any easy way to rotate untimed engine w/out hitting valves?

[burn_your_money]

There is actually a fair amount of risk in removing the cam. If you aren't paying attention and tighten it down with the cam at TDC but the engine is not in the correct place (90 degrees crank backwards (CCW) from TDC with the cam at TDC) then you risk bending a valve or snapping the cam while you are tightening the cam down.

There are many ways to skin many cats.

Toby's way is the ideal way to get out of this situation IMO, but obviously not the only way.

[Toby]

Toby, you must remember that there are some pretty stupid people out there working on their own cars, please dont treat all of them like they are smart. you gotta break things down, and give a few different options, because some people can F*** up and burn ice cubes..

Can I quote you on that? ;<)

[motomike33y]

Hadn't realized I opened such a hornet's nest.  I took the cam off, because I've replaced cams before w/out a problem.  I didn't try Toby's way because, altho I figured he was right, I hadn't tried it myself, and was still puzzled why I had the initial problem when it should have been only a couple teeth off.  I do believe in gremlins and have had enough strange things happen on vehicles(I know trial and error), that I wanted to stick with what I knew.

[Toby]

The reason you had trouble with only a couple of teeth off is that the piston chases the exhaust valve closed with VERY little clearance. On some motors even a slight retarding of the cam will cause all manner of piston to valve clacking. I have seen motors where I had to advance the cam a little to stop the contact. I do not know if this was caused by the wrong head gasket thickness, too much skimmed off of the head by a machine shop or an inaccurate timing mark. There is just not much room for error. Literally.