded to chro-moly)...I spun the cam I inserted a pen/extendable type magnet into each p-rod hole. Spinning the cam w/o the p-rods in place pushes the lifters up into their pockets. Some say they'll stay there.....I bought 16 pen/magnets and used...just to make sure none of the lifters dropped. Just bend out the clip on the pen magnet so it can't slip down the hole.

I don't have pics of the work in progress with the magnets tho...but this is the style





the valve spring tool I used:


I also swapped out the springs to a dual spring setup with titanium retainers. All that's needed there is the compressor hookup to fill the cylinder with air and hold the valves in place so they don't drop down.