hey guys
i had my rocker cover off today and noticed that the valve spring on cylinder 3 was compressed lower than the rest, i am guessing this is not normal..
my car has been missing and has surged on me to.
could it be jammed and therefore be unjammed via the exhaust port and some coaxing?
second question is
when i have to take the head off do i just take it straight to a head place or do i have to remove the valves ect and get a mechanic to put new in after?
any thoughts apreciated as i am a head virgin
cheers

actually im not really a head virgin cause ive rooted a few

Best bet if you don't know what you are looking at is to take it off and take it to the head place as is fully assembled so they can see the problem. It will help them with there diagnosis and with the way they repair it. As for coaxing the valve back up through the exhaust port, probably not the best idea it is getting stuck for a reason. Just pushing it back up won't fix it and you might just do more damage wich could destroy your motor!!!!

with the valve spring compressed down more on 1 valve doesnt mean its stuck as the other valves are all at different stages of lift.
have u turned the motor over by hand and seen that the valve doesnt actually shut?

no i havent would that be done via the harmonic balancer?
im going to pull the rocker cover off again today ,it would have to be some sortta fluke to have the same spring and only that spring compressed after driving it about.
the head has to come off at some point anyway due to a small oil leak behind the water pump.
the car vibrates in gear before you give it throttle , to the point where it pisses me off enough to put in in neutral at lights.
it also has speed up by itself a few times
doesnt smoke or cook and holds its fluids for 10,000km
have replaced nearly everything in the past 6 months and done 26,000km in her in that time without breaking down miss and all